Lee Enterprises to acquire Berkshire Hathaway Media for $140m.

Lee Enterprises, a local news provider and platform for advertising in 50 markets, agreed to acquire Berkshire Hathaway Media, newspaper operations of Berkshire Hathaway, for $140m. Berkshire Hathaway is providing approximately $576m in long-term financing to Lee at a 9% annual rate. “My partner Charlie Munger and I have known and admired the Lee organization for over 40 years. They have delivered exceptional performance managing BH Media’s newspapers and continue to outpace the industry in digital market share and revenue. We had zero interest in selling the group to anyone else for one simple reason: We believe that Lee is best positioned to manage through the industry’s challenges. No organization is more committed to serving the vital role of high-quality local news, however delivered, as Lee. I am confident that our newspapers will be in the right hands going forward and I also am pleased to be deepening our long-term relationship with Lee through the financing agreement,” Warren E. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO.