It is a Maine sight rarer than an orange lobster: a paper company executive in the governor’s office, talking about how state government can help the industry, in full view of lawmakers and media. In another era, this would have been a sign that the four horsemen were coming.

Those days are over. Where Maine’s paper companies could once exist as silent monoliths, letting their economic and employment power speak for them, acting this way in the modern environment would be disastrous. Times change. Paper must change with them, or suffer.

This was the backdrop to the scene in the governor’s cabinet room last week when top Verso paper executive Mike Jackson and Gov. John Baldacci held a press conference on the company’s new report, “Maine on Paper; an industry we can’t afford to lose.”

That conclusion is obvious. Though the total employment of paper is sizable – about 8,500 jobs statewide – it is their geography and density that makes these jobs so crucial. In towns like Jay, for example, some 40 percent of employment stems from the Androscoggin Mill.

Rumford is just as tied to NewPage. So are Baileyville, Madawaska, Lincoln, Millinocket, and many others to their mills. As paper goes, so go these communities, since their fabric, identity and, some would say, very survival, depends on plumes coming from their mills’ stacks.

If the mill closes, the town will close with it.

The recession is hitting the industry hard, as shutdowns and closings cause concern that each day at a Maine mill is its last. Paper has no idea how to live in this environment. For so long, it’s acted immune to pressures, cloistered in industrial power and arrogance.

Strong words? Not strong enough, we’d say. The recession is just one of paper’s troubles; the industry’s embarrassing environmental record, invisible public profile and negligible political support are, like rolls coming off a machine, entirely of its making.

Verso’s report indicates that, at least, one paper company recognizes this.

The report is sound, filled with broad policy goals smart for all industries, not just paper. Improving transportation options, reducing energy costs, training a specialized workforce through higher education and fostering sustainable forestry are wise and should be embraced.

More staggering, though, is that there is a report. Verso deserves credit; it is not easy being the first of your kind to admit that after years of absolute dominance, outside help is needed and extend a hand. This is the great humbling of paper and it is a good thing.

Paper is, pardon the cliché, “too big to fail” in Maine, especially for the rural communities it supports. We understand that, but then again, we’ve been working in the shadows of empty mills long enough to have this lesson hit home.

It’s the broader audience that must be told; this won’t be done if paper adheres to its traditional vow of silence and acts like the impregnable industrial landholder it once was.

Verso’s report is a significant step to change this reputation; the remainder of the industry should follow. Maine needs the paper mills and, now, the paper mills need Maine.

This was always known. Now, it is being said.