Buffetting the Newspaper Industry

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maybe Warren Buffett was given a DVD of Citizen Kane for Christmas. Whatever the reason, the billionaire's appetite for acquiring newspapers at a time when the industry is distressed continues to grow.

The Guardian (Guardian.co.uk) reported that Buffett's BH Media Group has purchased the Tulsa World, Oklahoma's second largest daily, along with the city's most popular Web site, Tulsaworld.com, for an undisclosed sum from the Lorton family, which has owned the paper since 1917.

 BH Media Group's newspaper-buying frenzy includes the media conglomerate's purchase of 63 newspapers from Media General last year (see "TUOL" post 5/17/12) and its purchase the previous year of the Omaha World Herald (see "TUOL" post 11/30/11), the company's largest daily. Only the group-owned World Herald and the Richmond Times-Dispatch are larger than the Tulsa World's 95,000 daily circulation.

According to the Guardian story, BH Media Group's buying spree now has it owning newspapers, magazines and online publications in nine states.

Buffetting the News

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)Richmond, Va.-based media conglomerate Media General, Inc. expects to close a deal on June 25 in which it will unload 63 newspapers to the BH Media Group, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., for a cool $142 million in cash.

In a company press release reported on Marketwatch.com, Media General said its dailies and weeklies in the southeastern U.S., except for its Florida holdings, along with Web sites and tablet and mobile apps, are part of the deal. The media outlets will be managed by World Media Enterprises, Inc., a sister company of the Omaha World Herald Co., which also is part of the BH Media Group newspaper stable.

Media General, which has concentrated on its digital and broadcast holdings in recent years, owns 18 network-affiliated television stations and their Web sites. A $400 million term loan and a $45 million revolving line of credit from Berkshire Hathaway to Media General was also finalized in a separate credit agreement, according to the press release.

Mutual of Omaha: Buffett & World-Herald Share the Love

Image via WikipediaBillionaire Berkshire Hathaway Chair Warren Buffett continues to bolster his Nebraska presence with the purchase of the Omaha World-Herald ("OWH"), the paper announced today.

Berkshire Hathaway will be acquiring OWH, the nation's 49th largest daily newspaper, from the Peter Kiewith Foundation and the paper's employee shareholders.  The paper had been the nation's last employee-owned major daily as Berkshire Hathaway is poised to become its fifth owner since it was founded in 1885. Terry Kroeger is expected to remain as the paper's publisher and president, according to the OWH online story.

The OWH owns a number of smaller papers, including the Council Bluffs (Iowa) Nonpareil along with papers in North Platte and Scottsbluff, Nebraska, among other publications.