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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The Newsonomics of 2013 Wizardry: Tribune, Buffett, Murdoch, Paton, Bloomberg, and more

Today, though, most of the reporting power, much of the brand power, and thepolitical power still resides in big companies and their leadership. We may well get our strongest display of that early in 2013: In Washington, the FCC cross-ownership debate may move to center stage in January. And ...

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The Newsonomics of the Next Recession

Overall, what a next recession would do is accelerate most the current trends. We’d see some impact in the fourth quarter, but most of it in 2012, as those budgets are now warily being planned. We’ll beginning asking the question — again — of which companies can survive and under whose ...

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Lee: A Glimpse into the Slimfast Strategy

Lee's Slimfast Strategy is one that you can see throughout the newspaper industry -- a recognition, greatly reinforced by lenders, that reduced revenues are here to stay and that operating costs had to see draconian cuts.

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Nine Questions on Newspapers’ 2Q Reports

So what do we make of the first half of 2008 in DailyLand? Bad and getting worse. I’ve listened to the CEO webcasts — so you don’t have to! — and must say that there were a couple of eerie echoes of my own suggested remarks, offered a couple of weeks ago ("Candidly, ...

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L.A. Times: The Inconvenient Poster Child

Is the L.A. Times the new ground zero of newspaper staff cuts and frightsizing? Los Angelenos, of which I am one by nativity but not choice, may think so, imagining L.A. as the center of everybody’s universe. It’s not, of course, but the saga of the Times has been one of the more ...

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Time for New Blood in Newspaper Boardrooms: A Slate

The New Barbarians are about to enter the boardroom, as the New York Times expands its governing body by two, "welcoming" Firebrand’s Scott Galloway and Kohlberg & Co.’s James Kohlberg. It’s a big deal — the first time in the 41-year-old public company ...

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