DAVENPORT, Iowa — Lee Enterprises, parent company of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, again got its lender to waive its monthly interest payment, the third month in a row the company has delayed debt payments in order to free up capital to recover from a cyberattack.
But this time, Lee’s sole lender, Berkshire Hathaway Finance, demanded some concessions from Lee in exchange for another month of grace. Lee said the March and April interest payment waivers each freed up $3.7 million in capital to put toward remediating the impacts of a February hack that hobbled publication of many of Lee’s smaller papers for weeks.
The delayed interest payments were added to the company’s principal, which stood at $446 million at the end of last year.
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Lee said in that, in exchange for a third month of allowing Lee to delay its debt payment, Berkshire Hathaway and Lee made changes to their 2020 debt agreement inked when Lee consolidated its debt and purchased the papers owned by Warren Buffett’s news subsidiary.
One of the changes requires that any proceeds from asset sales over $500,000 be immediately used to repay the debt. That could complicate a sale of any assets to the Hoffmann Family of Companies, whose billionaire founder David Hoffmann hails from the area and has expressed interest in purchasing Lee or some of its assets.
Another change allows Berkshire Hathaway Finance to assign some of the debt to “any person.†Before, the debt agreement only allowed Berkshire Hathaway Finance to assign the debt to “any of its affiliates.†That could free up Berkshire to begin selling the debt to other firms.
On Saturday, 94-year-old Buffett announced plans to retire as Berkshire Hathaway chief executive officer at the end of the year.
Thursday morning, Lee executives reported a net loss of $12 million on $137.4 million in revenue during the first three months of the year. That was up from a net loss of $11.6 million on $146.6 million in revenue a year prior. In one bright spot, revenue from digital subscriptions and advertising of $72.6 million has now surpassed the company’s print revenue of $65 million. A year ago, print still brought in more money than online sales.
Lee Enterprises stock, which fell nearly 4% to close at $7.80 Thursday, has lost more than half its value in the last six months. Its market capitalization stood at $48 million Thursday.
"This is the last day that we're going to print [locally] after the 146 year history of the Post-Dispatch," pressman Matt Deters, of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, said as he started the printing press for the final time on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, at the Pulitzer Publishing Center in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Post-Dispatch ended its local print operations at the Maryland Heights factory on Sunday and will now print the newspaper at a facility in Columbia, Mo.
