SHOOT: The problem is that newspapers have become highly substitutable. There's radio, television, and of course the internet. Besides this, no one knows any more what news is and the newspapers themselves aren't sure. Some newspapers have sold out to the public, becoming tabloid caricatures of news, while others have tried to become magazines. Well, if you want to read a magazine you can always buy a magazine. Originally newspapers used to provide a public service. Guess what. Blogs are doing that. If you want some useful newsy info visit the Huffington Post, or Politico...on Energy you visit The Oil Drum.
The Future: By harnessing the power of the sun, electrical power will become more available around the world. That will help humans turn sea water into fresh water and eliminate environmental problems, Mr. Munger explained. "If you have enough energy you can solve a lot of other problems." - Yahoo.com
SHOOT: I disagree. The energy problem is a much tougher nut to crack than most people realise, and oil is a far more special and magical endowment than we give it credit. There is very little sunshine in one day's energy. Of course a drop of oil represents hundreds if not thousands of days of solar energy distilled into a dense liquid energy matrix.
Mr. Buffett has long held himself out as a newspaper man. As a child, one of his first jobs was delivering newspapers. An Omaha newspaper Berkshire owned, Sun Newspapers, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 based in part on a tip Mr. Buffett provided. One of Berkshire's biggest investments in the 1970s was the Buffalo News, which it still owns.
But his view on the future of the newspaper industry is dismal. "For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price," he said. "They have the possibility of going to just unending losses."
As long as newspapers were essential to readers, they were essential to advertisers, he said. But news is now available in many other venues, he said.
Berkshire has a substantial investment in Washington Post Co. He said the company has a solid cable business, a good reason to hold on to it, but its newspaper business is in trouble.
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