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Economy

Lee Enterprises Annual Meeting

WVIK, Quad Cities NPR | By Herb Trix
Published March 9, 2022 at 11:36 AM CST

Several months after rejecting a hostile takeover offer, a Quad Cities-based newspaper publisher will hold its annual meeting. Shareholders of Lee Enterprises are scheduled to meet in Davenport Thursday.

It owns daily newspapers, weeklies, and specialty publications in 77 markets in 26 states, while the would-be buyer, hedge fund Alden Global Capital, owns more than 200 newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune.

In November, Lee rejected Alden's offer of 24 dollars a share, saying it "grossly undervalues" the company. Then it convinced a judge to prohibit the hedge fund from submitting nominees for the board of directors at the annual meeting.

So the agenda includes voting for just three directors, all submitted by Lee, including Board Chairman Mary Junck, and President and CEO Kevin Mowbray.

Lee's newspapers include the Quad City Times, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Bloomington (il.) Pantagraph, and the Omaha World-Herald.

Another hedge fund that owns a stake in Lee, believes company shares are now worth 100 dollars, and will be worth even more in the future. Today (wed) they're trading around 30 dollars (with a 52-week range of 18-44).
Economy
Herb Trix
A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.
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