Everything Warren Buffett: CNBC: Buffett Wouldn't Buy Most U.S. Newspapers "At Any Price"

Sunday, May 3, 2009

CNBC: Buffett Wouldn't Buy Most U.S. Newspapers "At Any Price"

Published: Saturday, 2 May 2009 | 12:45 PM ET

By: Alex Crippen
Executive Producer

Berkshire Hathaway 2009 Shareholder Meeting

Warren Buffett says Berkshire Hathaway would not buy most of the newspapers in the United States "at any price."

He says the changing media environment now means newspapers "have the possibility of unending losses" and he does not "see anything on the horizon that causes that erosion to end."

Buffett says the days when a newspaper could have a monopoly in a large city and make a lot of money are over.

But he promises Berkshire will not sell the Buffalo News, even though it had opportunities to do so in the past at higher prices than it would bring now: "On an economic basis you should sell this business. I agree 100 percent but I am not going to do it." Buffett says the union at the Buffalo newspaper has been cooperating on building a model that will generate "a little bit of money" for Berkshire."

Berkshire also has a stake in The Washington Post company that it bought in the 1970s.

Current Berkshire stock prices: