Photo from Flickr User DRB62
Up here in the plushly appointed press box, patrolled by grim looking security guards, the members of the press are paying varying levels of attention to the questions. In part, that's because some of the questions aren't really that relevant to most business journalists, whose editors are not panting to hear what Warren Buffett thinks about promoting the principles of value investing among today's young people. Other questions are only relevant to a few peoples' beats. Besides, the shareholder meeting is, as these meetings go, very, very long. Press registration started at 6:30 pm, the movie began playing at 8:30 am, the Q&A has been going on for several hours, and well, there's a buffet. A really nice buffet, with little biscuits and three kinds of meat and all the soda you can drink.
But the minute Buffett was asked about newspapers, everyone in the place was as attentive as a doberman on high-dose Adderall. Finally, Warren Buffett takes on the world's most important topic!
Sadly, what Warren had to say wasn't particularly novel: newspapers are in big, bad trouble.
Most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy at any price. They have the possibility of unending losses. 30 years ago, they were an essential business if you wanted to learn sports scores, news, etc. They were only essential to the advertiser as long as they were essential to the reader. That's changing, it's changing every day. And I do not see anything on the horizon that's changing
Yes, folks, you've just lashed yourselves to the rail of the Titanic. But at least there's a buffet on the promenade deck.
Please. You haven't lashed yourself to anything. Few jobs come with a guarantee of lifetime employment. You had a nice dinner last night on the Atlantic's dime, and you're enjoying an event today on their dime that tens of thousands of shareholders paid to attend. Be grateful for that. If you don't have a paying job in journalism next year or the year after, you'll figure something else out. Plenty of people spent time working in jobs that later became obsolete. They're not all selling apples on the street, and most of them didn't have two prestigious degrees under their belt.
Yes, folks, you've just lashed yourselves to the rail of the Titanic.
Could they? We could have a few submarines there in an hour.
But, seriously: it would be absurdly easy for "journalists" to fill a huge market gap by just being truthful once in a while. The sooner people like, for a recent example, Jesse Washington goes down with the ship the better off we'll all be.
Dave -
I don't thing Megan was referring to herself with the Titanic comment, but rather to the newspaper journalists at the meeting.
But, seriously: it would be absurdly easy for "journalists" to fill a huge market gap by just being truthful once in a while.
Oh, I think the vast majority tell the truth as they see it. But there does seem to be an element of "This rag is gonna be out of business soon anyway, so I'm gonna tell them what I really think" in the big city papers these days. Which, of course, doesn't help the bottom line.
In recent years the newspapers around me have turned into conduits for wire stories. It doesn't seem like they generate any local content at all. Don't the wire services survive on payments from newspapers? What happens when newspapers aren't strong enough to make those payments? My local paper will only be one page if you take out the AP stories.
Here's your problem in a nutshell (I'm giving this solution to your publisher gratis because I used to be one):
Publishers like the AP because the AP fills up their news-hole very cheaply. A few local stories by highly paid reporters (and yes, the publisher is under the delusion that you are highly paid), and the rest of the paper is very cheaply filled copy from the AP.
Where does the AP get that copy? Why, from other newspapers of course. For many, many years, this was a highly profitable cost-sharing system.
It stopped being profitable the moment you could get the AP news without having to buy a newspaper. I can get all newspapers' information without buying a single newspaper, thanks to the friendly Associated Press.
But of course, newspapers don't have to take that lying down. They could refuse to give their news to the Associated Press (which hands it out on the virtual street corner for free). But publishers won't do that. Why? They'd have to drop the AP, and there's not a good alternative to low-cost inches of copy.
Each publisher, by acting on his own self-interest, is dooming all the other ones.
If publishers banded together, and forced the AP to stop selling its feed to publishers who will give the content away for free on the internet, then newspapers would instantly be useful again.
And highly profitable.
The solution is simple: Kill the AP.
