Lee Enterprises

Recent Posts

Tip of the day: Lee stocks rated a ‘strong sell’

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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is yet more bad news for Lee Enterprises, the newspaper chain that owns the Billings Gazette and papers in Missoula, Butte, Helena and Hamilton. InvestorPlace.com has a story today headlined “9 Media Stocks to Sell Now.” Each of the nine rates a “D” (“sell”) or “F” (“strong sell”). Seven of the stocks were downgraded to “D” this week from “C” last week. Lee Enterprises is one of the two downgraded from a D to an F. Here’s the paragraph on Lee: “Lee Enterprises, Incorporated’s (LEE) rating weakens this week, dropping to a F versus last week’s D. Lee Enterprises, Incorporated owns various daily newspapers and a joint interest in several others. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Billings Gazette, InvestorPlace, Lee Enterprises

A fine farewell from a first-class journalist

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Sherry

Sherry Devlin put in her last day at the Missoulian yesterday, ending a remarkable 36-year run there as a reporter and editor. Her farewell column, posted this morning, is as well-crafted, gracious and heartfelt as one would expect. Much of it is devoted to recounting some of the really important stories she and her colleagues worked on over the decades, reminding us how vital, how irreplaceable, newspapers are. But my favorite part of the whole column was its shortest, simplest paragraph: “The work, and all the rigors it entails, has been a joy.” What a tremendous privilege to be able to say such a thing—and in the case of Sherry to mean it absolutely—about such a long career. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Ginny Merriam, Lee Enterprises, Missoulian, Sherry Devlin

Contest: Unravel the meaning of new Gazette ad

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Ad

It’s contest time! Here’s how it works: We will publish, verbatim, portions of a Billings Gazette employment ad and you, our readers, will attempt to figure out what the hell it means. There will be no prizes because there is no way of determining what the “correct” answer is. We just want you to put on your thinking cap, let your imagination run wild and try to explain to the rest of us what the Gazette could possibly be looking for. The ad, which I could not find online, is on Page D1 of the print edition of the Gazette, in the upper-left corner. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Billings Gazette, Lee Enterprises

Bad news for Lee Enterprises, common sense on Iran deal

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Gaz

More bad news for Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based newspaper chain that owns the Billings Gazette and papers in Missoula, Butte, Helena and Hamilton. Bettendorf.com is reporting that Lee has sold a newspaper building in Napa, Calif., for $5 million, which it planned to use to pay down part of its enormous debt. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Iran, Jon Tester, Lee Enterprises, New York Times, Ryan Zinke, Steve Daines

Prairie Lights: Inspired by Lee, a job posting of our own

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Reporter

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That’s why I’m posting a job description today in place of the regular column. I’m really not in any position yet to take on an employee, but I was so impressed with the job descriptions posted by the Lee newspapers of Montana that I felt compelled to write my own. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Chuck johnson, Helena, Lee Enterprises, Mike Dennison, Neversweat Bourbon

A sad passing, a sorry job posting

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In Montana newspaper news, two items today. The Native American Journalists Association is reporting the death of Bonnie Clincher Red Elk, whom the association hailed as “a true champion for freedom of the press in Indian Country.” She sounded like a courageous, remarkable woman. The NAJA said she founded the Fort Peck Journal in 2006, after the then-tribal chairman removed her as editor of the official newspaper of the Fort Peck Tribes. Last year, the association presented her with its Wassaja Award, “given in recognition of journalists’ and publications’ dedication to continuing to report the news in the face of challenge and even threat.” Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Bonnie Clincher Red Elk, Chuck johnson, Don Pogreba, Fort Peck Journal, Lee Enterprises, Mike Dennison, Native American Journalists Association

Media magazine takes a look at bureau closure

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The Columbia Journalism Review, the premier publication covering American media, posted a story today about what lies ahead, now that Lee Enterprises has closed its Capitol bureau. I spoke twice with the reporter, Corey Hutchins, who told me, as he says in the article: “In discussions about statewide alternatives, the name I heard most often was another former Lee reporter: Ed Kemmick. After a quarter century as a reporter and editor for the Billings Gazette, Kemmick started a website, Last Best News, in early 2014.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise. As I used to like telling people when I worked at the Gazette: “I’m the Sunday columnist for the biggest paper in the fourth-largest state in the most powerful country in the world.” Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Columbia Journalism Review, Lee Enterprises, state bureau

David Crisp: Mortification, then sweet vindication

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Twain

Well, I screwed that up. Such was the eloquent sentence that I imagined last week might begin this column. I had just written a piece on the closing of Lee Enterprises’ Capitol bureau, and in it I had made what I thought was the original observation that none of the Lee papers in Montana had reported the closing. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: From the Outpost, Chuck johnson, Lee Enterprises, Mark Twain, Mike Dennison

Prairie Lights: Don’t blame Lee’s bad moves on the Web

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Capitol

I suppose it’s still possible that Billings Gazette editor Darrell Ehrlick, in his Sunday column, will formally salute Chuck Johnson and Mike Dennison, the two experienced reporters whose last day as employees of Lee Enterprises was Friday. With more than 70 years of reporting experience between them, Lee’s Capitol bureau team certainly deserved a proper send-off. But because Lee treated them so shabbily, and because it seems to believe that closing the bureau is merely a cosmetic change in the way it covers the news, a proper tribute seems most unlikely. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Capitol bureau, Chuck johnson, Darrell Ehrlick, David Crisp, Lee Enterprises, Mary Junck, Mike Dennisin