Warren Buffett Will Sell His Newspaper Empire
Source: NY Times
With a deal to sell Berkshire Hathaways newspapers to Lee Enterprises, the billionaire is giving up on the news business.
By Michael J. de la Merced
Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate run by Warren E. Buffett, announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell its 31 newspapers for $140 million in cash.
The buyer is Lee Enterprises, the publisher that has been managing the newspaper groups operations for the past 18 months. Among the organizations being sold are The Buffalo News and a collection of local papers that include The Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
The deal ends Mr. Buffetts dalliance with being a news mogul. Berkshire had owned The Buffalo News since 1977 and within the past decade rapidly bought up other papers, consolidating them in a division called BH Media Group.
In a letter to his newspaper publishers in 2012, Mr. Buffett described himself as a newspaper addict with designs on buying more papers.
Warren Buffett, center, at Berkshire Hathaways annual shareholders meeting in Omaha last year.Credit...Scott Morgan/Reuters
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/business/media/warren-buffett-newspapers.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
SmartVoter22
(639 posts)Lee are the only newspapers, in Wisconsin, that is not owned by Gannett, which fired most of the writers and staff, in favor of generic USA Today whitewashes. The Wisconsin State Journal and Cap Times investigate and report in detail and this will hopefully bring more local papers from the Gannett grip.
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)Look at how much they've donated to the GOP in the last several cycles:
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000052990&cycle=2014
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Nitram
(22,813 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 30, 2020, 02:44 PM - Edit history (1)
without good newspapers providing honest journalism would be like. Well, I take that back. Just peruse the conspiracy theory internet sites for a preview.
Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
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