Cyberattack at Lee Enterprises Disrupting Operations Nationwide

Publishing giant Lee Enterprises has confirmed that a cyberattack has caused widespread disruptions across its newspaper operations, affecting its systems, subscriber services, and print production capabilities.

The attack, which, according to a recent SEC filing, began on February 3, 2025, has impacted numerous publications under Lee’s umbrella, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The North Platte Telegraph.

Lee Enterprises CEO Kevin Mowbray acknowledged the incident in an internal email sent to employees on February 7, stating that the company was working to “fully restore our systems” and determine whether any sensitive information had been accessed. The company has also notified law enforcement and launched an internal investigation.

A spokesperson for Lee, Tracy Rouch, confirmed to TechCrunch that the cyberattack was responsible for the ongoing outages but declined to provide details on whether hackers had made contact or whether any data had been stolen. The company has not disclosed whether it has forensic tools, such as system logs, to confirm data access.

Lee Enterprises, which owns 72 newspapers across 24 states, reported widespread operational disruptions due to the attack. Several newspapers initially struggled to build pages and publish editions, leading to delays in print deliveries and the temporary unavailability of digital services. The attack also took down Lee’s call center applications, VPN services, subscriber account access, and remote login systems for employees.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that while its print operations were affected, it had managed to continue publishing without missing a day. Other outlets, such as The North Platte Telegraph, experienced delivery delays, smaller newspaper editions, and issues accessing subscriber accounts.

The Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming also reported significant operational challenges, noting that many of Lee’s newspapers could not initially produce or publish their daily editions. The company has since worked to print and distribute back issues for affected publications.

As of February 10, 2025, many of Lee’s critical systems remain offline, and the company has not provided a timeline for full recovery.

This is the second known cyberattack targeting Lee Enterprises in the past five years. In 2021, Iranian hackers compromised Lee’s content management system as part of a broader disinformation campaign aimed at the 2020 U.S. presidential election. However, there is no evidence yet linking the current attack to the previous incident or any known threat actor.