It can take two or more years to add newsprint production.

The sale means that Abitibi, which employs 12,000 workers throughout North America, is getting out of the paper distribution business and concentrating its efforts on newsprint production.

Leaving newsprint production increased the relative value of Ahlstrom's specialty paper and engineering units.

Some inter-war newspaper firms were already conglomerates, too, through diversification into allied businesses such as newsprint production.

But its circulation has dropped to 140,000 today, because, says Petre Bacanu, editor in chief, of the Government's control of newsprint production.

In this, he anticipated dominant styles of the 20th century, less crowded and more easily read - quite appropriate for newsprint production, where the printing isn't always as clear as it should be.

Construction began on the shore of the Penobscot River in 1898, and newsprint production began in 1900.

On July 27, 2005, Abitibi-Consolidated announced plans to cease newsprint production in Stephenville, resulting in a loss of 280 jobs to the town and surrounding region.

Last Friday Abitibi-Price Inc., the forest-products concern based in Toronto, announced plans to cut newsprint production by 25,000 metric tons in the second quarter.