Buffett offers bleak outlook for US newspapers

OMAHA, Neb., (Reuters) – Warren Buffett is fond of  newspapers — he reads five a day — but the billionaire  investor warned shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc    that the reeling industry may never recover because it lacks  a sustainable business model.

At Saturday’s annual meeting of Berkshire, which owns the  Buffalo News and has a big stake in Washington Post Co, Buffett  said that as readership falls, so does the attraction of  newspapers for advertisers, and for investors in the companies  that publish them.

“For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy  them at any price,” Buffett said. “They have the possibility of  nearly unending losses. … I do not see anything on the  horizon that sees that erosion coming to an end.”

Many U.S. newspapers have lost 20 percent or more of their  advertising revenue as changes in technology and reading habits  shrink circulation and more readers to get their news online.

Several newspapers in large U.S. cities have closed in  recent months, and the future of the money-losing Boston Globe,  owned by The New York Times Co, remains up in the air.