Welcome to the Lee Enterprises 2026 First Quarter Webcast and Conference Call. The call is being recorded and will be available for replay at investors.lee.net. [Operator Instructions] A link to the live webcast can be found at investors.lee.net. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Jared Marks, Vice President, Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. With me on this morning's call are Nathan Bekke, President and Interim Chief Executive Officer; and Josh Rinehults, Vice President, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Earlier today, we issued a news release announcing preliminary results for our first fiscal quarter of 2026. The release and the accompanying presentation are available at investors.lee.net. As a reminder, this morning's discussion will include forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These statements are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Such factors are described in this morning's news release and in our SEC filings. During the call, we refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the tables accompanying the release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Nathan Bekke.

Thank you, Jared. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Lee Enterprises delivered a strong start to fiscal 2026, highlighted by significant first quarter adjusted EBITDA growth and a transformational improvement to our capital structure. Adjusted EBITDA grew 61% year-over-year to $12 million, driven by consistent execution across the core business and disciplined cost management. Last week, we completed a $50 million equity investment that materially strengthens our balance sheet and significantly improves our liquidity. In this morning's call, we'll provide a closer look at the financial stability that the transaction provides and the transition following the closing of the deal. Before we dive into that, let me begin by reinforcing the fundamentals of our Three Pillar Digital Growth Strategy, which has enabled Lee to rapidly transform over the last 5 years into a digital-first company. Our transformation into a strong and stable digital media company is not theoretical. It's measurable, repeatable and scalable. Digital is no longer an emerging segment inside the legacy business, but the primary economic engine of the company. The trajectory of Lee is increasingly governed by digital growth rates, digital markets and digital unit economics. This shift represents disciplined execution, expanding our audience through rich local content, accelerating digital subscription growth and building a digital advertising business that delivers results. With nearly $300 million in digital revenue over the last 12 months, we are well positioned to reach our $450 million digital revenue target by 2030. Our investment thesis is centered on a strengthened balance sheet and continued debt reduction. The $50 million common stock private placement shores up our balance sheet in both the near and long term and will lead to future deleveraging. Furthermore, with the close of this deal, our already favorable credit agreement will see a significant boost. We'll…

Thanks, Nathan. Our strong first quarter was marked by meaningful year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA, driven by continued progress in our digital transformation and disciplined cost management. Q1 adjusted EBITDA increased by a significant 61% or $5 million over the prior year, reflecting improved operating efficiency and tighter expense control. These results demonstrate the company's ability to expand profitability even as we navigate dynamic changes in the digital media landscape. On the digital subscription front, we finished the quarter with $23 million in revenue from our 609,000 digital-only subscribers. 5% growth in digital-only subscription revenue was fueled by increased efforts to maximize engagement within our subscriber base as well as to optimize price within our highly engaged subscriber cohorts. Targeted investments in personalization, content delivery and life cycle marketing are increasing subscriber lifetime value and improving overall monetization. Q1 finished with over $70 million in total digital revenue, which represented over 54% of our total revenue. This progress builds on the continued evolution of our revenue, with digital revenue mix improving 330 basis points year-over-year, digital-only subscription revenue growing 5%, and digital sources representing 71% of total advertising revenue, underscoring the transformational effect of our digital growth strategy. The strength of our first quarter performance clearly demonstrates the strong foundation for Lee's future as a digital-first company. Lastly and most significantly, Q1 saw substantial growth in adjusted EBITDA, up $5 million or 61% over the prior year. Our first quarter growth in adjusted EBITDA was driven by strong cost control particularly tied to our legacy revenue streams, with total cash costs declining $17 million over the prior year. The operational efficiency demonstrated this quarter was primarily driven by reduced head count and legacy print costs. This quarter represents our third consecutive quarter of adjusted EBITDA growth on a comparable basis.…

Thanks, Josh. Looking ahead to the full year, we're reaffirming our outlook for fiscal 2026 of adjusted EBITDA growth in the mid-single digits. The strength of our first quarter positions us well to achieve our 2026 outlook. The transaction and interest reduction give us increased confidence in not only fiscal 2026, but also the next 5 years. In other news, we recently announced a new strategic partnership with Hudl, a leader in sports technology, video analysis and data. Hudl works with thousands of high schools and local sports teams across the nation, providing video, data and tools to support athletes, coaches and communities. This partnership represents one of the largest collaboration in local sports media and aligns with our mission to serve our communities with high school sports coverage at the core. It also reinforces our commitment to journalism and storytelling that bring communities together. This partnership with Hudl will allow us to serve our communities even better by adding video content with free access and continue to tell the amazing local sports stories that reflect the pride, passion and connection people feel for their schools and teams. With Lee's deep roots in local communities, we create meaningful value for both our readers and advertisers, positioning our digital platforms as the place to go for local sports consumption and advertising. While in the early stages, we're extremely excited to partner with the Hudl team, and we'll share more as the relationship develops. With that, we'll open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions]

We have no questions from our web participants. I'll now turn the call back to Nathan for closing remarks.

Great. Thank you. I'll reiterate that we are a leader in local content and are well underway on a significant digital transformation. We have become a digital-first organization, growing our digital revenue mix to 54% as of this past quarter, more than doubling over the past 5 years. With the $50 million private placement transaction supporting both deleveraging and continued digital investment and up to $90 million in interest savings over the next 5 years, we've meaningfully strengthened our balance sheet and increased our financial flexibility. With a clear strategy, strong foundation and a compelling future, we are set up now more than ever for our next stage of evolution as a digital media company. I want to thank our employees for their dedication, and our shareholders for their continued support.

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. This concludes our call. You may now disconnect.