LEE Crash

Lee Enterprises (LEE) closed at $4.60 on Monday, another new low.

Just a week ago it was $5.05!

Down 10% in a week!!!

Look at that long-term chart graphic!

McClathchy, who owns my local (Kanasas City Star), says ad revenue is down 15% this year!

And then there's this:

The industry will not bottom out for another three or four years, analysts predict. The question, Mr. Appert of Goldman Sachs said, “is how far things will fall before then.”

Meanwhile here's Lee Enterprises CEO Mary Junck in February 2007:

Lee Enterprises is poised for strength ahead as its newspapers maintain solid circulation while at the same time expanding their online components to extend their reach, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer told shareholders this morning.

“We at Lee are not buying the negative,” Mary Junck said of the “pot shots” that some pundits have taken at the newspaper industry. “It is not what we are seeing from our industry.”

...Across Lee, she said the newspapers are located in healthy, diverse markets and are the media leaders in their markets. Among the reasons for her optimism, she said, is Lee’s ability to maintain a solid circulation base, its big and growing market reach and its emphasis on revenue growth.

February 2007 was when the stock was $35.15.


Update 7:40am: Buster at InMuscatine believes a shakeup is coming.