WINONA, Minn. — Unless Winona Daily News readers have reviewed fine print on their Lee Enterprises contract, they may be shocked that their subscriptions just zoomed up 20%. The monthly charge now is $43.98 — way out of line with most news sites and among the highest in the nation. The increase was not unannounced but allowed in subscriber contracts. The hike by Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, which has been dancing at the brink of solvency since 2005 and ill-timed $1.5 billion of several big city newspapers. The company needs cash. In recent months the company has been buffeted by costly online attacks through inadequate security walls. Also, the company has been instructed by a judge to pay a muti-million settlement for wrongful sale of its subscriber data. It appeared at one-point that master investor Warren Buffet, nostalgic for the Lee-owned paper in Omaha, his hometown, might be a savior. But he backed out in 2020. Now a New York state-based newspaper owner, David Hoffmann, has moved in as a major investor and is pressing Lee to find routes to profitability by reducing costs further and somehow growing advertising and subscription revenue. In Winona, Lee retains only minimal staffing — one news reporter and one sports reporter, who although talented are stretched thin. The paper leans on another Lee property, the LaCrosse Tribune, for occasional telephone coverage of Winona. Also, the paper has arranged to reprint articles from the Minnesota Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

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