In brief: Clearwater Paper now separate from Potlatch
Clearwater Paper Corp. has completed a spinoff from Potlatch Corp., and will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the symbol “CLW.”
Clearwater Paper owns pulp-and-paper and wood products operations at Lewiston, plus plants in Elwood, Ill., Cypress Bend, Ark., and Las Vegas. Gordon Jones is president and CEO of the new company, which employs 2,400.
Potlatch will continue to operate as a real estate investment trust holding 1.7 million acres of timberland in Idaho, Arkansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin, along with four sawmills and one plywood plant. Both companies are headquartered in Spokane.
Through the spinoff, every Potlatch stockholder received one share of Clearwater Paper’s common stock for every 3.5 shares of Potlatch stock held as of Dec. 9.
DEARBORN, Mich
Ford sales improve in first half of month
Ford Motor Co.’s December sales are faring well, at least through the first two weeks of the month, Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said Tuesday.
Ford, speaking to reporters in Dearborn at an event to preview new models, said a lot will depend on the last week of the month, traditionally the biggest sales week in December.
“December for us is turning out relatively well,” Ford said. “So far it doesn’t look so bad.”
Ford sales slid 31 percent in November when compared with the same month last year, and they’re off almost 20 percent for the first 11 months of the year. The entire U.S. auto industry is down 16 percent for the year.
DETROIT
Home delivery cut to three days a week
Fighting to stay in business, Detroit’s two daily newspapers will radically change their relationship with readers by slashing home delivery to three days a week, printing small editions on other days and encouraging people to get information online.
The Detroit market is the largest in the country to undergo that transformation. But it reflects a calculation facing newspapers across the country, with print circulation dropping as readers increasingly get their news on the Internet.
By curtailing home delivery on certain days, the papers reduce printing, fuel and labor expenses.