Occasionally, my significant other wonders about moving to another city in Montana. There are a number of reasons why she wonders this, but suffice to say my answer is always the same: I’d better buck up on my coding skills because I won’t be getting a newspaper job in those towns.
Well I might, but I sure wouldn’t feel safe in that job, considering that Billings, Missoula, Helena and Butte all have papers run by Lee Enterprises. And I’m sorry, I don’t feel like walking in to a layoff situation.
What brings this to mind today? A little article that the morning Romenesko report turned me on to an analysis from Seeking Alpha, an investment news site. The article paints a stark picture of Lee’s stock:
We believe that Lee Enterprises (LEE) has been burning its furniture to stay alive by aggressively cutting costs in order to service its crushing debt load.
The analysis notes that Lee has cut its staff by 26 percent since the start of 2010 and cut its newsprint production by 30 percent over the same period. The article concludes:
LEE’s short-minded strategy of gutting its workforce (and therefore its product) while simultaneously increasing prices is doomed to fail.
The whole article has plenty of stock talk that is, frankly, over my head, but the message is clear, and it’s also clear that I don’t want to work for a company that’s struggling this much.
Edit:Â A commenter noted that I forgot the link to the Seeking Alpha article. I have since added it in the text above.