The Board of Directors of Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NYSE: LEE), has
elected not to effect a reverse stock split. At the annual meeting in
March, shareholders had granted the board discretionary authority until
June 30 to decide whether to do so.
Mary Junck, chairman and chief executive officer, said the board
considered current market conditions, business forecasts and other
factors that could affect shareholder value, including the prospect of
remaining in compliance with New York Stock Exchange rules for continued
listing.
The NYSE notified Lee in December 2008 that the company was not in
compliance with the NYSE’s continued listing standard of at least $1.00
for the average closing price per share of its publicly traded common
shares over a consecutive 30-trading day period. Since then, the NYSE
announced that the standard has been temporarily suspended through July
31, 2009. As a result, Lee currently has until December 3, 2009, to
return to compliance.
"Despite recent volatility in Lee’s share price, owing in part to index
rebalancing, we believe our long-term prospects remain strong and will
become apparent to more investors as the recession begins to recede,”
Junck said. "We believe our recent debt refinancing has given us ample
flexibility to manage through the downturn.”
She added: "Our newspapers and their websites continue to reach, by far,
the vast majority of adults in our markets, with growing strength across
all age groups. We remain, hands down, the leading provider of local
news, information and advertising in our markets. As the recession drags
on, we are staying focused on building further on these strengths and
increasing our lion’s share of local advertising spending.”
Lee Enterprises is a premier provider of local news, information and
advertising in primarily midsize markets, with 49 daily newspapers and a
joint interest in four others, online sites and more than 300 specialty
publications in 23 states. Lee’s newspapers have circulation of 1.5
million daily and 1.8 million Sunday, reaching four million readers
daily. Lee’s online sites attract 14 million unique visits monthly, and
Lee’s weekly publications have distribution of more than four million
households. Lee’s markets include St. Louis, Mo.; Lincoln, Neb.;
Madison, Wis.; Davenport, Iowa; Billings, Mont.; Bloomington, Ill.; and
Tucson, Ariz. Lee stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under
the symbol LEE. For more information about Lee, please visit www.lee.net.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS — The Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor” for forward-looking statements.
This release contains information that may be deemed forward-looking,
that is based largely on the Company’s current expectations, and is
subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Among such
risks, trends and other uncertainties, which in some instances are
beyond its control, are the Company’s ability to generate cash flows and
maintain liquidity sufficient to service its debt, and comply with or
obtain amendments or waivers of the financial covenants contained in its
credit facilities, if necessary. Other risks and uncertainties include
the impact of continuing adverse economic conditions, potential changes
in advertising demand, newsprint and other commodity prices, energy
costs, interest rates and the availability of credit due to instability
in the credit markets, labor costs, legislative and regulatory rulings
and other results of operations or financial conditions, difficulties in
maintaining employee and customer relationships, increased capital and
other costs, competition and other risks detailed from time to time in
the Company’s publicly filed documents, including the Company Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 28, 2008. The words
"may,” "will,” "would,” "could,” "believes,” "expects,” "anticipates,”
"intends,” "plans,” "projects,” "considers” and similar expressions
generally identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not
to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are
made as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake to
publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements.
