DAVENPORT, Iowa — Lee Enterprises Inc. — which owns the Napa Valley Register, American Canyon Eagle, St. Helena Star and Weekly Calistogan — has joined a group of newspaper companies to extend their online advertising capabilities and attract new audiences through the leading technologies and global reach of Yahoo!.

J. Pedro Reinhard, a senior adviser whom Dow Chemical Co. fired last week along with a company officer, said Monday he was not involved in any clandestine effort to take over the company, the reason given by Dow Chemical for their dismissal.