The papermaker with a mill in Jay lost $88 million in the quarter, down from $122 million a year ago.

Verso Paper Holdings LLC, the bankrupt owner of Verso Paper and NewPage, on Monday reported a net loss of $88 million for the first quarter, an improvement from the $122 million loss it reported for the first quarter of 2015.

The Memphis, Tennessee-based company reported $144 million in restructuring charges in the first quarter as its bankruptcy proceeding advanced toward a resolution in which $2.3 billion in unpaid debt would be converted to equity and distributed as shares to creditors.

Once the primary supplier of glossy magazine paper, Verso Paper filed for bankruptcy reorganization in late January, seeking protection from creditors for a business that has been devastated by market shifts and changing consumer habits.

The company, which operates a mill in Jay that employs about 550 people, filed the reorganization papers in Delaware bankruptcy court. Verso is headquartered in Tennessee but incorporated in Delaware.

In its first-quarter earnings statement, Verso Paper reported quarterly revenue of $690 million, down 14.4 percent from $806 million in the first quarter of 2015. However, the cost to produce its products decreased by 15.1 percent, to $618 million from $728 million in the first quarter a year ago.

Verso Paper said it filed a reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on March 26, which, if approved by the court, would allow the company to emerge from bankruptcy. The plan would wipe out nearly all of the company’s outstanding debt by issuing shares of stock to creditors in lieu of debt repayment. Verso Paper said it plans to continue operating as usual during the remainder of the bankruptcy process.

The master list of creditors filed by Verso includes the names of 30,785 businesses and individuals. Two Maine companies are listed among its 30 largest creditors: Catalyst Paper Operations Inc. of Rumford is owed $2.2 million, and Hartt Transportation Systems Inc. of Bangor is owed $1.2 million.

Like many paper companies, Verso Paper faces formidable challenges, both within its own corporate structure and in the global industry as a whole. To stem the loss of revenue, it sold off its unprofitable Bucksport mill in late 2014, eliminating more than 500 jobs. The move was part of a complicated $1.4 billion deal that involved the acquisition and then sale of the former NewPage mill in Rumford in January 2015. That mill is now owned by Canada-based Catalyst Paper.

At the conclusion of the deal, Verso Paper had about $3.5 billion in annual sales and about 5,800 employees in eight mills across six states. In its bankruptcy filing, the company reported gross revenues of about $2.4 billion for the first three quarters of 2015.

The acquisition of NewPage was financed primarily through borrowing. In the days leading up to its bankruptcy filing, the company notified federal securities regulators that it was exercising a five-day grace period on a payment due on a $731 million loan, and a 30-day grace period on interest payments due on $1.3 billion in secured notes.

Verso Paper is an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm based in New York City that purchased the papermaker from Memphis-based International Paper in 2006 for $1.4 billion.