Turns Out Warren Buffett Won’t Be The Billionaire Who Saves Newspapers Either

By JOSHUA BENTON AND KEN DOCTOR  Circa 2012, one of the most popular lines among American newspaper journalists went something like this: “Newspapers can’t be that terrible of a business if Warren Buffett, the smartest investor in the world, wants in.” That was the year that Buffett’s Berkshire ...

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Newsonomics: Here Are 20 Epiphanies For The News Business Of The 2020s

It is the best of times for The New York Times — and likely the worst of times for all the local newspapers with Times (or Gazette or Sun or Telegram or Journal) in their nameplates across the land. When I spoke at state newspaper conferences five or ten years ago, people would say: “It’ll... ...

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Newsonomics: By Selling To America’s Worst Newspaper Owners, Michael Ferro Ushers The Vultures Into Tribune

Is it the apocalypse, or just an unreasonable facsimile? In a week of newspaper industry drama — GateHouse’s expected takeover of Gannett and McClatchy’s unexpected move in the direction of bankruptcy — who could write a better next act than that old newspaper vaudeville duo of Michael ...

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Newsonomics: As McClatchy Reorgs, A New Set Of Money Men Enters The News Industry spotlight

Whenever the definitive history of daily newspapering is written, 2019 will be recorded as a major turning point. Today, one year-long drama comes to a close, or at least an act break: New Gannett, the result of America’s two largest newspaper companies merging, will become a reality as the ...

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Newsonomics: With Its Merger Approved, The New Gannett Readies The Cost-Cutting Knife

You think $300 million in costs cut is a big number? Try $400 million. Or more than $400 million. Those are the internal numbers in the air as America’s two largest newspaper chains, Gannett and GateHouse, try to land their megamerger, first announced in August. Follow the money: When I ...

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Newsonomics: Four Years In To Their Surprise Marriage, What Has The FT Done For Nikkei, And Vice Versa?

On July 23, 2015, the Financial Times and Nikkei — the leading business newspapers in the U.K. and Japan — shocked the news business worldwide with its own acquisition breaking news. On that date, the two companies announced a tie-up that no one had seen coming. The early conventional wisdom ...

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Newsonomics: Nikkei’s Tsuneo Kita: “Without The FT, It Wouldn’t Have Been Possible For Us To Transform Ourselves As We Have”

Four years ago, the Japanese financial news giant Nikkei sent shocked the global media world with a surprise announcement: It had bought the storied Financial Times for $1.3 billion. “Billion” was a pricetag few thought they would see in news media sales again. As I parsed that buy at the time, ...

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“Newsonomics: FT CEO John Ridding On How The Financial Times Builds Mini-Brands Within The Global FT

John Ridding is comfortable in his new office. This year he moved the Financial Times back to its previous (1959-1989) Bracken House digs, after it had been refurbished for the needs of the modern FT.     RELATED ARTICLE Newsonomics: Nikkei’s Tsuneo Kita: “Without the FT, it wouldn’t ...

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Newsonomics: Will Facebook’s New News Tab Be A Milestone Or Millstone?

  Is Facebook a cesspool of bottom-feeding content? Or is it now the proud leader among platforms in featuring and rewarding high-quality journalism? Or…both? We’ve got a new breakout of platformitis, as news companies try to figure out their complicated relationships with the ...

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Newsonomics: Why I’m Starting A Company To Build Out A New Model For Local News In The 2020s

Over the past decade here at Nieman Lab, I’ve reported a lot of news industry news. Today, I’m sharing some of my own. After months of work, I’m happy to begin introducing the new company that I’m heading, named Lookout. It’s a wide-reaching new model for local ...

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