• by Ray Schultz , February 14, 2023

Newspaper publisher 1Lee Enterprises has been warned by The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC that it is not in compliance with the timely filing requirement for continued listing on Nasdaq. And time is running out.  

The company was informed of this in a letter from Nasdaq’s Listing Qualifications Department. 

There will be no immediate effect on the firm’s listing, but it has until February 27 to submit a plan of compliance, within 60 days of the extended filing.  

Lee acknowledged a continued delay in filing its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 25, 2022, and period ended December 25, 2022, and did not file its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended December 25, 2022. 

The company announced early in January that it was not in compliance with Nasdaq due to lateness in filing the 2022 annual report.  Last week, Lee said it discovered “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting and has not yet filed its annual report for the fiscal year ended September 25, 2022, in a Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In its publicly released 2022 financial results, Lee reported total operating revenue of $781 million, down 2% from  the prior year. But digital revenue grew by 27% to $240 million. 

In a separate development, Lee is requiring that some employees take a two-week, unpaid furlough or accept a salary reduction, Axios reports, citing an internal memo.