Warren Buffett's Company Makes a 'Surprising' Move

Six years after Warren Buffett sold off all of Berkshire Hathaway's newspapers and predicted unending declines for most of the industry, Berkshire disclosed a new $350 million investment in the New York Times on Tuesday, the AP reports. The somewhat surprising move highlighted the quarterly update Berkshire filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission about the company's stock holdings in Buffett's last quarter as CEO. Berkshire also increased its investment in Chevron just before President Trump ordered the arrest of Venezuela's president, and the Omaha-based company continued selling off more of its Bank of America and Apple shares.

At the time Buffett sold off Berkshire's dozens of newspapers in 2020 he concluded the industry was "toast." But even then he suggested that newspapers with a national brand like the Times or the Wall Street Journal might still do well. "It's a full circle moment for Berkshire Hathaway in reinvesting in news and a huge vote of confidence by Berkshire in the business strategy of the New York Times," said Tim Franklin, a professor and chair of local news at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Franklin said the Times may have its roots in the newspaper business, but today it's a thriving digital business with popular games like Wordle, a well-known sports platform called The Athletic and more than 12 million digital subscribers. He said maybe struggling local newspapers can draw some lessons from the "digital news powerhouse" the Times has become and find ways to offer online games and showcase the local sports coverage that readers can't get elsewhere.

These quarterly stock portfolio filings don't make clear whether Buffett made every move or whether one of Berkshire's other investment managers did. Buffett generally handled any investments worth more than $1 billion, so at the size of this Times investment it's not certain whether this was one of his bets. But many investors will still try to copy it because of Buffett's remarkable track record over the decades before he handed the CEO title over to Greg Abel in January after six decades of leading Berkshire. Shares of the Times jumped nearly 3% in after hours trading after Berkshire disclosed the stake.