Hoffmann’s takeover of Post-Dispatch parent co. means change—but how much?

David Hoffmann got what he wanted. The Missouri-born billionaire spent the better part of 2025 pursuing the newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises, and on December 30, he closed the deal. The company’s Iowa-based management team had sought to raise $50 million from its shareholders; when that effort failed, they finally turned to the suitor who’d been there the whole time. 

Hoffmann, who already owned around 10 percent of the company’s stock, will invest $35 million and end up owning 52 percent of it. Another $15 million from other investors will allow Lee to reduce the interest rate on the giant pile of debt it took on to buy the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and its Pulitzer Inc. sister publications back in 2005. And once those stock purchases are complete, Hoffmann is “expected to assume the role of Chair of the Board,” as Lee Enterprises phrased it in its press release. The company’s longtime CEO, Kevin Mowbray, will step down.

It’s a big victory that caps a massive December for Hoffmann, who also closed on a deal last month to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins. But for St. Louisans reliant on Lee’s largest newspaper, the question of what comes after that victory is top of mind. 

Hoffmann isn’t talking about that—yet. But his past statements, as well as his ownership of other media outlets through the Hoffmann Media Group, offer several important clues. 

5. He doesn’t have a sweeping vision for change. When Hoffmann and the CEO of Hoffmann Media Group, J. Pason Gaddis, talk about the publications they’ve purchased, their ideas wouldn’t sound novel to anyone who’s been paying attention to the industry. They talk about shedding expensive headquarters and reducing unnecessary expenses, both things the Post-Dispatch has already done. On Editor & Publisher’s podcast, for example, Gaddis talked about one publication that had somehow retained four copy machines, a wrong Hoffmann swiftly righted. They don’t seem to have added many new positions at the newspapers they’ve purchased, but they also haven’t reduced them; Hoffmann told SLM in May that not a single person had been laid off at any publication he’d purchased. 

He’s also a big fan of paywalls, with the company typically adding them to new acquisitions that came without them and even defending them in a recent press release, which linked to numerous news stories about Hoffmann’s investment in Lee, many of them behind paywalls. “In today’s world, many articles live behind paywalls,” its “Reminders” section read. “This is an important revenue stream for publications, and we support a strong, independent press.” All of that suggests the Post-Dispatch’s paywall will remain intact—perhaps even more firmly.

4. He believes in local control. After Hoffmann purchased the Napa Valley Register from Lee in a separate, earlier transaction, Daniel Evans became its editor and publisher. He told SLM in May that he found the structure much less top-down than it had been under Lee. Under Lee, the Register had to run full-page ads for Donald Trump memorabilia and other items that readers were unlikely to buy due to system-wide ad buys. They also had no choice about which comics or puzzles to run. Evans said that changed under Hoffmann, saying. “It’s been nice to have local control back in Napa.” 

Gaddis was a business development manager for Gannett who then founded Florida Weekly and ran it for 15 years before Hoffmann purchased it and installed him as CEO of his newspaper company. On the podcast, he spoke about the importance of giving each publication’s publisher profit sharing, as well as control of their Profit and Loss Statements. “When you’re a small business operator … every single dollar counts,” he said. “You watch it like a hawk, and dollars add up very, very quickly.” 

3. He’s big on shoring up coverage of high school sports. The Post-Dispatch has systematically dismantled its prep sports coverage in recent years—a move that Hoffmann would likely excoriate. He’s spoken of how he still retains a clipping from his own high school football career. In his Editor & Publisher interview, Gaddis suggested the money saved from copy machines was well-spent on additional reporters to work the local youth sports beat. “We think there is a news desert across the country that’s occurred in prep sports,” he said. “It creates momentum and excitement around the community when they’ve got really great coverage of their schools.”

4. He’s willing to make reductions to print. The Napa Valley Register had gone from a daily to publishing three days a week under Lee, mailing the issues to subscribers. After Hoffmann’s acquisition, the paper further reduced print publication to just one day a week—but switched to a higher-grade newsprint and eliminated AP stories in favor of an additional reporter to cover schools, Editor & Publisher reported. 

Gaddis has made no secret of the fact that print is not a priority, telling Editor & Publisher that newspapers need to think of themselves as Netflix—and hasten their move away from their “legacy business” (DVDs sent by mail, or maybe print newspapers) to a new model (streaming … or perhaps online-only publication). “You have to get off of your legacy business addiction,” he said. “You’ve got to break the mold. You’ve got to get to streaming, and you’ve got to get there quick.”

5. He has no interest in losing billions of dollars. Guys like Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong were initially willing to rack up big losses after purchasing the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, respectively. That doesn’t seem like Hoffmann’s style. In an interview with SLM last February, he aired his frustrations with Lee’s board of directors and made clear part of the problem was their lack of business acumen. “We’re not panicked, but we’re concerned, and we hope they utilize our expertise in helping them get the company into profitability quickly,” he said. Lee ended up losing $36 million in 2025—and its longtime CEO just lost his job. Now Hoffmann will get the chance to show he can do better.

Hear more about this story on The 314 Podcast.