Gannett inching toward Lee acquisition

Historically in the bag for ethics-free right wing extremists like Mike Rounds Lee newspapers are media cripples.

Based in Davenport, Iowa, the publicly-traded Lee has 46 daily papers, most of them mid-sized and concentrated in the West and Midwest. It acquired Pulitzer Inc with the larger Post-Dispatch and Arizona Daily Star in Tucson for roughly $1.5 billion in 2005. Like McClatchy’s Knight-Ridder acquisition around the same time, the deal has left Lee burdened with debt and high interest payments in the years since as advertising revenues and profits have declined. Its shares, which traded as high as $35 in 2007, have been down to roughly $1.50 this fall. With several companies — including Gannett and New Media Investment Group — actively scouting acquisitions, Lee could be a target. [Poynter]

At the risk of leading a dead horse to water and making it drink click on this op-ed from a Missoula-based gadfly. A snip from Dan Brooks' piece should help you get the gist:

I wish Chuck Johnson well in his retirement, and I wish Mike Dennison luck in his continued career. Since I've got one left, I also wish that Mary Junck would awake to find that spiders come out of her mouth instead of words when she tries to talk.

Democracy is under attack, fellow Democrats.

Lee Newspapers of Montana could survive as part of a Bismarck Tribune, Rapid City Journal, Casper Star-Trib marriage and not become part of a Gannett takeover.

But who has the huevos to pull that together?

With fewer journalists covering legislatures no voting public can perform the duties of citizenship with any accuracy whatsoever.

$LEE is trading at $1.55.

I wonder if Lee Enterprises has a problem with strong women, forcing out their female CEO. #mtpol

— Don Pogreba (@dpogreba) December 19, 2015