The Motley Fool – Earlier this month, Warren Buffett bought some newspaper titles through his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. This surprised many people, both inside and outside the industry, because the newspaper business isn’t what it used to be.
During the last decade, people have increasingly been getting their news from other sources, especially the Internet, which has caused a sharp decline in both the number of papers sold and the associated advertising revenues. The result is that the share prices of the quoted newspaper companies have generally plummeted. Shares in Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Daily Mirror and some 240 regional papers, are down by almost 94% over the last 10 years. Johnston Press, publisher of The Scotsman, has done even worse with a 98% fall.
