Lee Enterprises

Six newspapers in Illinois shuttered in the 12 months ending September 2024, making it No. 6 in the country for number of closures.

It’s the latest in a series of cost-cutting measures by Feast’s owner, Lee Enterprises. The owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Feast announced it would shutter its local press and outsource printing to Columbia, Missouri.

“It’s a somber time,” said Jackson Brandhorst, the newspaper's former editor in chief.

The judge in the case compared information sharing to video-store rentals in case against Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A top investor thinks the owner of newspapers like St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Omaha World-Herald are entering a difficult business climate with advertising sales continuing their decline.

Alan Achkar is now executive editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his second stint at the daily.

Shareholders for Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 23 other papers in the Midwest, re-elected three directors on Thursday. That news could complicate any future takeover bid by Alden Global Capital.

The lawsuit isn’t unexpected. Journalism analysts and union representatives had anticipated that Alden Global Capital would continue to aggressively pursue a deal for the newspaper owner.

Harris Kupperman, who owns 7.3% of Lee Enterprises' shares, called Alden Global Capital's offer to buy the publisher for $141 million "insufficient and opportunistic."

Lee executives said the hedge fund, known for gutting the newspapers it acquires, did not follow the rules in trying to nominate three people to the the publisher's board.