Lee Enterprises Honors President’s Awards Winners

Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NYSE:LEE) is honoring 24 individuals and teams with Lee President’s Awards for outstanding journalism, exceptional achievement, innovation and spirit.

"These awards honor wonderful achievements ranging from watchdog reporting to digital innovation to community leadership,” said Mary Junck, Lee chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Those achievements, and the many others that were nominated, clearly underline our indispensable role in all of our 53 communications companies as, by far, the primary source of local news, information and advertising in our markets.”

She added: "Lee is fortunate to have so many outstanding journalists providing vital local news that otherwise would never come to light. We’re also blessed with more than our share of innovative people in sales, interactive media, production and all the other disciplines that keep us in the forefront of print, online, mobile and tablet.”

Details of the winners and their achievements are available at www.lee.net.

Excellence in News winners include Peter Rebhahn of the Juneau County Star-Times in Mauston, Wis.; Patty Machelor, Rob O’Dell, Brady McCombs and Dean Knuth of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson; Jeremy Kohler and Joe Mahr of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Kay Luna and John Schultz of the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa; Kurt Wilson and Michael Jamison of the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont.; Lee newspapers of Montana – The Billings Gazette, the Missoulian, the Independent Record in Helena, The Montana Standard in Butte, and the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton; the staff of The Billings Gazette; The Times and Democrat in Orangeburg, S.C.; and The Courier in Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Receiving awards for exceptional achievement are the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Times of Northwest Indiana, the Quad-City Times, the Lincoln Journal Star and The Billings Gazette.

Innovation awards are being presented to The Times of Northwest Indiana; the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis; Feast magazine in St. Louis; the Sioux City Journal in Sioux City, Iowa; the North County Times in Escondido, Calif.; The Courier in Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa; and to individuals at The Daily Herald in Provo, Utah; The Billings Gazette; the Casper Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyo.; the Napa Valley Register; and on the companywide interactive media team.

Winners of the Lee Spirit Award are Darrell Ehrlick of the Winona Daily News in Winona, Minn.; Dennis Fujimoto of The Garden Island in Lihue, Hawaii; and John Hawkley of the Napa Valley Register in Napa, Calif.

Lee Enterprises is a leading provider of local news, information and advertising in primarily midsize markets, with 49 daily newspapers and a joint interest in four others, rapidly growing digital sites and 300 specialty publications in 23 states. Lee's newspapers have circulation of 1.4 million daily and 1.7 million Sunday, reaching nearly four million readers daily. Lee's digital sites attract more than 16 million unique visits monthly, and Lee's weekly publications have distribution of four million households. Lee's markets include St. Louis, Mo.; Lincoln, Neb.; Madison, Wis.; Davenport, Iowa; Billings, Mont.; Bloomington, Ill.; and Tucson, Ariz. Lee stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEE. For more information about Lee, please visit www.lee.net.