Big changes are coming to the tobacco industry, and we’ve ramped up our coverage in the Richmond Times-Dispatch to keep you informed. Tobacco has long been a focus of our coverage—the business has been a key component of Virginia’s economy since soon after its founding at Jamestown. Now more than ever, Richmond is at the heart of the industry.

Some of the newer smokeless products that tobacco companies are betting on may not be as good at helping smokers quit as the industry hopes, a new federally funded study by Virginia Commonwealth University shows. And that means they may not be the kind of reduced-harm product that is the industry’s latest hope, now that tobacco is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Winning FDA designation as a “potential reduced-exposure product” could be worth billions of dollars, and a key element of that could be whether an item keeps smokers from lighting up.

Philip Morris International Inc., maker of Marlboro and other cigarettes for sale overseas, has agreed to buy a Swedish company’s South African snuff and pipe-tobacco operations for roughly $222 million. Philip Morris International estimated that Swedish Match South Africa Ltd.‘s products account for about 31 percent of total tobacco consumption in South Africa. The brands involved in the deal, announced yesterday, include Boxer, Best Blend and Taxi.

Under new regulations, snuff and cigars will have to go behind store counters, where cigarettes are now kept. How the different products share that space will be a challenge for tobacco companies.

On June 12 Congress approved the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the “FDA bill”), giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the production, marketing, and sale of tobacco products. Swedish Match North America is a Richmond-based company that has been in the smokeless tobacco business in the United States for more than 100 years—our brands include Red Man chewing tobacco and Timber Wolf and Longhorn moist snuff. The company has been one of the major players in the growing U.S. value-priced moist snuff segment, as well as an active participant in an emerging U.S. subcategory of smokeless tobacco, Swedish snus. Swedish snus have more than a century-old tradition in Sweden.

On June 12 Congress approved the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the “FDA bill”), giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the production, marketing, and sale of tobacco products. Swedish Match North America is a Richmond-based company that has been in the smokeless tobacco business in the United States for more than 100 years—our brands include Red Man chewing tobacco and Timber Wolf and Longhorn moist snuff. The company has been one of the major players in the growing U.S. value-priced moist snuff segment, as well as an active participant in an emerging U.S. subcategory of smokeless tobacco, Swedish snus. Swedish snus have more than a century-old tradition in Sweden.

However they satisfy their nicotine cravings, tobacco users are facing a big hit as the single largest federal tobacco tax increase ever takes effect tomorrow. Tobacco companies and public-health advocates, longtime foes in the nicotine battles, are trying to turn the situation to their advantage. The major cigarette makers raised prices a couple of weeks ago, partly to offset any drop in profits once the per-pack tax climbs from 39 cents to $1.01.

Swedish Match AB, the parent company of Chesterfield County-based Swedish Match North America, is joining with cigarette maker Philip Morris International to sell a smokeless tobacco product called snus. The companies announced yesterday that they are forming a joint venture based in Sweden to sell snus in markets outside of Scandinavia and the U.S.