News Release Details

DAVENPORT, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 2007--Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NYSE:LEE), has joined with an expanded group of newspaper companies to extend their online advertising capabilities and attract new audiences through the leading technologies and global reach of Yahoo!.

Newspapers will add Yahoo's technology for graphical advertising and paid search. Yahoo will display newspaper headlines in local news modules and searches, beckoning new audiences to newspaper online sites. The relationship also creates a massive online advertising network powered by Yahoo, the leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide.

The agreement, announced today in a joint news release, broadens a strategic partnership that began in November, integrating newspaper employment listings with Yahoo! HotJobs.

The newspaper group includes 12 companies with 264 daily newspapers in 44 states.

Lee is one of the initial members, along with Belo Corp., Cox Newspapers, The E.W. Scripps Company, Hearst Newspapers, Journal Register Company and MediaNews Group. New members since November include Calkins Media, Inc.; Media General, Inc.; Morris Communications Company, LLC; Paddock Publications, Inc.; and The McClatchy Company, which is participating in all aspects except HotJobs. Major markets include St. Louis, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Memphis, Miami, San Francisco and San Jose.

"This next leap forward in our partnership with Yahoo will speed the online evolution of our industry," said Mary Junck, Lee chairman and chief executive officer. "We're leveraging the unique content of local newspapers with powerful technologies, which will drive audience growth and provide our local advertisers with sophisticated new online marketing tools to improve their engagement with our audiences."

She said Lee's fast-growing sites already deliver the largest local online audiences, often outperforming all other media in their markets except for the printed newspaper itself.

Gregory P. Schermer, Lee vice president for interactive media, said Lee's newspapers will begin rolling out the new online capabilities over the next few months.

"Right away, we will integrate Yahoo's superior search technology across our sites, and Yahoo will begin showcasing our valuable, unique content to its massive national audience, driving new readers to our news pages and online communities," he said. "Then, by the end of the year, we will begin harnessing Yahoo's sophisticated ad-serving, targeting and inventory management capabilities. This is powerful technology that will drive forward our local sales capabilities and link our sites into a vast new nationwide advertising network."

He continued: "In short, it's tremendously exciting. We began with Yahoo! HotJobs two months ago, and the response has been terrific. But this next phase will boost nearly every aspect of our online programs. It's a landmark example of how the newspaper industry is using its core strengths to accelerate our online innovation for our local readers and advertisers."

Schermer said Lee's newspapers also will begin working with Yahoo maps, directories, photo-sharing and other capabilities. "These technologies will be delivered to Lee as part of the agreement announced today as well as through intense collaboration between our respective advertising, content and technology teams," he said.

Webcast and conference call: The consortium and Yahoo will conduct an audio-visual webcast presentation at 10 a.m. CDT today to discuss details of the announcement. Live and replay access will be available at www.lee.net. A listen-only conference line will be available at 888-858-4756, passcode 8690613, and a replay will be available at 877-519-4471.

About Lee: 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's newspapers have circulation of 1.6 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, reaching more than four million readers daily. Lee's online sites attract more than 11 million users, and Lee's weekly publications are distributed to more than 4.5 million households. Lee's 55 newspaper markets include St. Louis, Mo.; Lincoln, Neb.; Madison, Wis.; Davenport, Iowa; Billings, Mont.; Bloomington, Ill.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Napa, Calif. 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 Enterprises, please visit www.lee.net.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "Safe Harbor" for forward-looking statements. This release contains information that may be deemed forward-looking and that is based largely on the Company's current expectations and is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Among such risks, trends and other uncertainties are changes in advertising demand, newsprint prices, energy costs, interest rates, labor costs, legislative and regulatory rulings and other results of operations or financial conditions, difficulties in integration of acquired businesses or maintaining employee and customer relationships and increased capital and other costs. The words "may," "will," "would," "could," "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "projects," "considers" and similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date of this release. The Company does not publicly undertake to update or revise its forward-looking statements.

CONTACT: Lee Enterprises, Incorporated
Dan Hayes, 563-383-2100
dan.hayes@lee.net
SOURCE: Lee Enterprises, Incorporated