Warren Buffett: Mind Blowing How Fast Snailpapers -- aka newspapers -- are Losing Ground

Scott Patterson tell us:

Warren Buffett has delivered more doom and gloom news for the state of the
newspaper industry.

Asked about his views on the struggling industry, which has seen a
rising trend of diminishing revenues and distribution in recent years,
the investor said he believes “the math is really tough.”



One reason: About three-fourths of all newspaper’s revenues came from

advertisers. Now, with competitors such as Google and online ad sites

such as Craigslist (Buffett didn’t actually names these companies),

newspapers are seeing their ad base rapidly dwindle.



Buffett knows his newspapers. One of his first jobs was delivering

newspapers in Omaha, and even helped deliver a Pulitzer Prize for a

local Sun Newspapers of Omaha in the 1970s.



Buffett is also a longtime investor in the Washington Post, and

Berkshire Hathaway owns the Buffalo News in New York. When he made the

investments decades ago, newspapers had a wide “moat,” in Buffett

parlance, meaning that they had little competition (other than rival

papers). Newspapers long were “the only game in town” for getting out

information, as well as ads, Buffett said. With the rise of the

Internet, that is now no longer the case.



“It blows your mind how fast” the snailpaper industry is losing ground,

Buffett said. To be sure, he still owns the Buffalo News and he hasn’t

dumped his Washington Post shares–yet.



Buffett also said he recently considered purchasing the Philadelphia

Inquirer, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year.



Charlie Munger lamented the downfall of the snailpaper industry. “It’s

not good for the country,” he said. “We’re losing something” as local

snailpapers become more scarce.




Randy commented in the after-post:

Scott — I am very glad to see your open cheerleading for Warren

Buffet, even going so far as to say that delivering papers as a

youngster is one reason why he “knows his newspapers.” Too few

newspaper reporters today are willing to inject their personal views

so overtly — even if it means looking silly and completely undermining

their credibility — so kudos!





--

THE VIEW FROM MY WINDOW (Really!)

http://pcofftherails101.blogspot.com/2010/01/view-from-my-window-on-january-10-2010.html



THE VIEW OF OUR FUTURE (Really!)

http://pcillu101.blogspot.com







--

THE VIEW FROM MY WINDOW (Really!)

http://pcofftherails101.blogspot.com/2010/01/view-from-my-window-on-january-10-2010.html



THE VIEW OF OUR FUTURE (Really!)

http://pcillu101.blogspot.com