News Release Details

DAVENPORT, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 5, 2006--Mary Junck, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Lee Enterprises (NYSE:LEE), announced today the winners of 2006 Lee President's Awards for News, Innovation and Lee Spirit.

Individuals and teams who won the 12 awards will be honored, along with finalists for Enterprise of the Year, at a recognition ceremony Nov. 14 in Chicago. The awards carry cash prizes totaling $65,000.

"Again this year, our teams of outside judges spent many hours sifting through many impressive entries, all representative of the meaningful and inspirational work we do day in and day out to benefit our readers, advertisers and communities," Junck said. "As we celebrate these and other exceptional achievements all across our company, we're reminded over and over why we're in such a wonderful business."

EXCELLENCE IN NEWS

The news award recognizes outstanding achievement in any aspect of print and online journalism, from reporting and writing to photography, video, graphics and presentation.

The judges selected five sets of winners:

• Brady McCombs, Thomas Stauffer and David Sanders of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson for an investigative series titled "Illegal Labor Fix Falls Short," about the impact of illegal workers on the homebuilding industry. Immigration reporter McCombs, economic development reporter Stauffer and photojournalist Sanders were the first journalists in the country to analyze proposed legislation and explain why it wouldn't work. In 2005, the Arizona Daily Star received a Lee President's Award for an immigration series titled "Smuggling Children."
  
  
• Larry Hendricks and the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff. Freedom of Information requests for public records and a Daily Sun lawsuit against the city of Williams helped the newspaper nail an enterprising series about hush-money payments and improper influence by city officials over police operations. As a result, two incumbent city council members were defeated in the next election and all supervisory-level police staff members were demoted.
  
  
• The staff of The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y., for exceptional print and online coverage of a tragedy that claimed 20 lives when a tour boat carrying senior citizens overturned on Lake George. Post-Star staffers arrived at the scene even before some emergency responders, and they stayed in the forefront of this national story with detailed information, photography and video, critical insight and human interest storytelling. The judges described the work as a textbook example of how a community newspaper can pool all of its resources and effectively deliver coverage that builds reader relationships and trust.
  
  
• The staff of the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska, for a creative, informative and often fun examination of the historical, cultural and economic differences between Nebraska's two biggest cities - Omaha and Lincoln. The highly engaging eight-day series offered readers plenty to talk about, the judges said, and more importantly gave Lincoln a sense of its roots and the possibilities for its future.
  
  
• Carolyn Tuft and Joe Mahr of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for an investigative series called "Broken Promises, Broken Lives," exposing abuse of mental patients in state institutions, including 21 deaths and 323 injures among more than 2,000 confirmed cases over five years. The series prompted government action, including a governor's task force.

Each set of winners will receive $5,000 and individual engraved crystals.

The judges gave honorable mentions to The Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill.; the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming; the Independent Record in Helena, Mont.; the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont.; and the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.

Judges for the Excellence in News category were Richard Cole, dean emeritus of the school of journalism and mass communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Scott Bosley, executive director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors; and Sherry Chisenhall, editor and vice president of The Wichita Eagle.

INNOVATION

The innovation award recognizes an individual or team for creating or significantly advancing a print or online idea that drives revenue, builds audiences or serves customers better.

Judges for the innovation category were Barbara Cohen, president and founder of Kannon Consulting; Herbert W. Moloney III, publisher of The Examiner in Washington, D.C.; and Mary Alice Shaver, director of the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida.

They selected five sets of winners:

• The Mommy Talk team at The Courier in Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa, who have created an online, print and podcast forum for parents to share the daily trials, tribulations and triumphs of parenting. Mommy Talk is available at attitudesforwomen.com, where the blog attracts more than 20,000 page views a month and where more than 2,500 visitors regularly download the podcast. Mommy Talk is written and podcast by Leanne Klinkenberg, the mother of a toddler and an infant, and Meta Hemenway-Forbes, the mother of two teenagers. Others on the team are Christopher Koop, webmaster, and Lance Jenkins, interactive media specialist.
  
  
• The staffs of two newspapers in central Illinois - The Pantagraph in Bloomington and the Herald & Review in Decatur - for developing a popular online-to-print employment advertising program. Their "Now Hiring" rack publications reverse publish listings from their online sites and is sold in packages that include core, niche and interactive products. Several other Lee newspapers are planning to launch similar programs. Team leaders were Sarah Ehrmantraut, inside classified sales manager of The Pantagraph, and Todd Nelson, publisher of the Herald & Review.
  
  
• The staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for developing a highly successful series of creative ad shapes. The fun, attention-getting, creatively shaped ads command premium rates and have received positive reviews from both advertisers and readers. The Post-Dispatch shared the ideas with other Lee newspapers. In St. Louis alone, these creative shapes are credited with increasing advertising sales by $1.5 million.
  
  
• The staff of the North County Times in Oceanside/Escondido, Calif., for driving an explosion of community discussion both in the newspaper and online at www.nctimes.com. The staff posts hundreds of news stories and reader opinions every day, then prints many of the comments in the paper, creating an intense cycle of interest. The result: Readership of the newspaper rose 15 percent in 18 months, online page views climbed 90 percent, and online revenue more than doubled. The project is headed by online editor Andrew Kleske.
  
  
• Billings Gazette Communications in Montana, for developing an online auction called "Hot Buys, Cool Cash." Readers used "cool cash" certificates printed in the newspaper to pay for half of their online bids, and advertisers used merchandise or services to pay for half of their participation. The promotion is credited with increasing paid newspaper circulation, driving online traffic and generating nearly $400,000 of revenue. The project was guided by Dave Worstell, Allyn Calton, Heather Davis and Mike Gulledge.

Each set of winners will receive $5,000 and individual engraved crystals.

The judges gave honorable mentions to The Times of Northwest Indiana and the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming.

LEE SPIRIT

The Lee Spirit Award recognizes outstanding citizenship and personal commitment to the community and Lee.

"In the Spirit category, we consider every nomination an honor in itself, and normally only one winner is chosen," Junck said, "but so many deserving entries poured in this year that we made an exception and selected two winners. We could have easily chosen two-dozen."

The winners are:

• Gigi Contardo of The Times-News in Twin Falls, Idaho. Gigi, a Romanian immigrant, is a multiple previous winner of the newspaper's employee of the year award. This past year, among almost daily examples of his warm heart and spirited generosity, he led the newspaper's efforts in a community-wide campaign to paint the homes of area residents who could not do the work for themselves. As building manager, he also put his painting skills to work at the Times-News, where he single-handedly painted the interior of the newspaper building over the summer.
  
  
• Shirley Davis Homrighausen of the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa. Shirley has been an amazing dynamo at the newspaper for 50 years. She started there after applying for a photographer opening at another newspaper and being told that it didn't hire women to cover real news. In addition to becoming one of the newspaper's most prolific writers and skilled editors, Shirley has headed the newspaper's Plus 60 Club for the last 21 years. Because of her passion, thousands of senior citizens engage in a multitude of activities year round and remain fiercely loyal to the newspaper.

Each will receive $5,000 and an engraved crystal.

Photos and more information about the Lee President's Awards are available at www.lee.net.

Lee Enterprises is a premier publisher 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 1.7 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, reaching more than four million readers daily. Lee's online sites reach more than two million users, and Lee's weekly publications have distribution of more than 4.5 million households. In addition to Lincoln and St. Louis, Lee's newspaper markets include 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.

CONTACT:
Lee Enterprises
Dan Hayes, 563-383-2163
Dan.Hayes@lee.net

SOURCE: Lee Enterprises