Warren Buffett’s company invests in the New York Times
Five years after Warren Buffett sold all of Berkshire Hathaway’s newspapers and predicted never-ending declines for much of the industry, Berkshire has announced a new US$350 million ($496 million) investment in the New York Times.
The somewhat surprising move highlighted Berkshire’s quarterly update to the Securities and Exchange Commission on the company’s stock during Buffett’s final quarter as CEO.
Berkshire also increased its investment in Chevron just before President Donald Trump ordered the arrest of Venezuela’s president, and the Omaha-based company went on to sell most of its Bank of America and Apple shares.
Buffett concluded the industry was “toast” when he sold dozens of Berkshire’s newspapers in 2020.
But even then, he suggested, nationally branded newspapers like the Times or the Wall Street Journal could still be successful.
“This is an opportune moment for Berkshire Hathaway to reinvest in news and a huge vote of confidence in Berkshire’s New York Times business strategy,” said Tim Franklin, professor and head of local news at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Franklin said the Times may have its roots in the newspaper business, but today it is a thriving digital business with popular games like Wordle, a well-known sports platform called The Athletic and more than 12 million digital subscribers.
Perhaps struggling local newspapers could learn some lessons from the “digital news powerhouse” that the Times has become, he said, and find ways to offer online games and showcase local sports coverage that readers can’t find elsewhere.
These quarterly stock portfolio records don’t make clear whether Buffett made every move or whether one of Berkshire’s other investment managers did.
Buffett has generally invested over US$1 billion ($1.4 billion), so given the size of this Times investment, it’s unclear whether this is one of his bets.
But many investors will seek to copy Buffett because of his remarkable track record over the decades before he handed over the CEO title to Greg Abel in January after six decades of running Berkshire. Shares of the Times rose nearly three percent in hours of trading after Berkshire announced the stake.
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
