Check out the Sunday World-Herald’s story on 211.

You may remember a post from July discussing cuts at the Journal Star and the condition of parent company, Lee Enterprises. At that point, the stock was around $3, putting the company’s value around $145 million. Today the stock is struggling to stay at $.60. If the $3:$145m ratio holds, that would put the entire company’s value around $30 million (the market cap is at $27.49m as of writing, with shares at $.61). In December 2004, this same company was valued around $2 billion. The parent company of 52 newspapers is worth less than The Huffington Post.

The company is now in danger of being de-listed from the NYSE. The company’s net value change since 1978 is .30%. That’s not a typo — I didn’t confuse .30 and 30%. The value has increased less than one third of one percent in the past 30 years. But timing is everything:

Had one purchased Lee Enterprises stock in 1978 and sold it at the beginning of 2007, one would have enjoyed a 3,131.44% return on one’s investment.

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I figured I’d have plenty of opportunity to resubmit this cartoon after Gov. Heineman signed Nebraska’s smoking ban into law in late February, but Iowa quickly neutralized the threat.