4 ms·

Although he doesn't mention it here, Berkshire also owns about 18% of the Washington Post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshire_Hatha

by loumf 14y ago

Although he doesn't mention it here, Berkshire also owns about 18% of the Washington Post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshire_Hathaway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshi... Not sure if this is related at all, but Adrian Holovaty (co-creator of Django, founder of EveryBlock) also worked at the Washington Post -- he has been a big proponent of the hyper-local strategy for Newspapers (the original reason why Django was developed). Probably a coincidence, but maybe there's some latent hyper-local vibe in the halls of the Washington Post.

adestefan 14y ago
Berkshire bought into the Washington Post Company because of Kaplan, not the newspaper division.
VonGuard 14y ago
Yer absolutely right. Hyper local is the only way to win as a newspaper. Sure, you can just reprint the AP stories on the big international news of each day, but a better tactic is to post pictures of locals on the front page, and to let them voice their opinions in the op-eds and column sections. An Ohio paper did this just right a number of years ago, though I forget which city it was. It wasn't the Cox News towns, so not Dayton... Anyway, this local Ohio paper's tactic was to replace its business section with a "Mothers" section, with info for local mothers, like day-care news, preschool listings, parenting tips, and info on places to take toddlers during the day. It worked extremely well, and the paper then opened an online forum for these Mothers, who then became the most common users of their Website. I'm a journalist, as some of you may know. The thing that really makes a printed outlet work is its readers. They should be able to be a community, in the physical sense, rather than the social network sense. It's tough for magazines to make meatspace reader conncetions, as they are national. But local newspapers, they're a perfect place to build local communities.
- loumf 14y ago
  In "Made to Stick", they profile a newspaper called "The Daily Record" in Dunn, North Carolina. Their penetration into their local area is 112%. Quote from the owner: "The fact is, a local newspaper can never get enough local names. I'd happily hire two more typesetters and add two more pages in every edition of each paper if we had the names to fill them up." Look at the front page http://www.mydailyrecord.com http://www.mydailyrecord.com All local stories (and a pay wall -- perhaps the future of Berkshire owned papers)
eli 14y ago
Here's a length how-the-sausage-is-made article about the Washington Post and their struggle with being a national vs local paper. I think the tl;dr is that they're trying to refocus on the Washington, DC area but IMHO as a DC resident, I don't think they are yet succeeding. http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/04/washington-post-watergate.print http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/04/washington-post-w...

by loumf 14y ago

adestefan 14y ago

Berkshire bought into the Washington Post Company because of Kaplan, not the newspaper division.

VonGuard 14y ago

Yer absolutely right. Hyper local is the only way to win as a newspaper. Sure, you can just reprint the AP stories on the big international news of each day, but a better tactic is to post pictures of locals on the front page, and to let them voice their opinions in the op-eds and column sections. An Ohio paper did this just right a number of years ago, though I forget which city it was. It wasn't the Cox News towns, so not Dayton... Anyway, this local Ohio paper's tactic was to replace its business section with a "Mothers" section, with info for local mothers, like day-care news, preschool listings, parenting tips, and info on places to take toddlers during the day. It worked extremely well, and the paper then opened an online forum for these Mothers, who then became the most common users of their Website. I'm a journalist, as some of you may know. The thing that really makes a printed outlet work is its readers. They should be able to be a community, in the physical sense, rather than the social network sense. It's tough for magazines to make meatspace reader conncetions, as they are national. But local newspapers, they're a perfect place to build local communities.

loumf 14y ago
In "Made to Stick", they profile a newspaper called "The Daily Record" in Dunn, North Carolina. Their penetration into their local area is 112%. Quote from the owner: "The fact is, a local newspaper can never get enough local names. I'd happily hire two more typesetters and add two more pages in every edition of each paper if we had the names to fill them up." Look at the front page http://www.mydailyrecord.com http://www.mydailyrecord.com All local stories (and a pay wall -- perhaps the future of Berkshire owned papers)

eli 14y ago

Here's a length how-the-sausage-is-made article about the Washington Post and their struggle with being a national vs local paper. I think the tl;dr is that they're trying to refocus on the Washington, DC area but IMHO as a DC resident, I don't think they are yet succeeding. http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/04/washington-post-watergate.print http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/04/washington-post-w...