Warren Buffett adds Texas daily Eagle newspaper to his newspaper empire

Warren Buffett's investment arm Berkshire Hathaway Inc yesterday announced that it will buy the Bryan-College Station Eagle newspaper from the Evening Post Publishing Co, for an undisclosed sum, adding the small Texas daily to his newspaper empire.

Berkshire Hathaway, which owns the Omaha World-Herald Co, will add the 123-year-old Eagle that has a circulation of 20,000.
 
Evening Post Publishing Co had acquired the Eagle from Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp in 2001 and after running the paper till now, the Charleston, South Carolina-based publisher said in May this year that it would be selling the paper to help the company meet other objectives.
 
''We're delighted to have the Bryan-College Station Eagle join our growing family of newspapers. We have admired this market for many years, with its great assets led by Texas A&M University,'' said Terry Kroeger, CEO of the Omaha World-Herald Co.

Privately held Evening Post owns 14 newspapers, including The Post and Courier, 13 television stations and South Carolina timberland.

Two years ago, Buffett, once a newspaper delivery boy, told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that most US newspapers could face unending losses and that he would not think of buying most of them.

Although most analysts do not see long-term value of the print media, Buffett has now reversed his opinion and has defended newspapers, saying that they will have a decent future if they continue delivering information that cannot be found elsewhere.

Buffett has recently been buying small and medium-sized newspapers in areas with a strong community bonding.

In May, he bought 63 newspapers from Media General Inc for $142 million, (See: Warren Buffet to buy 63 newspapers from Media General) and recently revealed that he owns about 3.2 per cent of Lee Enterprises, which publishes the Journal Star and other newspapers.

Berkshire also owns the Buffalo News, and a large stake in the Washington Post Co.