We've given a break to Lee Enterprises, parent company of the Racine Journal Times, in recent weeks, as the stock market has pummeled its stock.
It's been up and down: In July and August, it closed below $3 a share -- bad -- only to recover to $4 -- good. The company declared its regular dividend -- good -- but various investment funds divested their shares -- bad. Various Lee papers have been shedding staff -- most notably its Montana operations these days -- and others have been cutting newshole; the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Lee's flagship in the state, just yesterday announced it would reduce the number of sections printed daily.
More bad news came today. After the market closed, with the stock up 13 cents to $3.36 per share, Standard and Poor's dropped LEE from its S&P Midcap 400 index. Lee's market cap -- the total value of its shares -- is at $151 million, putting the company 400th in the listing. The change -- LEE will be replaced by United Therapeutics Corp. (UTHR), market cap $2.48 billion -- will take place after the close of trading Friday, and may further decrease demand for the stock, as investors and funds who buy the index divest.
Quite a comedown from Lee's $2.2 billion market cap back in 2004 before it bought Pulitzer newspapers for $1.46 billion. Ah, those were the days.
The dead tree media is dead dead dead. Long live web 2.0!
ReplyDeleteDoes constantly taking shots at Lee and the Journal Times make you feel better about yourself? Going out of your way to gloat and cackle is petty and cheapens this website.
ReplyDeleteWith all the J-T has done for the City of Racine too let me list them
ReplyDeleteShort list.
They did give us that HOT reporter Ms. B may be a bit full of herself but she sure is HOT gota like that.
BzzBzzBee: There's no "shot" in the story, just facts about what's happening to an important local business whose industry is in turmoil.
ReplyDeleteSure, I usedta work there... but there's no gloating, just sadness.
For example, an old friend from our days together in East St. Louis in the '70s, just got laid off from Lee's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The stock, by the way, dropped 8.6% today, no doubt at least partially as a result of S&P's action this post reported on yesterday.