Tulsa World Sold

[Townsend]

KOTV grabbed it:

Warren Buffett To Acquire Tulsa World Newspaper

http://www.newson6.com/story/21327256/bh-media-to-acquire-tulsa-world-newspaper?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[rdj]

Why can't you guys just give the poster a little credit?  If it was so obvious how come I've received four calls/texts from business people active in the community that are shocked?

If you can set aside the obvious posts that I believe are primarily looking for a reaction you'll find the poster provides great information.  I guess some people just can't resist being poked.

[Townsend]

Why can't you guys just give the poster a little credit?  If it was so obvious how come I've received four calls/texts from business people active in the community that are shocked?

If you can set aside the obvious posts that I believe are primarily looking for a reaction you'll find the poster provides great information.  I guess some people just can't resist being poked.

What are you talking about?

[swake]

Rumors? I hear you are one.

I suspect more fallout.

4 day a week paper?

When credit dries up....

I predicted fewer days of print in this very thread before you did. Big deal.

However, I've done some reading since this came out and Buffett is on a real newspaper buying binge. He now owns 80 newspapers and is buying more. He's said that he is committed to maintaining daily print papers. If someone else had bought the World we probably would have dropped to a 3-4 day printing. A lot of papers are going that way. Buffett feels that news has to be produced every day to for a newspaper to keep its relationship with its readers and that the content has to be locally focused. I agree with that but I'm not sure that requires an actual printed paper every day.

Buffett is going to pay wall route like what the World has already done. He's probably going to use centralized IT, web development, HR and other non local content groups to save money over what the local papers could do individually. Putting the papers together probably has value selling  adds nationally but with the ability to tailor messages to local markets. Advertisers love that. He could also string together all the papers and offer them all for a single fee nationally, I would pay some more than I do now for that.

[rdj]

What are you talking about?

Talking about you and others refusing to believe that Teatownclown has credible information about our little berg.

Many posters get so worked up about his opinions on politics that you can't process the good information he provides.

I don't even read the politics boards on this forum.  I click mark read and move on to other topics.  Am I alone in doing so?

[Townsend]

Talking about you and others refusing to believe that Teatownclown has credible information about our little berg.

Many posters get so worked up about his opinions on politics that you can't process the good information he provides.

I don't even read the politics boards on this forum.  I click mark read and move on to other topics.  Am I alone in doing so?

If his rumors and predictions proved more accurate, I might spend a little more time accepting them.

He would hardly care one way or another.

I'm sure your concern warms him.

The politics threads are mostly jokes with no opinions swaying anyone.  I understand why you skip them.

[Conan71]

Where's the mass hysteria about Buffett acquiring too much influence via media buyouts like Bain Crapital with Clear Channel, and Rupert Murdoch with his various acquisitions?

[Townsend]

Where's the mass hysteria about Buffett acquiring too much influence via media buyouts like Bain Crapital with Clear Channel, and Rupert Murdoch with his various acquisitions?

You think it'd do any good?

[carltonplace]

Talking about you and others refusing to believe that Teatownclown has credible information about our little berg.

Many posters get so worked up about his opinions on politics that you can't process the good information he provides.

I don't even read the politics boards on this forum.  I click mark read and move on to other topics.  Am I alone in doing so?

Yes, he is an insider and he has information that others don't have. Got it. I have little use for his broken clock "predictions" because they are either cryptic: "Tip of the Iceberg!" or overarching: "too many forks chasing too few mouths". His predictions are self-serving and his contempt of the city core is clear.

[rdj]

Yes, he is an insider and he has information that others don't have. Got it. I have little use for his broken clock "predictions" because they are either cryptic: "Tip of the Iceberg!" or overarching: "too many forks chasing too few mouths". His predictions are self-serving and his contempt of the city core is clear.

I never said he or anyone was an insider.

My take on internet forums is they're like the modern version of the cafe gossip table.  You know the one I'm talking about, the one that is always full of the same people day after day talking about the events of their town.  At that table you'll get plenty of opinions on politics, developments, people, all of it mostly hearsay, but in that conversation you're going to find a lot of truth and even some wisdom.

I don't believe everything I read here (or in print or television or radio for that matter) but I do keep it in mind when reading other sites or in conversation with other people.  If you learn to take a little from here, mixed with a little news media, mixed with TGOV and actually conversing in real life you can put together a pretty good idea of where things in this city are headed.

In my opinion, the majority of active posters on this board only believe something if it is linked from somewhere else on the internet or if the poster claims to be the developer, business owner, etc.  It is a funny mix here at Tulsa Now, a lot of optimism about the potential for Tulsa's future mixed with a whole lot of cynicism about who is carrying out plans and who here posts about it.

/endrant

[heironymouspasparagus]

I never said he or anyone was an insider.

