NewPage Continues Operations at Niagara, Wisconsin

Miamisburg, Ohio, USA, 24 March 2008 -– NewPage Corporation today announced its decision to continue running both paper machines at its Niagara, Wisconsin, facility until the fall of 2008. The Niagara facility produces approximately 18,000 tons per month of coated No. 4 groundwood products.

“The overcapacity in the coated groundwood market forced a number of paper manufacturers to close higher cost machines in 2007, which was one of the reasons for our announcement on January 16, 2008 to permanently close the Niagara facility,” said Mark A. Suwyn, chairman of the board and chief executive officer for NewPage. “At this time, we are experiencing unusually high demand for coated groundwood paper; more than what has been historically experienced during the same time period in previous years. As a result, to deliver on our commitments to our customers, we have decided to continue running the two paper machines at the Niagara facility to match production with market demand.”

Typically, the second and third quarters represent seasonally high demand. NewPage does not anticipate this demand to be sustainable through the end of the year.

NewPage is currently exploring and evaluating prospective firms interested in purchasing the Niagara facility. The company has engaged an investment banking firm, Sanabe & Associates, LLC, to assist them with the marketing and selling process. Sanabe is an investment banking boutique providing merger and acquisition, merchant banking, restructuring, and consulting advice to the North American paper, packaging, and forest products industry. The firm will be looking for companies interested in manufacturing noncoated products that do not directly compete with the current portfolio of printing papers offered by NewPage.

“We realize these decisions have a significant impact on our employees," said Mike Edicola, vice president, human resources. "We remain highly committed to doing what is right for those employees impacted at the Niagara mill, and will continue to work with them to identify new employment opportunities, offer employee assistance programs, or provide severance benefits to displaced employees.”

Headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, NewPage Corporation is the largest printing paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with more than USD 4.3 billion in pro forma net sales for the last 12 months ended 30 September 2007. The company's product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered, newsprint, and specialty papers.

NewPage owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, USA, and in Nova Scotia, Canada. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 5.5 million tons of paper, including 4.3 million tons of coated paper, 920,000 tons of uncoated paper, 300,000 tons of specialty paper, and approximately 3.2 million tons of pulp.

To learn more about NewPage Corporation, visit www.NewPageCorp.com.