Times ad director appointed to corporate position

Lisa Daugherty, advertising director at the Times of Northwest Indiana in Munster, Ind., has been appointed corporate director of classified sales for Lee Enterprises. She will continue to serve in her role at the Times, and will become general manager of the Times' Crown Point, Ind., office. Daugherty and Dave Worstell, sales and marketing director at the Billings (Mont.) Gazette, will direct Lee's classified sales initiatives.

Lee reporters leave for start-up

Dustin Bleizeffer of the Casper Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyo., and Ruffin Prevost of the Billings Gazette in Billings, Mont., have joined the leadership team of Wyofile, a nonprofit news site in Lander, Wyo. Editor in chief Bleizeffer and managing editor Prevost start their new positions in November.

(Via e-mail; send tips, links and memos to lee.ent.watch@gmail.com.)

Storms flood Billings Gazette

June 20 storms flooded the Billings Gazette's basement, damaging dozens of rolls of newsprint and delaying the paper's Monday press run. Some archived newspapers and photos also were damaged. The Gazette has photos of its flooded press online.

No raises for Lee employees; what about execs?

Salaries for Lee employees have been frozen for more than a year now. Last year, wages also were frozen for Lee executives; I have not yet seen that for 2010. Does anyone know if that policy has carried over to the new fiscal year, or how much those raises are?

At the Billings (Mont.) Gazette "state of the paper" meeting last week, publisher Mike Gulledge told employees there will be no raises or 401(k) contributions in 2010 -- a companywide policy. He also said the Gazette is ahead of plan for the first quarter. Gulledge, who is also Lee's publishing vice president, said he and the "CEO team" talk about raises and benefits every week, but have not decided when to bring them back.

(via e-mail; send tips to lee.ent.watch@gmail.com)

Billings Gazette lays off 8

The Billings Gazette laid off 4 full-time and 4 part-time employees Monday: Two in the newsroom, one in circulation, two in advertising and three in production. Raises have also been suspended.

26 more layoffs in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon

In Montana, the Billings Gazette laid off 7 full-time workers -- 2 in the newsroom, 2 in advertising, 2 in production, 1 in circulation -- and 2 part-time production workers last week.

In the same state, the Montana Standard in Butte laid off 7. The Helena Independent-Record laid off 5. In Wyoming, the Casper Star-Tribune laid off 4. In Oregon, Western World laid off 1.

An article in the Gazette quotes Lee VP for publishing Mike Gulledge (also the Gazette's publisher) saying Lee is adopting a "regional approach to providing financial services." Of course, there's been no such announcement -- or mention of layoffs -- on Lee's corporate site.

Graphicdesignr.net blogger Erica Smith -- a Lee employee at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- called out Lee for not reporting layoffs. She also does the Paper Cuts site that lists layoffs and buyouts across the industry.

See previous Lee layoffs