Movertypeguy must not have been a publisher in a while. AP is far from cheap. It costs us more than $125,000 a year to keep the wire running at our newspaper, which serves an economically depressed market that have very little media competition.
We could barely afford that price, but AP is needed for its coverage of our state, region and nation -- not to mention its features, trend stories and investigative pieces. Killing it would be like shooting ourselves (and our nation's prime news source) directly in the heart.
So, Movertypeguy, your remedy is a non-remedy, just a simplistic, foolish comment.
What AP could probably use is competition, which it hasn't had in years when UPI was a dynamic, but unprofitable, wire service. CNN has talked about trying to fill that void and, in fact, I have seen ads recruiting newspeople for that venture.
I hope it works and provides a reasonable, cheaper alternative to AP. But, frankly, I somehow doubt that it can. Even though we all may have disagreements with AP, we are very fortunate to have it. As a longtime news executive, I don't anyone can match its quality and completeness.
Warren Buffet laughs
Warren Buffet laughs
because he has bought America cheap
He is a man who embraces his masks
Never showing us what is there
Your health co-pay goes up and Warren laughs
Your car insurance increases and Warren laughs
Movie ticket prices go up and Warren laughs
Airline fares increase and Warren laughs
Insidiousness comes in short/stout/off white
in this men's dept. always with a broad fake smile
Like your minister smiling
as he tells hermeneutic lies
Like your stockbroker smiling into the phone
as he touts another loser
Like your banker smiling gently
as he denies you a loan
Like your teacher smiling in pity
as you fail another test
Like the police smiling before the judge
as you await your fate
Warren Buffet laughs
He is a man who hides behind masks
because he has bought and sold losers
Dairy Queen, US Air, Disney, ABC,
Salomon, MickeyD's, GEICO and all the insurance companies
that with every 'loss' raise their premiums
Only to dump the cost always on us
Go ahead claim your hurricane loss in ‘Katrina’
He’ll probably tell you you’re not covered for flood damage
Ha…Ha…Ha…What about bond-fixing at Salomon or fraud at A.I.G.? Or those ‘Katrina’ victims left unpaid?
So what if hundreds of millions are squandered
Betting against the U.S. currency
Warren does what’s best for Warren
Yeah 9/11 was tragic the loss of life and all
allowing insurers and airlines and everyone to raise prices
to increase profit isn't that what it's all about?
And now ‘Warren’ tells us accept his ‘metrics’
And ‘It is time to buy!’ Great now that Warren and his ilk
Are the only ones who have any money
And everyone tells Mr. Warren Buffet how brilliant he is
And Warren continues to laugh at us.
Does anyone think that the only papers really going down are the ones that have a national focus?
Hear me out and help me out (I'm just speculating here, mostly).
Many of the papers tanking---NY TImes, Chicago Trib., etc.---are large papers that have long brought large national news home to their constituency. Now that the interwebs has caught on with you younguns', that is unnecessary.
However, papers that focus on local issues--issues that don't make national headlines---seem to be ok. I never hear stories about tabloids like the NY Post or Boston Herald on the brink---papers that proudly focus on the trashy but local scandals. And let's not forget the AM papers you see on the subway. Or, more importantly, your local hometown paper.
Ad revenues are down all around (thanks Craigslist and ebay), that is very true, so I don't think this is black and white. But I know my local paper is fine, and the aforementioned tabloids aren't bleeding, to my knowledge. It would seem the only papers disintegrating are ones who tried for Pulitzer-like power.
My local paper has an absolutely horrendous website---3 articles total posted there, that's it. And other small town papers have the same. But that seems to bolster them---the only way I can find out about local goings on is to buy the paper---I need to find out if the H.S. team won last night, or what the mayor said at the local charity event. But the NYTimes blacking out the Tea Parties? Heck, I can get around that with Google.
Then again, I could be wrong. Maybe the local ones are hurting, too. Any links guys?