May 2, 2009, 1:01 PM ET

Buffett Sees ‘Unending Losses’ for Many Newspapers

OMAHA, Neb. — Warren Buffett has long held himself out as a newspaper man. As a child, one of his first jobs was delivering newspapers. An Omaha newspaper Berkshire owned, Sun Newspapers, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 based in part on a tip Mr. Buffett provided. One of Berkshire’s biggest investments in the 1970s was the Buffalo News, which it still owns.
Associated Press


Buffett toured the exhibit floor prior to the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting

But his view on the future of the newspaper industry is dismal. “For most newspapers in the United states, we would not buy them at any price,” he said in response to a question about whether he would consider investing in newspapers. “They have the possibility of going to just unending losses.”

The problem, he said, is that newspapers were once essential to the American public. As long as newspapers were essential to readers, they were essential to advertisers, But news is available in many other venues, such as the Internet, which means a dramatic drop in advertising revenue.

Berkshire also has a substantial investment in the Washington Post Co. He said the company has a solid cable business, a good reason to hold onto it, but its newspaper business is in trouble.

Mr. Munger gave a philosophical take on the issue: “It’s really a national tragedy,” he said. “These monopoly daily newspapers have been an important sinew to our civilization, they kept government more honest than they would otherwise be.”