Stock price for Lee Enterprises, which owns the Globe Gazette in Mason City, was down nearly 8% to 75.5 cents per share at noon Thursday. Earlier in September, Lee stock reached prices as low as 60 cents per share.
Lee’s stock is currently in hot water on wall street, and has been warned by the New York Stock Exchange that the stock is “below criteria for a continued listing standard” and the price of their stock must reach “an average 30-day closing market price of at least $1 per share and would have until Jan. 8, 2012, to return to compliance” or Lee’s stock could face de-listing.
“Until Lee returns to compliance with the listing standards, the LEE stock symbol has been assigned a “.BC” indicator to denote that the company is below compliance with such standards,” according to an article published in Lee’s very own Quad City Times.
In a likely attempt to raise revenue and perhaps save its stock from de-listing, it has been widely publicized that Lee has “rolled out its first digital subscriber system,” for some of its news websites, according to newsandtech.com.
It was published in this newsandtech.com article, that Lee put “into effect metered paywalls…in Montana, The Helena Independent Record, Billings Gazette, Montana Standard in Butte, Missoulian in Missoula and Ravalli Republic, along with the Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune.”
NorthIowaToday.com attempted to contact Lee Enterprises, seeking information on whether Lee had plans to expand its “metered pay model” to other news websites they own, like the GlobeGazette.com. Lee did not respond with an answer.
