The Business Journal of the Greater Triad
Warren Buffett’s BH Media has “been buying newspapers in a fairly tight geographic area,” Mark Sutter writes.
He notes the company, which bought The Roanoke (Va.) Times last week, “has purchased at least 17 newspapers in central Virginia and central North Carolina within the last two years, including the Triad’s two major daily newspapers — the News & Record in Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal.”
In no other geographic area, including Buffett’s home state of Nebraska, does BH own such a cluster of newspapers.
One easy explanation: Many of those newspapers used to belong to Media General before Buffett bought them last year. BH will probably try to figure out where “efficiencies can be achieved” in close newspapers, Sutter writes, citing printing, HR and other costs.
Media General had consolidated functions at its close-by papers when it owned them. It centralized copy editing and page design and also tightened printing and distribution operations. Sutter notes another way centralization could work:
Printing of BH’s three Rockingham County [N.C.] papers has already been shifted from Virginia to Greensboro, and they are searching for a managing editor for those three papers that will report to Greensboro. Just a few months ago, the [Greensboro, N.C.] News & Record was competing against the papers in Rockingham — now it’s running them.
Buffett bought the News & Record earlier this year, and the paper’s announcement included some unintentional comedy.
His company closed a former Media General paper in Manassas, Va., late last year, citing its proximity to other competing news sources.
