Mar 10
2025
The scoop on the hacking of The Buffalo News
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by Jim Heaney, editor of Investigative Post
Editor’s note: Circulation numbers near the conclusion of this column have been revised from an earlier version.
The Buffalo News is among some 75 newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises that got hacked a month ago. The News has informed its readers in general terms, but press reports and Lee’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal very serious and ongoing problems which have crippled operations.
Lee was attacked Feb. 3 by Russian hackers known as Qilin. They made off with 350 gigabytes of data, encrypted other files and demanded a ransom.
The purloined data includes “investor records, financial arrangements that raise questions, payments to journalists and publishers, funding for tailored news stories, and approaches to obtaining insider information,” according to Security Week.
The hack has challenged The News and other newspapers to produce their printed and web editions and to provide customer service to subscribers. The print edition of The News, for example, is reduced to two thin sections Monday through Saturday, and good luck getting through to customer service. I imagine the hack has been a nightmare for Editor Margaret Kinny Giancola and her staff.
The hackers threatened to begin releasing sensitive information if their demands were not met by last Wednesday, although there are no reports they’ve followed through, aside from posting some samples of the stolen data.
Lee, in a recent SEC filing, said “the threat has been contained” and that it’s working to determine “whether personally identifiable information was taken.”
The filing further stated: “While the full scope of the financial impact is not yet known, the incident is likely to have a material impact on the company’s financial condition and results of operations.”
The hack has already impacted the company financially. Its stock price has fallen from $18.90 a share in early November to $13,30 on the day of the hack to $8.86 last Friday.
Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway, which holds a $446 million loan extended to Lee to purchase its papers in 2020, has temporarily waived interest payments on the debt.
Lee newspapers aren’t the only outlets that have been targeted by hackers in recent years. Others include The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Weather Channel and News Corp. A wide range of other businesses are also being targeted.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomThe hack adds to the challenges The News is dealing with.
A trade journal recently published a list of the 25 newspapers with the largest print circulation in 2024. The Fort Lauderdale-based Sun Sentinel brought up the rear with an average daily circulation of 15,300. The News did not make the list.
There’s a reason for that, which I found out Monday: The News no longer reports circulation data to the Alliance for Audited Media, whose numbers the list was based on. The decision by The News, and presumably other papers owned by Lee Enterprises, to no longer report circulation numbers to the Alliance for Audited Media is curious, as most daily newspapers do so.
The News had previously reported its circulation figures to the AAM. Here’s the report for the period ending Sept. 30, 2023, which showed:
- Average print circulation Monday through Friday was 33,066; Sunday was 49,836.
- Online subscriptions totaled 38,035.
In a subsequent filing last fall with the United States Post Service, The News reported online subscriptions of about 42,000. That’s half of the 83,000 subscribers that then-Editor Mike Connelly estimated in 2018 was needed to cover the cost of operating the newsroom.
To put The News’ combined print and online circulation numbers in perspective – 71,101 – consider that the paper’s circulation peaked in the 1990s at about 310,000 daily and around 400,000 on Sundays. The paper’s current subscription count has probably declined in the year-and-a-half since the last report was filed with the Alliance for Audited Media.
Since that report, The News has raised its print price and shifted printing operations to Cleveland, resulting in the paper consisting mostly of day-old news. Given the grousing I’ve heard from readers, I suspect it’s resulted in a fair amount cancellations of home delivery.
