Buffett's Company Invests in The New York Times, Six Years After Selling Off Newspaper Assets
Six years ago, Warren Buffett sold all of Berkshire Hathaway’s newspaper assets and predicted that most areas of the newspaper industry would continue to decline. This Tuesday, Berkshire disclosed a new $350 million investment in The New York Times.
This somewhat unexpected move was revealed in Berkshire’s quarterly holdings update filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for Buffett’s final quarter as CEO. In addition, just before President Trump ordered the arrest of Venezuela’s president, Berkshire increased its holdings in Chevron; the Omaha-based company also continued to reduce its positions in Bank of America and Apple.
When Buffett sold dozens of Berkshire-owned newspapers in 2020, he asserted that the newspaper industry had reached a dead end. However, even then, he believed that national brand newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal could still perform well.
“For Berkshire Hathaway, reinvesting in the news business is a return to its roots; this is also a strong endorsement of The New York Times’ business strategy by Berkshire,” said Tim Franklin, professor and director of the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Franklin noted that while The New York Times originated as a newspaper, it is now a thriving digital business: it owns popular games like Wordle, the well-known sports platform The Athletic, and has over 12 million digital subscribers. He believes that struggling local newspapers can learn from this “digital news giant” by launching online games and developing local sports coverage that readers cannot get elsewhere.
The quarterly holdings filing did not specify whether this investment decision was made by Buffett himself or by other Berkshire investment managers. Buffett typically handles investments over $1 billion, so it is not yet certain whether the Times investment was made by him.
However, given Buffett’s outstanding track record over his sixty years at the helm of Berkshire—even though he handed over the CEO position to Greg Abel in January this year—many investors are likely to follow this move. After Berkshire disclosed its holdings, The New York Times’ stock price surged nearly 3% in after-hours trading.
This quarter, Berkshire also increased its holdings in Chevron by about 8 million shares, bringing its total to over 130 million shares. The timing of this bet was precise—after Trump promised to revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry, Chevron’s stock price soared; Buffett has long been optimistic about the oil sector, and Berkshire has been a major investor in both Chevron and Occidental Petroleum for years.
Chevron is the only major U.S. oil company with significant operations in Venezuela, producing about 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The company first invested in Venezuela in the 1920s and operates through a joint venture with the country’s state-owned oil company PDVSA. Since early 2026 and before the U.S. raid and arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro, Chevron’s stock had already risen nearly 19%.
In the last three months of 2025, other significant Berkshire actions included reducing its holdings in Bank of America by about 50 million shares, though it still holds nearly 81 million shares—Buffett first bought the stock in 2011 when Bank of America was hit by the subprime mortgage crisis; at the same time, Berkshire reduced its Apple holdings by about 10 million shares, still holding nearly 228 million shares at the end of last year.
In addition to stocks, Berkshire wholly owns dozens of companies, including insurance giant GEICO, several large utilities, BNSF Railway, as well as DQ, See’s Candies, and many other manufacturing and retail brands.
Editor: Guo Mingyu
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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