Buffett Says He Remains Bullish on Newspapers, Despite Closing One

Warren E. Buffett isn’t letting one troubled newspaper color his view of buying what many media experts consider the dinosaurs of the news business. He still plans to buy newspapers, even though he recently announced that he would be shutting down one that he recently bought by the end of the year.

Doug Hiemstra, president of the World Media Enterprises, which is a Berkshire Hathaway Company, sent a letter to his staff saying that the company would shut down The News and Messenger in Manassas (VA), by year’s end. Hiemstra wrote in his Nov. 14 letter that “The News and Messenger has lost money for a number of years under the Media General ownership, and after our team made an exhaustive review of The News and Messenger, we were unable to come up with a scenario that would result in a likelihood of profitable operations there.” The company announced it would cut 105 positions, mainly at The News and Messenger.

According to public filings, Berkshire Hathaway also cut back its stake in Lee Enterprises, a chain of mostly small dailies based in Iowa.

Buffett said that the cuts at Media General were focused on one troubled paper. He said he planned to share more of his thoughts about newspapers soon and was working on a section about them in his annual letter to shareholders.