Buffett Says Free News Is Unsustainable, May Buy More Papers By Zachary Tracer - 2012-05-24T16:15:45Z Enlarge image Buffett Says Free News Is Unsustainable, May Buy More Pape Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, in Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 14, 2011. Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, in Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 14, 2011. Photographer: Nati Harnik/AP Photo Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) struck a deal this month to acquire 63 newspapers, said he may buy more publications as the industry rethinks whether to offer free content on the Internet. “This is an unsustainable model and certain of our papers are already making progress in moving to something that makes more sense,” Buffett wrote in a letter to editors and ... Continue reading →
The news is spreading here in New Orleans and across the journalism world: the fabled Times-Picayune, as we all know it, may cease to exist. Visitors tour Hurricane Katrina front pages from The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans and the Sun Herald of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, as part of the 'Covering Katrina' exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, DC. (Image credit: AFP via @daylife) Writing in The New York Times, David Carr gave details in today’s edition of what seems to have been a closely guarded secret. According to his sources, Newhouse Newspapers, a division of Advance Publications, the Times-Pic’s owner, plans to discontinue the daily paper and embrace the model that it used in Ann Arbor, Mich. That means relying heavily on the ... Continue reading →
Hey, Germany: You Got a Bailout, Too Illustration by Bloomberg View By the Editors 2012-05-23T23:00:00Z In the millions of words written about Europe’s debt crisis, Germany is typically cast as the responsible adult and Greece as the profligate child. Prudent Germany, the narrative goes, is loath to bail out freeloading Greece, which borrowed more than it could afford and now must suffer the consequences. Would it surprise you to know that Europe’s taxpayers have provided as much financial support to Germany as they have to Greece? An examination of European money flows and central-bank balance sheets suggests this is so. Let’s begin with the observation that irresponsible borrowers can’t exist without irresponsible lenders. Germany’s banks were Greece’s enablers. Thanks partly to lax regulation, German banks ... Continue reading →
About Clive Crook Clive Crook is a Bloomberg View columnist and member of the Bloomberg View editorial board. His column appears on Thursdays. A former chief Washington commentator of the 'Financial Times,' he previously worked at 'The Economist.' More about Clive Crook The arc of Europe’s postwar history is turning toward tragedy. It isn’t just that much of the continent has fallen into a new Great Depression, or that in some countries things will get worse before they get better. It isn’t even that the whole mess was avoidable. It’s that the crisis is dividing Europe along the very lines the European project was intended to erase. Decades of cliches about European solidarity and the European idea are being held up to ridicule. The argument ... Continue reading →
Enjoy launching mean and unwarranted attacks against fellow Internet commenters today because the anonymous cyber-bullying free-for-all may be coming to an end for New Yorkers. Identical bills in both houses of the New York State Legislature would require all New York–based websites to “remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.” If the bill passes, websites would be required to provide a toll-free number or e-mail address where people could report cyber-bullying. After receiving a complaint, websites would need to contact the original commenter and inform them that their post will be deleted if they don't identify themselves within 48 hours. Republican Assemblyman Peter Lopez, who ... Continue reading →
May 22, 2012, 2:09 amPreppy Street Style in Forest Hills By SIMONE S. OLIVERThis week, we went to Austin Street and Continental Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens. Austin Street is a hub within this quiet, residential neighborhood filled with Tudor homes and apartment buildings. It’s also home to a strip of boutiques, restaurants and bars that attracts patrons from neighboring areas like Middle Village and Jamaica. Highlighting looks and inspiration from the pavement. In this pocket of Queens, khakis and plaid shirts are as common as Juicy Couture sweat pants and Dooney & Bourke bags.Joseph Jameson’s chocolate brown suede oxfords with cobalt trim caught our eye from a block away. And early in our conversation with Mr. Jameson, we learned of his love affair with ... Continue reading →
