Lee Enterprises, Incorporated

Welcome to the Lee Enterprises 2026 second quarter webcast and conference call. The call is being recorded and will be available for replay at investors.lee.net. At the close of the planned remarks, there will be an opportunity for questions. Participants assessing this call webcast may submit written questions through the platform and they will be answered during the call as time permits. Any remaining questions will be followed up on after the call. A link to a live webcast can be found at investors.lee.net. I will now turn the call over to your host, Jared Marks, Vice President, Finance.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. With me on this morning's call are Nathan Becke, President and Chief Executive Officer of Josh Reinholz, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Joe Battistoni, Chief Revenue Officer, and David Hoffman, Chairman of our Board of Directors. Earlier today, we issued a news release announcing preliminary results for our second fiscal quarter of 2026. The release and accompanying presentation are available at investors.lee.net. As a reminder, this morning's discussion will include Forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These statements are subject to certain risks, trends, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Such factors are described in this morning's news release and in our SEC filings. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the tables accompanying the release. With that, I'll turn the call over to our chairman, David Hoffman.

Thank you, Jared, and good morning, and thank you for joining us. Excuse me. As I open this call, I'd like to say that it's a privilege to step into this role at a company with more than a century of service to its communities, its shareholders, and the enduring importance of local journalism. Lee's legacy is strong. But as important is the decisive transformation that is now underway at our company. I'd like to spend a few moments to frame the vision for Lee's next chapter. We are a different company than we were even a year ago. More focused, more accountable, and more closely connected to the communities we serve. We are thinking more expansively about our role in local media and our path to long-term growth. That has required meaningful change, deliberate, and at times difficult, but meaningful to position Lee for a stronger and more sustainable future. Delivering on that vision requires strong leadership and clear alignment at the top. I'm very happy to share following a comprehensive nationwide search, the board and myself concluded that the right leadership for Lee's future was already in place. Nathan and Josh have demonstrated strong execution deep industry knowledge, and a clear vision of where the company is headed. Just as importantly, they've built alignment across the organization and already translating that into action across the business. Coming back to the vision for Lee's next chapter, let me start with one of our most important priorities, reconnecting with our communities. Over the past several months, I've been on the road with our leadership team conducting town hall meetings across our markets. These weren't symbolic visits, they were working sessions. We listened carefully to readers, advertisers, and community stakeholders and leaders. What we heard were gaps in local news coverage, areas where communities felt underserved. We've already begun to address those gaps by reinvesting in local journalism, including adding reporters in key markets to fill those holes. That work, we believe, is foundational to who we are, and it's where our turnaround begins. At the same time, we've taken a disciplined approach to our cost structure. We're committed to being strong stewards of capital, and that starts at the top of the organization. Just recently, the board has shifted its compensation structure to be 100% equity-based, aligning more directly with long-term shareholder value. A similar structure was put in place for our top 120 executives. We've also reduced corporate overhead and simplified our operating model, ensuring that many resources are directed to the front lines of the business, more resources, prioritizing our content and our customers. We're also producing more local content that is important to our readers. We recently launched Community Center, which is a free collection of publicly available content covering everything from municipal news releases to local real estate listings. Another area where we see real opportunity for differentiation is local sports. Through our partnership with Huddle, we're expanding and enhancing our coverage of high school and local sports. This is deeply relevant, highly engaging content for our communities. It's just yet another example how we're investing where it matters most to our audience. And finally, I'll occasionally contribute a column sharing my perspective on opportunities to build stronger communities. Looking for their head, we're actively developing a discipline acquisition strategy. We believe there are opportunities to expand Lee's footprint in ways that make both strategic and financial sense. Our focus will be on markets and assets that strengthen our commitment to local journalism while enhancing our overall scale and efficiency. We will be thoughtful and selective, but insistent in our efforts to grow the business. Underlying all this is a clear financial priority, conserving cash and strengthening our balance sheet. We are managing liquidity carefully, improving operational efficiency daily, and ensuring we have the financial flexibility to execute our strategy. That provides stability today and optionality for the future. I'm very confident in the direction we're headed, grounded in local journalism, disciplined in operations, and ambitious about our future. With that, I'll pass it over to Nathan, our Chief Executive Officer.