DES MOINES, Iowa - Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled versus a year ago with much of the gain attributed to one-time benefits of tax changes and other issues.

Its shares rose nearly 17 percent Thursday but are still well below their high for the year.

Lee is the parent company of the Rapid City Journal. It also publishes The St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Lincoln Journal Star, The Bismarck Tribune and 47 other daily newspapers that earned $19.97 million, or 44 cents a share, for the three months ended Sept. 30 versus a profit of $10.9 million, or 33 cents a share, a year ago.

Sales edged up 1.6 percent to $284.1 million from $279.7 million a year ago.

The company said sales saw a one-time gain from an additional week in the quarter. Without that benefit, sales fell 1.3 percent to $275.9 million from a year ago.

Excluding one-time benefits from favorable settlements of federal and state tax audits and other matters and costs from an early retirement program, earnings per share were 39 cents.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had anticipated profits of 37 cents a share excluding items on sales of $279.73 million.

For the quarter, Lee said total advertising revenue decreased 1.4 percent, to $213.3 million. Online advertising revenue was up 55 percent and employment ad revenue rose 6.2 percent.

Automotive revenue was down 9.7 percent; real estate, down 9.1 percent; and national ad revenue, down 6.3 percent.

Circulation revenue decreased 2.1 percent for the quarter, the company said.

Its shares rose $2.36, or 16.8 percent, to end at $16.43 Thursday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $13.98 to $35.65.

For the fiscal year, Lee reported profits of $81 million, or $1.77 a share, compared with $70.8 million, or $1.56 a share a year earlier. Sales for the year were virtually steady at $1.13 billion versus a year ago.

Lee boosted online revenue 56 percent for the year, more than twice the national average, the company said.

Chief executive Mary Junck said online advertising has surpassed national advertising as a revenue source for the company.

A slowdown in real estate advertising affected revenues from classified and retail ads. However, she said, employment advertising was up 6.1 percent for the company through a combination of online and printed ad packages.

"We believe our success in employment revenue indicates our ability to capture our share of revenue when the real estate category eventually turns around," she said.

The company said its newspapers reported annual circulation declines of 1.7 percent daily and 0.7 percent Sunday. Its newspapers have circulation of 1.6 million daily and 1.9 million Sunday, reaching more than four million readers daily.

Its weekly publications have distribution of more than 4.5 million households.

Use of its newspaper online sites, as measured by page views, increased from September 2006 to September 2007 to more than 11.5 million unique visitors monthly.

In addition to 51 daily newspapers, Davenport-based Lee owns a joint interest in five others, an online business and more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications in 23 states.

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Lee Enterprises: http://www.lee.net