Hayes said the new digital subscription plans won’t necessarily mirror those in Montana and Wyoming.

The move toward paid digital subscriptions comes as Lee’s revenue continues to slide. Lee said it expects revenue for its second fiscal quarter that ends March 25 to decline between 3 and 4 percent compared with a year ago. Operating revenue in Lee’s most recent quarter, which ended Dec. 25, was $199.6 million, a nearly 4 percent decline from a year earlier.

In January, Lee emerged from bankruptcy as the company sought a refinancing plan for about $1 billion in debt. Debt repayments of $30.4 million in the current quarter will reduce Lee’s debt to $965.5 million, according to Carl Schmidt, Lee’s vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer.

Lee’s announcement follows moves by several newspapers to add paywalls or to limit free access to its online content. Daily newspapers that have added paywalls include the Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The Dallas Morning News and The Boston Globe. This week, The New York Times said it would cut in half the number of free articles non-subscribers could access, to 10 a month.

Media analyst John Morton, president of Morton Research Inc. in Jessup, Md., said he expects more newspapers to charge for access to its online sites. “I think at some point, probably all newspapers will have some kind of a paywall,” Morton said. “There is a very strong business rationale against giving away something for free that you’re charging for somewhere else.”

Read more from Lisa Brown, who covers banking, consumer products and legal affairs for the Post-Dispatch. Follow her on Twitter @lisabrownstl and the Business section @postdispatchbiz.

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