Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and president of Wehco Media.
You may have heard around town that Warren Buffett has his eye on buying the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, or perhaps all of Wehco Media Inc.
But Wehco Chairman and Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter Hussman says it ain’t so.
Buffett, the oracle of Omaha who became a billionaire many times over as chief of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., surprised a lot of folks in his 2013 letter to stockholders in explaining why he was buying newspapers.
They “reign supreme in the delivery of local news,” he wrote. “If you want to know what’s going on in your town — whether the news is about the mayor or taxes or high school football — there is no substitute for a local newspaper that is doing its job.”
He added, however, that newspapers had been eroding their own business model by giving away content on the internet. He praised those who hadn’t.
“The Wall Street Journal went to a pay model early,” Buffett said. “But the main exemplar for local papers is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, published by Walter Hussman.”
Hussman says he is friendly with Buffett, but the rumor is years old and untrue.
“He contacted me a few years ago and asked me some questions about why we didn’t give away content,” Hussman wrote in an email last week. “He invited me to come to Omaha for lunch, and I attended the annual meeting the year he had mentioned us in his annual letter. We have stayed in touch since then.” But …
“He has never once asked about acquiring our paper or newspapers. And we are not interested in selling them.”
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