Lee Enterprises is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 54 daily newspapers in 23 states, and more than 300 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is based in Davenport, Iowa.
The company also provides online services, including websites supporting its daily newspapers and other publications. As of September 2013, Lee had 23.2 million unique web and mobile visitors, with 209.1 million pages viewed. Lee also owns 82.5% of TownNews.com, an Internet service company. The company offers commercial printing services to its customers.
Lee Enterprises is currently the fourth largest newspaper group in the United States of America. The company acquired Howard Publications (16 daily newspapers) for $694 million in 2002 and Pulitzer, Inc. (14 daily, over 100 non-daily), for $1.5 billion in 2005.
Since January 2012, its President, CEO and Chairman, Mary Junck, has also been Chairman of the Associated Press.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy, debt discharge and reorganization (2011)
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011. It emerged from bankruptcy less than two months later. In April 2012, Warren Buffett took a stake in Lee Enterprises (through Berkshire Hathaway Inc.), buying $85 million of the company's debt from Goldman Sachs Group.
In June 2012, Berkshire Hathaway filed an amended Form 13F (13F-HR/A) for the period ending March 31, 2012. This document disclosed that Berkshire accumulated $2,119,000 or 1,655,125 common shares of Lee Enterprises, or a 3.2 percent stake. The document noted that the confidentiality of this transaction was requested but denied by the SEC on May 25, 2012.
Bailout and recapitalization (2013)
In April 2013, Lee Enterprises announced that Berkshire Hathaway refinanced the remaining Pulitzer acquisition debt equating to $94 million. Lee Enterprises incurred no cost for doing this. The collateral involved was the TNI Partner stake including the Arizona Daily Star and azstarnet.com. The result of this was a reduction in interest from a variable rate of 11.3% to a fixed rate of 9% while at the same time, extending the debt maturity date of the debt from December 2015 to April 2017. At the time of the announcement Lee Enterprises noted they had $893 million left to pay off.
Lee newspapers
* Newspaper owned by Capital Newspapers, a partnership with The Capital Times Company.
Television subsidiary sale (2000)
Lee formerly operated a broadcasting division, which it sold in 2000 to pay off debt and in order to focus on newspaper publishing. Most of the TV stations were sold to Emmis Communications[1], and have all been sold, as of 2007, to other companies.
- (**) - Indicates that it was built and signed on by Lee Enterprises.
In addition, Lee also operated KASY-TV in Albuquerque which was owned by Ramar Communications. That station was a UPN affiliate. KASY was sold to WB affiliate KWBQ in 1999 when the LMA was terminated.
References
- ^ Lee Enterprises Inc.: publishing, newspapers, online, shoppers, classified, specialty publications
- ^ "Lee Enterprises Buys Howard Publications". Editor & Publisher. February 2, 2002. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
- ^ Steinberg, Jacques (February 1, 2005). "Pulitzer to Be Acquired by Lee Enterprises". New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
- ^ "Mary Junck of Lee Enterprises named new AP board chairman", Associated Press press release, January 26, 2012.
- ^ "Newspaper group Lee Enterprises files for bankruptcy", Thomson Reuters, December 12, 2011.
- ^ "Warren Buffett Building Newspaper Empire? - Deal Journal -". blogs.wsj.com. 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
- ^ "Berkshire Hathaway SEC Archives March 31, 2012 13F-HR/A amendment"
- ^ Reuters (June 6, 2012). "Shares of Lee Enterprises Surge After Buffett Buys Stake". New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
- ^ Kraut, Dan (June 5, 2012). "Buffett's Berkshire Discloses Stake In Lee Enterprises". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
- ^ "Lee Enterprises refinances $94 million in debt". nwitimes.com. April 30, 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
- ^ "Lee Enterprise Markets". Retrieved 22 June 2015.
External links
- Lee Enterprises
- Newspapers
- History
Interesting Informations
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