The parent company of a print and digital news conglomerate has revealed that a “cybersecurity” event is the cause of paused newspaper and digital publications in 24 states, including Virginia.
Lee Enterprises, which owns more than 75 media platforms and 13 digital publications nationwide, has not released print or e-editions in most markets this week, originally telling subscribers the outage was due to a server issue.
Company CEO Kevin Mowbray said in an email to employees Friday night that the cause appeared to be something far more nefarious, and “law enforcement” has been notified.
“We are now focused on determining what information — if any — may have been affected by the situation,” Mowbray said. “We are working to complete this investigation as quickly and thoroughly as possible.”
An investigation is under way, he said.
The CEO said the company is also working to identify “additional steps we can take to help prevent something like this from happening again.”
The computer server appears to have compromised on Monday morning.
No timeline has been announced for when news operations will return to normal publication schedules.
According to a report in The News Virginian and published on the websites of the affected papers nationwide, the company is now producing, printing and delivering back issues, indicating at least some progress on printing and layout front.
“We are sorry for the inconvenience we know this disruption has caused for our readers,” said Daily Progress editor Reynolds Hutchins in the online post. “We are grateful for the grace and patience our readers have given us. We promise it is not something we take for granted.”
Lee Enterprises owns 12 media entities in Virginia, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Daily Progress, Roanoke Times, Fredericksburg Free Lance Star, Lynchburg News and Advance and The News Virginian.
Cybersecurity attack is not the only bad news for Lee Enterprises
Unfortunately, the cybersecurity attack on its server wasn’t the only bad news for Lee Enterprises this week. A fourth quarter report was shared on a conference call Thursday, leaving at least one investor scratching his head.
David Hoffman told St. Louis Magazine that he was disappointed in Lee saying it had a 600 percent miss on its fourth-quarter forecast and a loss of $2.80 per share.
“I don’t want to be presumptuous, but those are big, big, big misses, and I can tell you, in the businesses that we run, we don’t have that big of misses,” Hoffman told SLM. “And so that begs the question, why is that happening?”
In addition to the estimated $16.7 million the enterprise reported it lost in the last quarter, it has also gutted the staff of its newspapers as it appears to shift its focus toward more successful digital operations.
From furloughs to pink slips, newsrooms have been cut to the core with even veteran reporters shown the door. Papers that once published seven days a week have also reduced the number of print papers offered each week instead delivering less expensive digital editions to subscribers.
“Something’s amiss here,” Hoffman said.
Related stories
Share
Crystal Graham