My take on internet forums is they're like the modern version of the cafe gossip table.  You know the one I'm talking about, the one that is always full of the same people day after day talking about the events of their town.  At that table you'll get plenty of opinions on politics, developments, people, all of it mostly hearsay, but in that conversation you're going to find a lot of truth and even some wisdom.

I don't believe everything I read here (or in print or television or radio for that matter) but I do keep it in mind when reading other sites or in conversation with other people.  If you learn to take a little from here, mixed with a little news media, mixed with TGOV and actually conversing in real life you can put together a pretty good idea of where things in this city are headed.

In my opinion, the majority of active posters on this board only believe something if it is linked from somewhere else on the internet or if the poster claims to be the developer, business owner, etc.  It is a funny mix here at Tulsa Now, a lot of optimism about the potential for Tulsa's future mixed with a whole lot of cynicism about who is carrying out plans and who here posts about it.

/endrant

You have a crystal clear view of it.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Where's the mass hysteria about Buffett acquiring too much influence via media buyouts like Bain Crapital with Clear Channel, and Rupert Murdoch with his various acquisitions?

It's one of those perspective things.... like how stupid it was for all the whining, crying, and gnashing of teeth around here over a $500 million loss of Fed money to the solar company that went bankrupt.  When that same group of people was all over the spending of a couple trillion dollars for a contrived, false war.

Buffet has 80 media outlets - someone said earlier.  Murdoch has 80,000 or so media outlets in radio, tv, movies, probably papers - well, tabloids, anyway.

I will have the exact same proportional hysteria and outrage for this that I had over the Fed spending issues.  Not too much for the 500 being wasted when there is 1,000,000 being wasted.  Or twenty thousand times less hysteria for the solar subsidies and eight thousand times less hysteria for Buffet owning a block of papers.

[JCnOwasso]

Where's the mass hysteria about Buffett acquiring too much influence via media buyouts like Bain Crapital with Clear Channel, and Rupert Murdoch with his various acquisitions?

Knowing what I do about Buffett; Bain, CC and Mudoch are not in the same ballpark as him, heck there not even in the same country.  Buffett does not invest or buy a company because he thinks he can change the business model or he thinks he can flip it for a quick buck.  He is a long term investor.  He buys companies that already have a good thing going.  If they are in a solid position, he sees it at a safe investment.  Heck, go read his quarterly and annual reports.  He is very open about all of his stuff, including a big mess up with some company called General Re.

Of course, this is all said from the outside and based upon the information he releases.  So internally he could be just as bad as the rest, but I don't believe I have ever seen an old photo of him with a group of people flashing hundreds and I really don't believe I have ever heard about a scandel involving hacking.  He is a very reserved person and he was still driving a big ole Lincoln continental and living in the same house he bought in Omaha several decades ago, when I stop keeping up with him after I left FS.

[sgrizzle]

Buffett is going to pay wall route like what the World has already done. He's probably going to use centralized IT, web development, HR and other non local content groups to save money over what the local papers could do individually. Putting the papers together probably has value selling  adds nationally but with the ability to tailor messages to local markets. Advertisers love that. He could also string together all the papers and offer them all for a single fee nationally, I would pay some more than I do now for that.

Agreed on his plan. And I'm not happy with their current web/mobile offerings so I'm kinda happy with that part. I can't stand their iPad app. I am not an app developer but I'm pretty sure I've stayed at enough holiday inns to make a better ipad app than that. You can even tap on "continued on A-8" to get to the rest of an article. You have to pull out the menu, go to today's paper, go to section A, got page 8.. pancakes srsly

[Conan71]

Knowing what I do about Buffett; Bain, CC and Mudoch are not in the same ballpark as him, heck there not even in the same country.  Buffett does not invest or buy a company because he thinks he can change the business model or he thinks he can flip it for a quick buck.  He is a long term investor.  He buys companies that already have a good thing going.  If they are in a solid position, he sees it at a safe investment.  Heck, go read his quarterly and annual reports.  He is very open about all of his stuff, including a big mess up with some company called General Re.

Of course, this is all said from the outside and based upon the information he releases.  So internally he could be just as bad as the rest, but I don't believe I have ever seen an old photo of him with a group of people flashing hundreds and I really don't believe I have ever heard about a scandel involving hacking.  He is a very reserved person and he was still driving a big ole Lincoln continental and living in the same house he bought in Omaha several decades ago, when I stop keeping up with him after I left FS.

A satirical stab at media influence, not how someone runs or tanks a business is what I was getting at.  From a pure historical perspective, if BH actually now owns 80 dailies, that would be more than WH Hearst owned at the height of his empire in the 19 teens.

You apparently took my post more serious than intended.  During the election, supposedly we couldn't count on Clear Channel to give us the straight scoop on Mitt Romney since Bain owned them.  Murdoch has been a favorite bogeyman of the left for quite a few years now.