Warren Buffett does not know how to revive newspapers
Warren Buffett loves newspapers. He delivered papers as a teenager and bought a lot of them for his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. But now the billionaire wants an outside company to manage most of them. He’s struck a deal for newspaper chain Lee Enterprises to help oversee a news empire that stretches from New Jersey to Texas and includes Buffett’s hometown Omaha World-Herald. Lee will get a $5 million annual fee plus a share of profits above certain benchmarks.
That Buffett has gone from avidly buying media properties to seeking a business partner for them may not seem so surprising, given the industry’s troubles. But it’s left some current and former employees puzzled.
In recent years, billionaires have snatched up prestigious but ailing papers—see Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post or Patrick Soon-Shiong, new owner of the Los Angeles Times. Why is the world’s thirdrichest man not willing to pour more money into his papers?
One difference is that the Buffett newspapers are held inside a public company, and the original rationale behind the investment has weakened. Buffett famously looks for businesses with wha t he calls economic moats to protect them from competitors. Buffett’s ventures with newspapers started early in his career. He acquired the Omaha Sun in 1969, according to a biography by Alice Schroeder.