Big Tenn. paper mill idles its last newsprint machine

Resolute Forest Products is shutting down its last newsprint machine in Calhoun, Tenn., after decades of shedding forest lands and mill jobs in response to the shrinking size and circulation of the newspapers that buy newsprint, reports Dave Flessner for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Flessner writes that "indefinite idling" of the newsprint machines will cost another 150 mill jobs, cutting the remaining staff at the Calhoun plant below 500 by the end of the month. The Calhoun mill produced 215,000 metric tons per year and supplied newsprint for dozens of newspapers in the Southeast, including the Times Free Press. A plant in Augusta, Ga., will pick up its newsprint customers.

The plant was once owned by the old Bowater Corp. David Davis of the Cleveland Daily Banner writes that in 1954 the mill had 750 employees who produced 180,000 tons of newsprint and market pulp annually. In 2004, it had 900 employees who produced 990,000 tons. The company paid $89 million annually in wages and salaries.

In 2010 151 newspapers closed and 152 in 2011, reports Katrina M. Mendolera of inVocus, a media news center. But the main reason for declining newsprint sales is the shrinking size of newspapers, both in number of pages and page dimensions.