If only Lee Enterprises, owner of the Quad City Times and Dispatch/Argus, wasn't $538 million in debt.
It would have had $47 million more in income during the past fiscal year to invest back into its 77 newspapers and news web site markets.
And in the fourth quarter ended Sept. 27, the company would have had $12.4 million less in interest expenses, resulting in an $11.1-million profit rather than a $1.3 million loss.
After furloughing hundreds of Lee Enterprise employees during the coronavirus economic downturn last quarter, the media company was able to pay billionaire Warren Buffet's finance company $36.7 million under the debt refinancing deal agreed to earlier this year.
Lee – owner of the Quad City Times and Dispatch/Argus and 75 other daily newspapers and online news sites – owes Buffet's BH Finance LLC more than $539 million, which carries an annual interest rate of 9 percent.
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