Dec 08, 2010. /Lesprom Network/. NewPage Corporation will close its Whiting, Wisconsin mill at the end of February 2011. The Whiting mill currently operates two paper machines, which produce approximately 250,000 tons annually of coated paper used by the publishing and printing industry, with a primary focus on mail-order catalog, magazine and retailer end uses, as the company said in a press release received by Lesprom Network. "This remains a difficult time for the paper industry, for NewPage and for many of our customers," said George Martin, NewPage President and CEO. "While we have seen modest recovery in our coated markets, we continue to monitor the supply and demand balance and make the difficult choices needed to avoid oversupplying those markets. NewPage has the capacity and operational flexibility to produce both coated groundwood and coated freesheet on the same machines at other facilities. Therefore, we do not expect any interruptions in service to our customers while closing the Whiting mill, which is our highest cost-per-ton coated groundwood mill." Approximately 360 employees will be affected by the shutdown of the Whiting mill. NewPage Corporation is the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America. The company's product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered, newsprint and specialty papers.