沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)将斥资1.42亿美元收购美国63家报纸。6个月前，伯克希尔哈撒韦公司(Berkshire Hathaway)以2亿美元收购了发行巴菲特家乡报纸《奥马哈世界先驱报》(Omaha World Herald)的报业集团。
这位曾经当过报童的亿万富翁收购了Media General旗下的大部分报纸。Media General位于弗吉尼亚州，旗下还拥有18家电视台。该公司正在就单独出售《坦帕论坛报》(Tampa Tribune)进行谈判。
Media General旗下的报纸去年产生了2800万美元现金流。这63家报纸中既有去年平均每周日拥有16.4万名读者的《里士满时讯报》(Richmond Times-Dispatch)，也包括每周日仅有6000名读者的《The Culpeper Star-Exponent》。
巴菲特表示：“在社区意识强烈的城镇，没有比当地报纸更重要的机构了。”
“我们所收购报纸的许多发行地完全符合这种特点。”
截止昨日午盘，Media General股价飙升37%，至4.29美元。这家负债累累的公司表示，伯克希尔哈撒韦公司将提供4亿美元的定期贷款（利率10.5%）和4500万美元的循环信贷额度，用来偿还其将于明年3月到期的债务。
由彼得•J•所罗门(Peter J. Solomon)提供顾问服务的伯克希尔哈撒韦公司也将获得未来收购Media General约19.9%股份的认股权证。
伯克希尔哈撒韦公司早就对《布法罗新闻报》(Buffalo News)和《华盛顿邮报》(Washington Post)进行了投资，但即便在其他投资者认为美国出版类股票将会跌至新低的时候，巴菲特仍在本月的股东年会上表示，他可能加仓此类股票。“经济形势将会不错，但与旧日完全不同”。
报纸曾经的许多功能已不复存在，但《奥马哈世界先驱报》仍报道了“我在其他地方无法找到的”关于奥马哈、当地体育和邻居的新闻。
巴菲特支持数字订阅。他警告称，对纸媒收费、同时在网上提供免费内容的模式是不可持续的。
2011年，Media General的报纸网站每月有1260万名独立访问者。到去年年底，Media General旗下的7家报纸对部分在线内容收费，另外11家报纸计划在今年4月中旬以前推出订阅服务。
《里士满时讯报》报道称，Media General董事长J・斯图尔特・布赖恩三世(J. Stewart Bryan III)表示，卖掉曾祖父于1896年创办的集团令人百味陈杂：“我的大脑说‘卖得好’，而我的心在哭喊”。
译者/何黎
Warren Buffett is spending $142m on 63 US newspapers, six months after Berkshire Hathawayspent $200m on the group that publishes the Omaha World Herald, his local newspaper.
The billionaire former paper boy is buying most of the titles of Media General, a Virginia group that also owns 18 television stations and is negotiating separately to sell its Tampa Tribune titles.
Media General’s newspapers generated cash flow of $28m last year. The 63 titles range from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, with an average of 164,000 Sunday readers last year, to The Culpeper Star-Exponent, with just 6,000.
“In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than the local paper,” Mr Buffett said.
“The many locales served by the newspapers we are acquiring fall firmly in this mould.”
Media General shares jumped 37 per cent to $4.29 by lunchtime as the indebted group said Berkshire Hathaway would provide it with a $400m term loan, a 10.5 per cent interest rate, and a $45m revolving credit line to repay bank debt due next March.
Berkshire Hathaway, advised by Peter J. Solomon, will also receive warrants to acquire about 19.9 per cent of its stock.
Berkshire Hathaway has long had investments in the Buffalo News and the Washington Post, but even as other investors have marked US publishing stocks down to new lows Mr Buffett told this month’s annual meeting he might buy more. “The economics will be OK, but it will be nothing like the old days.”
Newspapers did not fulfil as many functions as they used to, but his Omaha paper delivered “things that I can’t find out elsewhere” about his city, local sports and his neighbours.
He has supported digital subscriptions, cautioning that charging for content in print while giving information away for free online was unsustainable.
Media General’s titles had 12.6m monthly unique visitors in 2011. By the end of the year, seven were charging for some content online, with plans for subscriptions at another 11 by mid-April.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported J. Stewart Bryan III, Media General’s chairman, as saying that the sale of a group his great-grandfather started in 1896 was bittersweet: “My head says ‘well done’, while my heart is crying.”
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