Buffett, Munger and Gates defend newspaper industry
Published: May 05, 2009, 12:30 am
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The ailing newspaper business got an endorsement Monday from three of the wealthiest men in America—Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Charles Munger, and Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates—as they talked business in Omaha with anchor Liz Claman on Fox Business News.
After Claman noted that Berkshire Hathaway has “a significant position in newspapers”—The Buffalo News and The Washington Post—and that this is “not an expanding and growth sector now,” it was Munger who first stepped forward in defense.
“We have this system where we have some investments that we don’t discard them because they’re declining,” Munger explained. “We have some things that we’re faithful to, that we’re married to, so to speak.”
And it was Gates who offered the best perspective on the Berkshire Hathaway newspaper holdings, acknowledging the many areas The Washington Post has entered and noting that “The Buffalo News has handled the challenges, working with their unions, and figured out how to move forward as well as any newspaper company.”
This clip from Fox Business News is about eight minutes long; the discussion of newspapers begins about 6 minutes in:
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