Omaha.com | Greensboro News & Record
Warren Buffett’s BH Media Group has purchased the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record from Landmark Media Enterprises “for an undisclosed amount,” Steve Jordon reports.
Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire [Hathaway], has said he wants to acquire more newspapers in mid-sized cities with strong community ties.
Employees at the News & Record learned about the sale in a meeting this morning, the paper reports.
The News & Record had average Sunday circulation of 81,600 in September 2012, down 6 percent from the year before, according to figures from the Alliance for Audited Media. Its average Monday-Friday circ is 54,789, down about 5 percent from September 2011.
Buffett owns 268 publications, with 26 daily papers, including the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal. The investor has said he believes “newspapers that intensively cover their communities will have a good future.” He purchased most of Media General’s newspapers last May. He has said he would consider buying more newspapers, and he’s expressed interest in buying the Allentown, Pa., Morning Call. Berkshire’s World Media division closed the Manassas (Va.) News & Messenger in December, in part because it competed with other publications and served a piece of a large metropolitan area.
Poynter’s Rick Edmonds points out:
Landmark put all its papers up for sale in 2008 but pulled them off the market when they could not find a buyer. The Roanoke Times, The Virginian-Pilot and some of the smaller ones may be up for grabs if there’s a buyer.
Related: The “newspaper junkie” who bought his hometown paper and is determined to make it a success (Los Angeles Times) | Analysts continue to closely follow Aaron Kushner’s Orange County Register expansion
