MUMBAI: It sounds like the setup to a quirky corporate fable: a storied American newspaper publisher caught between an Indian digital-media upstart and a midwestern business family bent on expansion. Yet this is exactly what’s unfolding at Lee Enterprises, a 132-year-old local news chain once part of Warren Buffett’s newspaper empire. In an era of dwindling print, Lee has unexpectedly become the prize in a cross-continental tug-of-war, with high finance and hometown news colliding in equal measure.
The drama burst into the open late this week. Quint Digital Limited, a New Delhi-based media company and Lee’s largest shareholder, revealed on Friday that the Hoffmann Family of Companies – which holds roughly 10 per cent of Lee – has approached the publisher’s board about a potential buyout. In a letter dated 20 March, the Hoffmann group proposed a ‘combination’ in which it would acquire Lee Enterprises in its entirety and take the company private. No price has been disclosed, but the overture alone has set tongues wagging across the industry.
Lee’s initial response is polite but noncommittal. The company said it would ‘evaluate and respond’ if Hoffmann comes forward with a specific offer. Management insists that “Lee’s board of directors and management team are committed to acting in the best interests of all shareholders,” adding that “consistent with its fiduciary duties, Lee’s board of directors will carefully review any credible proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the company and Lee shareholders.” In other words, Lee’s directors will consider any serious bid, but they aren’t pledging to sell without scrutiny.
The timing of Hoffmann’s move is noteworthy. Last year, as its two biggest investors quietly amassed shares, Lee adopted a ‘Limited-Duration Shareholder Rights Plan’ – a classic poison-pill defence to fend off hostile takeovers – that is set to expire on 27 March 2025. That plan, which limited how much stock any outsider could gobble up, gave Lee a year of breathing room. With its expiry just days away, the Hoffmann family evidently saw an opening to swoop in. (Media reports suggest Hoffmann’s stake has nearly doubled in the past six months.) Quint Digital, for its part, isn’t sounding any alarms yet; the 12.3 per cent shareholder has noted only that it is “monitoring this development and will provide necessary updates, as applicable.”
For Quint Digital – formerly known as Quint Digital Media – the Lee saga is an unusual overseas foray. The company, best known for its news site The Quint in India, emerged as Lee’s largest shareholder almost by stealth, accumulating a 12.3 per cent stake and leapfrogging American hedge funds and the Hoffmanns alike. Now Quint finds itself a potential kingmaker in an American media deal, a role that blends global intrigue with local journalism. Meanwhile the Hoffmann Family of Companies, a Naples, Florida-based conglomerate led by businessman David Hoffmann, has been openly coveting newspapers. It spent the past year becoming Lee’s second-largest owner (around 10 per cent) and has openly talked up its support for local news. The family’s latest gambit to outright purchase Lee would instantly vault it from influential investor to full owner of an American news institution.
All this corporate courtship comes as Lee Enterprises tries to reinvent itself for the digital age. Founded in 1890, the Davenport, Iowa-based company publishes dozens of daily and weekly newspapers across 26 states – and even became the unexpected heir to Warren Buffett’s newspaper portfolio in 2020 by acquiring Berkshire Hathaway’s media group (including Buffett’s hometown Omaha World-Herald and the Buffalo News). Lee’s digital revenues have been rising briskly, outpacing the decline of its ink-on-paper business. Its BLOX Digital division, a content management platform, now serves over 2,000 media sites in all 50 states, as well as clients in Canada and other territories. In short, while print editions still land on porches from St. Louis to Tucson, Lee’s future increasingly lies online – a fact not lost on would-be buyers.
The coming weeks will reveal whether the Hoffmann family’s offer turns into a concrete deal or just another chapter of industry gossip. Lee’s board has a fiduciary duty to weigh any credible proposal, and shareholders big and small will be watching closely. If the price is right, Buffett’s one-time collection of community papers could trade hands yet again, this time passing from an Indian-listed digital player and public shareholders into family-owned private stewardship. If not, Lee may continue charting its own course, buoyed by its digital growth and Buffett-blessed legacy. For now, the presses at Lee Enterprises keep rolling – at least until someone decides to actually stop them.
