Good day, and welcome to the Lee Enterprises Third Quarter 2021 Webcast and Conference Call. The call is being recorded, and will be available for replay beginning later this morning at investors.lee.net. At the close of the planned remarks, there will be an opportunity for questions. A link to the live webcast can be found at investors.lee.net. Now I will turn the call over to your host, Josh Rinehults, Vice President of Finance.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Speaking on this morning's call, Kevin Mowbray, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Millage, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Also with us on today's call and available for questions is Nathan Bekke, Vice President, Consumer Sales and Marketing. Earlier today, we issued a news release with preliminary results for our third fiscal quarter of 2021. It is available at lee.net as well as at major financial websites. One housekeeping item to start. We closed on the acquisition of BH Media Group and the Buffalo News on March 16, 2020. The certain results and trends are presented on a pro forma basis, which assumes ownership of these acquisitions for the entirety of the periods presented. As a reminder, this morning's discussion will include forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations. These statements are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Such factors are described in this morning's news release and also in our SEC filings. During the call, we make reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are defined in our news release. Reconciliations to the relevant GAAP measures are included in tables accompanying the release. And now to open the discussion is our President and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Mowbray.

Thank you, Josh. Good morning, and thank you all for joining the call. I'm extremely proud of the significant progress we continue to make on our Three Pillar Growth Strategy and the impact to that strategy is clearly seen in our financial results. We achieved our second straight quarter of year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth as well as a return to year-over-year revenue growth in the third quarter. Our results clearly demonstrate that we're on a strong path forward in our effort to generate recurring sustainable revenue growth. Before we go too deep into our operating results, I do want to take a moment to recognize the incredible news and that sort of staff we have throughout Lee, I'd like to thank them for their efforts. They're committed to serving our communities by providing trusted, relevant and timely local news and information. I'd also like to recognize Michael Paul Williams in particular, a columnist at Richmond Times-Dispatch, who in June was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. We're very proud of Michael Paul, the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial team and our entire news teams for living at our commitment to local news that is so valuable to the communities we serve. In getting back to the third quarter operating results, total operating revenue grew 7.6% over the prior year in the third quarter due to the acceleration of total digital growth with strong execution on our Three Pillar Digital Growth Strategy and from cycling the third quarter last year, which was significantly impacted by the pandemic. Total digital revenue increased 48.3% in the third quarter and totaled nearly $66 million. More than 1/3 of our total operating revenues -- digital revenue up from just 23% in the third quarter of last year. Our digital revenue growth is exceeding our expectations in…

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. We continue to diligently manage our legacy cost structure, aggressively invest in talent and technology to fund our Three Pillar Digital Growth Strategy, and at the same time, strengthen our balance sheet that was reduced $14 million in the third quarter with the principal amount of debt at the end of June totaling $485 million. Since our refinancing in March of 2020 that has been reduced by $91 million. Also, while not seen in our balance sheet yet as we revalue liabilities at the end of the fiscal year, our pension and postretirement benefit obligations at the end of June remain in a net overfunded position. This is a significant improvement in our balance sheet since September 2020, where the net underfunded position was $95 million. As a reminder, our credit agreement has a low fixed annual interest rate, a 25-year maturity, no fixed mandatory principal payments and does not have financial performance covenants, meaning we do not have events of default tied to leverage or other maintenance ratios derived from financial performance of the company. Most importantly, the debt is with a single lender who knows us well and is committed to our success. Credit agreement also has no prepayment penalty, which affords us the ability to evaluate credit market conditions for an opportunistic refinancing to further improve our debt structure. The favorable debt structure is incredibly important for us as we execute on our Three Pillar Digital Growth Strategy as it allows us the ability to make the necessary investments in talent and technology that fuels recurring sustainable revenue growth. As a result of the revenue performance Kevin walked through, combined with strong cost management, adjusted EBITDA totaled $27 million in the third quarter, up for a second straight quarter. Over…

Okay, we have no questions on the web. So I'll turn it back to Kevin for closing remarks.

Well, thank you all for joining us on the call today. As I mentioned earlier, we remain focused on executing at a very high level. We're keenly focused on transforming our business model for the long-term benefit of our employees, our readers and our advertisers and investors. Really appreciate your time today and your interest in Lee. Thank you again.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.