OMAHA – Billionaire investor Warren Buffet says newspapers are on the way out and the number of people looking at them “is going down”.
Buffet, in an interview with politico.com published today, said that newspapers used to be important sources of information and news for so many Americans, but not so anymore.
“Newspapers were primary 30 or 40 years ago in stock market prices or baseball scores, where you could find a house, where you could find a job — all of those areas, they’re no longer primary in,” Buffett said. “They’re just less important to people than they were before, but news is still important to people, and they’re getting it one way or another.”
Buffett, who bought a part of the troubled Lee Enterprises which owns the Mason City Globe Gazette, said that “the circulation of all newspapers is going down” in the politico.com interview. He claimed in the interview to read five newspapers, himself, everyday, and none of them are owned by Lee.
Buffet’s Lee Enterprises recently sunk $2 million into a used printing press at the Globe Gazette, perhaps signaling that he is not micro-managing the newspaper publisher’s operations – or watching how it spends the $85 million he invested in the company.
Ahead of the Buffet interview, Slate.com earlier this year reported that newspapers face a bleak future and the decline of the industry “stunning”.
“Old-line newspapers are still bleeding revenue and cutting staff to the bone. It’s not pretty. And it’s not clear there’s much to be done about it.”
I think the medium will change from print and paper to pixels and bits, but there will still be a need for credible journalism and reputation for quality and truthful reporting. The biggest problem Online Journals will face is protecting their information from free dissemination, which will ultimately slow the influx of revenue. Knowledge will spread quickly at the speed of light. Finding a way to compensate journalists who do a good job will be the tricky part.
I worked 20 years in the newspaper business and saw its demise years ago. When the Wonderful World of Web matured, newspapers were slow to respond and, when they did, responded poorly.
Newspapers can compete with broadcast, cable, satellite, and internet news sources, but I haven’t seen one do it right yet. Maybe it’s too late now.
So sad . . . I loved that work.
R.I.P. newspapers.
Good comment.
There is certainly nothing much to read in the GLOB.