Herald & Review

The Rev. Alfred F. Wuensch founded the Decatur Review as a weekly newspaper in April 1872.[6] C.N. Walls founded the Daily Herald in 1878. In 1931, the morning Herald, by this time owned by the Lindsay family, and the evening Daily Review, owned by the Schaub family, merged their operations. Both newspapers continued to publish separately while maintaining largely separate editorial staffs.[7] The Lindsay-Schaub combine acquired other newspapers, including The Southern Illinoisan, the Champaign-Urbana Courier, the Edwardsville Intelligencer, the Metro-East Journal and the Midland Daily News, as well as Decatur radio station WSOY.

On July 13, 1937, 17 of the paper's editorial employees walked out and went on strike, forcing suspension of the paper, Decatur's only daily newspaper at the time.[8][9]

The newspaper moved into its current building in May 1976.

In 1979, Lee Enterprises purchased most of the Lindsay-Schaub papers, including the Herald and Daily Review.[10] The papers were renamed the Herald & Review and continued to publish morning and evening editions. In June 1982, the evening edition was discontinued.[10]

The ownership company, Lee Enterprises filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011.[11] It emerged from bankruptcy less than two months later. In April 2012, Warren Buffett took a stake in Lee Enterprises (through Berkshire Hathaway Inc.), buying $85 million of the company's debt from Goldman Sachs Group.[12]

In June 2012, Berkshire Hathaway filed an amended Form 13F (13F-HR/A) for the period ending March 31, 2012.[13] This document disclosed that Berkshire accumulated $2,119,000 or 1,655,125 common shares of Lee Enterprises, or a 3.2 percent stake.[14] The document noted that the confidentiality of this transaction was requested but denied by the SEC on May 25, 2012.[15]

In April 2013, Lee Enterprises announced that Berkshire Hathaway refinanced the remaining Pulitzer acquisition debt equating to $94 million.[16] Lee Enterprises incurred no cost for doing this. The collateral involved was the TNI Partner stake including the Arizona Daily Star and azstarnet.com. The result of this was a reduction in interest from a variable rate of 11.3% to a fixed rate of 9% while at the same time extending the debt maturity date of the debt from December 2015 to April 2017. At the time of the announcement Lee Enterprises noted they had $893 million left to pay off. Lee paid off and retired its New Pulitzer notes in June 2015, 6 months before the original maturity date and 22 months before the new maturity date. Lee also refinanced its remaining debt in 2014 in order to extend the maturities from 2015 and 2017 to 2019 and 2022. Lee retired its 1st Lien Term Loan in November 2018, four months before its scheduled March 2019 maturity.

On June 27, 2018, Lee Enterprises and Berkshire Hathaway reached a five-year agreement to allow Lee Enterprises to manage Berkshire Hathaway's newspaper and digital operations.[17]

• Official website
• LCCN sn96071070