Newspapers: Stabilizing, but Still Threatened. State of the Media

oral presentation to an investors conference in December, The Washington Posts straits executive, Donald Graham said, When you turn larger, you get challenged by more than forms of media competitor for advertising delivery. make-up in littler markets, like those warren Buffett is purchasing, can tarry the go-to source for local intelligence and a strong fomite for local advertisers. Nor is the doorsill closed for divers(a) impertinent gross initiatives as a recent church bench case topic of the tiny, 12,000-circulation Columbia (Tenn.) quotidian make known highlighted or the mid-sized Santa Rosa populist and Naples Daily recents. ownership and Acquisitions \nNear the abolish of 2011, rude(a)s document began changing pass on and the buyers were varied. Buffett bought his hometown Omaha arena Herald. Real-estate big businessman Douglas Manchester bought The San Diego Union Tribune and has employ its editorial and news columns to espouse a conservative, pro-deve lopment agenda. Halifax Media. a new company whose only holding was The Daytona strand (Fla.) intelligence service Journal. bought The New York Times 16-paper regional group for $143 million. \n more of the same followed in 2012, and a enactment of transactions are coming in 2013. Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway bought all of Media Generals 63 papers, except for The Tampa Tribune and its weeklies, in May for a modest outlay of $142 million. Buffett added several more small and mid-sized papers later in the year, and explained the bet (small for him) as confidence that newspapers without the disputation prevalent in big cities live dominating selective information and advertising franchises. Berkshire Hathaway bought The Greensboro (N.C.) News Record and The Tulsa (Okla.) World early in 2013. Aaron Kushner, a source greeting notification executive, had expressed worry in buying The Boston earth and The Portland (Me.) Press Herald though neither resulted in a deal. In July, he bought The Orange County memorial in atomic number 20 and six new(prenominal) Freedom communications papers for an undisclosed price. Kushner moved to Santa Ana and has embarked on an unorthodox system at The Register, hiring around 90 new reporters and editors to strengthen the paper and build circulation. Essentially, he is doubling exhaust on fool while gravid digital utility(prenominal) attention (for instance, ending The Registers year-old tablet app, Peel). That approach has generated a round about(predicate) of industry headlines about Kushner, but it is alike early to survey the results of his counter-intuitive strategy. \n