Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Feb. 7 and was updated Feb. 10.
A companywide technology outage at media company Lee Enterprises that disrupted print distribution at the Wisconsin State Journal and dozens of other papers across the country was the result of a cyberattack that shut down many of its systems, the company announced late Friday.
The company did not say how the attack happened or who was behind it but Lee President Kevin Mowbray said in a statement to employees the company is focused on investigating what information, if any, was affected and that law enforcement was notified of the situation.
The company is working “to identify and implement steps to prevent this from happening again.”
“Please understand that we are also committed to providing only information that is confirmed to be accurate,” an internal memo to Lee employees stated. “We cannot speculate on details that remain under investigation, and we will not be able to share information that could compromise our investigation or any investigation by law enforcement.”
The outage, which began Feb. 3, affected newsroom Wi-Fi, printing systems and subscription access for the company’s 70-plus newspapers. The Wisconsin State Journal did not print a newspaper on Feb. 4 and directed readers online for stories. It is not clear if the issues have been resolved as of Monday.
Lee Enterprises, which owns newspapers in Wisconsin, Virginia and more than two dozen other states described the issue variously as “a production issue,” “a server outage” and “company wide technology issues” on its websites. A note posted on Madison.com states the publication is “undergoing maintenance on some services, which may temporarily affect access to subscription accounts and the E-edition.”
Madison readers have faced ongoing disruptions to print and digital newspaper access. While the Wisconsin State Journal has continued to publish content on its website and mobile app, subscribers relying on printed newspapers and e-editions have faced delays or unavailability.
Last week, Lee Enterprises’ lack of explanation for the ongoing issues prompted frustration from readers and newsroom employees. Various systems, from IT and business support portals, the support phone line, VPN access and subscriber services, were offline beginning Feb. 3, according to internal IT updates from Lee Enterprises. The same internal memos state both hardware and software issues are contributing to the outage.
“During this critical event, the Technology team encourages everyone to consider potential workarounds,” the memo states.
In a statement to In Business Madison on Friday, Wisconsin State Journal editor Kelly Lecker said, “Lee Enterprises is experiencing company wide technology issues that have impacted our ability to prepare and publish some of our newspapers and online e-editions. We are working to correct the issue.”
Lecker did not answer when asked if a similar outage had occurred at the paper before.
Lecker took to the State Journal’s website Friday morning to thank readers for their patience and emphasized the importance of community engagement and local news coverage.
“On (Feb. 4), a serious technical outage kept us from producing a printed newspaper or E-edition, and many of you were understandably frustrated,” Lecker wrote. “Readers called and emailed because they missed their newspaper, an important part of their morning ritual. When I explained that we were having technological problems and we were doing our best to get you the news, you responded with empathy and kindness.”
Behind the scenes, designers and editors worked by hand to produce a smaller edition of the paper instead of using the publication’s typical automated processes, Lecker wrote.
“They were smaller papers than you were used to, but they still had the local news and sports you’ve come to expect,” Lecker said.
“They say, ‘You don’t know what you got till it’s gone,’” Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, told In Business Madison. “When you miss a day’s paper, and you miss having a day’s paper, it reinforces the value that a daily newspaper has in people’s lives.”
