LEE EARNINGS TUMBLE
Lee Enterprises, which owns the Arizona Daily
Star, reported a loss of $24.5 million in the most recent
quarter. A year ago, the company turned a $2.8 million profit.
Much of the bad news was due to an impairment charge and other
one-time items, totaling $39.7 million.
Revenue for the Davenport, Iowa, company dropped 20.5 percent, and
advertising sales slipped 24 percent. Lee cut operating expenses by 22
percent and trimmed some of its mounting debt.
“We are continuing to position Lee so it will emerge strong when the
recession ends,” said Mary Junck, chairman and chief executive
officer, in a Lee press release. “While overall business remains
sluggish, it has stabilized, and many of our publishers are reporting
cautious optimism from an increasing number of local advertisers. We
are also encouraged by our efforts to expand our local advertising
market share and the response we have received to new sales programs
that reach nontraditional advertisers. Beginning this next quarter, we
also expect an enthusiastic response to our rollout of online
behavioral targeting advertising through the new Yahoo platform.”
Lee needs for those models to be successful, as the bulk of its debt
has been back-ended as part of a restructuring deal.
That said, even though stock prices dropped 40 percent on the day of
the announcement, Lee has enjoyed significant gains since the recent
decision not to reverse-split the stock. The stock rose from a low of
about 24 cents to levels approaching $2 prior to July 30, and while
volatile, was bouncing around the $1.50 range as of Monday, Aug. 3.
BEDNAREK JOINS KGVY
For the last eight months, Jim Bednarek had enjoyed more
traditional work hours, as he spent time working on his
music-production company instead of starting the day preparing for the
morning drive.
But that changed when KGVY AM 1080 asked him to return to
mornings and handle program-director duties.
“The hardest part is getting used to getting up at 4 o’clock in the
morning again,” Bednarek said while setting up for a wedding, wearing
his Bednarek’s Music Works hat. “I used to do it all the time, but
after not doing it for eight months, it’s like, ‘Whoa, this is
tough.'”
KGVY saw a clear benefit in Bednarek’s name recognition and
familiarity with the “familiar favorites” format. Bednarek, a market
mainstay for 30 years, most recently acted as program director at
Citadel-owned KTUC AM 1400, an adult-standards station.
Bednarek is happy with the station’s smaller ownership
structure.
“They’re great owners. (I’ve) gone from the corporate mindset to
local owners,” Bednarek said, even though the main owner lives in
Florida. “Yeah, but he’s here a lot. … I can call and chat about
thoughts. (The station) really wanted me to come down there and help
them out.”
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2009.