To the people of Jay and Bucksport, Maine; Quinnesec, Mich.; and Sartell, Minn.

We feel your pain.

Those four papermaking towns are the latest in a long line of communities to see their mills either closed or sold off by International Paper Co.

Today, IP said it is selling its coated and supercalendered papers business to a private investment firm called Apollo Management LP. The deal will bring IP $1.4 billion and will help it streamline its operations.

It is not yet known what the sale will mean for the four paper mills in those communities that will soon become property of Apollo.

But we can only guess that the workers who have been earning paychecks at those plants are nervous about their futures.

And you can be sure that here in Erie -- where IP has become perhaps the dirtiest two-letter conjunction imaginable -- we know how they feel.