The Buffalo News

The Buffalo News

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Lee Enterprises (2020–present) Berkshire Hathaway (1977–2020) Butler family (1873–1977)
Publisher	Tom Wiley
Editor	Sheila Rayam
Founded	October 11, 1880; 143 years ago (1880-10-11) as the Buffalo Evening News
Headquarters	Buffalo
Circulation	69,842 Daily 89,694 Sunday (as of 2023)
ISSN	0745-2691
OCLC number	8882862
Website	buffalonews.com

It was for decades the only paper fully owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. On January 29, 2020, the paper reported that it was being sold to Lee Enterprises.

 

 

The News was founded in 1873 by Edward Hubert Butler, Sr. as a Sunday paper. On October 11, 1880, it began publishing daily editions as well, and in 1914, it became an inversion of its original existence by publishing Monday to Saturday, with no publication on Sunday. During most of its life, the News was known as The Buffalo Evening News. A gentleman's agreement between the Evening News and the Buffalo Courier-Express meant that the Evening News would be evening-only, and the Courier-Express would be morning-only. Until 1977, the News did not publish on Sundays because of the agreement, and its weekend edition appeared on Saturday evening.

The Butler family owned the Evening News until 1974, when longtime owner and publisher Katherine Butler, granddaughter of the founder, died and left no heirs. The Evening News properties were placed in a blind trust, which sold the Evening News to Berkshire Hathaway in 1977. The new owners began publishing on Saturday and Sunday mornings. After a period of financial decline, the Courier-Express published its last issue on September 19, 1982. The Evening News then shortened its name to The Buffalo News and became an all-day newspaper, publishing two editions seven days a week.

On October 1, 2006, the News announced it would abandon its evening edition later that month.

 

The Buffalo News had published three morning editions (Western New York, Final and Niagara) that appeared online at BuffaloNews.com, reaching over 400,000 readers, across eight counties each day. These separate editions were eliminated in 2018 and consolidated into a single Final edition, in response to a newsprint shortage.

The News' Designated Market Area had the largest adult population in upstate New York. Counties in total circulation area: New York - Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Steuben, Wyoming; Pennsylvania - Cameron, Erie, McKean, Potter, Warren.^{[citation needed]}

The newspaper founded and owned the WBEN television and radio stations, which are now WIVB (Channel 4), WBEN (930), WYRK (106.5) and WBKV (102.5), respectively. The radio stations are now owned by other companies, but in 2014, WIVB came back under partial co-ownership with the News when Buffett's Media General merged with the WIVB parent company, LIN Media.

The online version of The Buffalo News operates under a soft paywall allowing a limited number of page views per week. All Buffalo Bills-related content, branded as "BN Blitz", is behind a hard paywall.

On January 29, 2020, the News reported it was being sold along – with the rest of Berkshire Hathaway's newspaper portfolio – to Lee Enterprises, an Iowa-based owner of 50 newspapers that has had significant ties to Berkshire Hathaway since 2012 and had operated Berkshire Hathaway's newspapers since 2018.

Journalists for The Buffalo News and The Buffalo Evening News have won four Pulitzer Prizes:

• In 1958, Bruce Shanks received the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for his August 10, 1957 piece, "The Thinker", detailing union corruption.
• In 1961, Edgar May received the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for his series, "Our Costly Dilemma," concerning the need for reform of New York State's welfare system. The series touched off debates about welfare reform nationwide.
• In 1990, Tom Toles brought the News its second Editorial Cartooning award, for his work throughout the year (although his piece "First Amendment" has been cited as the work that merited the award).
• In 2015, Adam Zyglis won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for using, in the committee's citation, "strong images to connect with readers while conveying layers of meaning in few words".

News journalists have been finalists for three other Pulitzer Prizes, but did not win:

• Toles (1985 and 1996, for Editorial Cartooning) and,
• James Heaney (1993, for Investigative Reporting).

Publishers

• Edward Hubert Butler, Sr., 1880–1914: also founder
• Edward Hubert Butler Jr., 1914–1956: son of Butler Sr
• James H. Righter, 1956–1971
• Kate M. Robinson Butler, 1971–1974: wife of Butler Jr
• Henry Z. Urban, 1974–1983
• Stanford Lipsey, 1983–2013
• Warren T. Colville, 2013–2020
• Tom Wiley, 2020–

Editors

• Alfred H. Kirchhofer, 1956–1966
• Paul E. Neville, 1966–1969
• Murray B. Light, 1979–1999
• Margaret M. Sullivan, 1999—2012
• Michael K. Connelly, 2012–2022
• Sheila Rayam, 2022–