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Lee reports strong daily circulation
and continued audience growth
DAVENPORT, Iowa (April 30, 2007) — Lee Enterprises, Incorporated
(NYSE: LEE), announced today that paid daily circulation remained
strong for the six-month period ended March 31, 2007, with 31
of 53 audited newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
reporting growth.
Fas-Fax reports to the Audit Bureau of Circulations totaled
a 0.3 percent decline daily and 1.3 percent decline Sunday compared
with a year ago.
Nationally, newspapers reported average decreases of 2.1 percent
daily and 3.1 percent Sunday.
Over the last six years, from March 2001 to March 2007, using
comparable data for each reporting period, circulation among
Lee newspapers has declined at an annual average rate of 0.1
percent daily and 0.5 percent Sunday.
As Lee's paid daily circulation held stable at 1.7 million
daily and 1.9 million Sunday in the latest reporting period,
total print plus online audiences continued to expand, with total
monthly online visits climbing to 11 million.
According to the latest monthly market studies conducted by
Wilkerson & Associates in Lee's 10 largest markets, Lee's
printed newspapers and their online sites reach more than two-thirds
of all adults in their markets. The printed newspapers themselves
reach 60 percent of all adults in the markets over seven days,
and a fifth of all readers also use the newspaper online sites.
About 6 percent of non-readers access the newspaper online sites.
"Increasingly, our online sites alone deliver a larger
audience than all other media in the market except for the newspaper
itself," said Mary Junck, Lee chairman and chief executive
officer. "This growing reach, combined with our strong and
solid base of paid newspaper circulation, gives us greater strength
in our markets than ever before and keeps us firmly far in front
of all competitors as the leading source of news, information
and advertising."
Daily circulation climbed 0.4 percent to 278,999 at the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, one of only a few metropolitan newspapers
across the country to report growth. Sunday circulation declined
3.7 percent to 407,754, more closely reflecting a national average
of metropolitan newspapers.
Nineteen Lee newspapers reported gains both daily and Sunday.
They are located in Hanford and Santa Maria, Calif.; Lihue, Hawaii;
Sioux City, Iowa; Twin Falls, Idaho; Bloomington, Carbondale
and Decatur, Ill.; Winona, Minn.; Park Hills, Mo.; Billings,
Butte and Helena, Mont.; Columbus, and Lincoln, Neb.; Corvallis,
Ore.; Orangeburg, S.C.; Provo, Utah; and La Crosse, Wis.
Other newspapers reporting daily gains are located in Flagstaff
and Tucson, Ariz.; Oceanside-Escondido, Calif.; Davenport and
Mason City, Iowa; Charleston and Mattoon, Ill.; Maysville, Ky.;
Missoula, Mont.; Fremont, Neb.; and Albany, Ore.
Others reporting gains on Sunday are located in DeKalb, Ill.;
Longview, Wash.; and Chippewa Falls and Racine, Wis.
Lee Enterprises is a premier provider of local news, information
and advertising in primarily midsize markets, with 51 daily newspapers
and a joint interest in five others, rapidly growing online sites
and more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications
in 23 states. Lee is based in Davenport, Iowa, and its stock
is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEE.
For more information about Lee, please visit www.lee.net.
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