Lee Enterprises Advertising Revenue Falls; Digital Only Subscriptions Spike

Lee Enterprises, who operates news brands in 77 markets, reported first quarter fiscal 2021 financial data today.

The newspaper company reported total operating revenue of $211.8 million and net income totaling $16.4 million in the first quarter. Kevin Mowbray, President and CEO of Lee, reports total operating revenue in the first quarter was down 10.9% on a pro forma basis compared to declines of 16.9% in Q3 and a 24.7% drop in Q4.

Among the highlights of the quarter were digital only subscriptions. These are key to transforming the company and they increased 69.2% compared to the prior year. Total digital only subscriptions stood at 286,000 at the end of the quarter.

Transformation

Mowbray says they are “keenly focused” on transforming their business model in “today’s uncertain advertising revenue environment.”

“On the advertising side, we are focused on diversifying the products and services that we offer to local advertisers. We are seeing growth at Amplified Agency, our full service digital marketing agency, and in video revenue, which combined posted a 16.5% increase in revenue in the first quarter compared to last year. Additionally, through strong relationships in our local communities, we earned $3.0 million in advertising revenue from state and local political campaigns. Total advertising revenue on a pro forma basis was down 20.0% in the first quarter, a 670 bps sequential trend improvement from the fourth quarter 2020 trends”
Kevin Mowbray, President and CEO of Lee Enterprises

Other First Quarter Highlights

Lee’s integrated digital publishing and content management solution, TownNews, saw revenue increase 8.5% on a standalone basis.

Digital revenue, including advertising, subscriptions and services, totaled $62.5 million for the quarter. That represents 29.4% of their operating revenue.

Advertising revenue overall decreased 20% compared to the same quarter a year ago. It totaled $102.6 million in Q1.