The Buffalo News
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Lee Enterprises (2020–present)

Berkshire Hathaway (1977–2020)

Butler family (1873–1977)
PublisherTom Wiley
EditorSheila Rayam[1]
FoundedOctober 11, 1880 (1880-10-11) as the Buffalo Evening News
HeadquartersBuffalo
Circulation56,120 Daily
84,370 Sunday (as of 2022)[2]
ISSN0745-2691
OCLC number8882862
Websitebuffalonews.com

The Buffalo News is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York.

It was for decades the only paper fully owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.[3] On January 29, 2020, the paper reported that it was being sold to Lee Enterprises.[4]

History

Buffalo Evening News paper boys in February 1910
Logo in 2003

The News was founded in 1873 by Edward Hubert Butler, Sr. as a Sunday paper.[5] On October 11, 1880,[6] 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.[7] The Evening News properties were placed in a blind trust, which sold the Evening News to Berkshire Hathaway in 1977.[3] The new owners began publishing on Saturday and Sunday mornings.[5] 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.

Buffalo News building

The Buffalo News had published three morning editions (Western New York, Final and Niagara) that appear 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.[8] 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.

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 separate companies (WBEN by Audacy, WYRK by Townsquare Media, WBKV by Educational Media Foundation), but in 2014, WIVB came back under partial coownership, 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.[4]

Pulitzer Prizes

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

  • In 1958, Bruce Shanks received the Editorial Cartooning award for his August 10, 1957 piece, "The Thinker", detailing union corruption.
  • In 1961, Edgar May received the Local Reporting award 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 2002 Toles moved to The Washington Post, where he succeeded the late Herbert Block, known as Herblock. Toles retired in 2020.)
  • 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).

Other journalists who won awards include Richard J. Burke, who in 1972 won the New York State Associated Press Award for his series of articles about bicycling around Western New York.

Past publishers and editors

  • Edward Hubert Butler, Sr. - Publisher, 1880 - 1914: founder
  • Edward Hubert Butler Jr. - Publisher, 1914 - 1956: son of Butler Sr
  • James H. Righter - Publisher, 1956 - 1971
  • Kate M. Robinson Butler - Publisher, 1971 - 1974: wife of Butler Jr
  • Henry Z. Urban - Publisher, 1974 - 1983
  • Stanford Lipsey - Publisher, 1983 - 2013
  • Alfred H. Kirchhofer - Editor, 1956 - 1966
  • Paul E. Neville - Editor, 1966 - 1969
  • Murray B. Light - Editor, 1979 - 1999
  • Margaret M. Sullivan - Editor, 1999 - 2012
  • Michael K. Connelly - Editor, 2012–2022[9]
  • Warren T. Colville - Publisher, 2013–2020

Only three members of the Butler family were publishers.

References

  1. ↑ Harris, Jon (26 July 2022). "Sheila Rayam named executive editor of The Buffalo News; first Black journalist to lead newsroom". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  2. ↑ Lee Enterprises. "Form 10-K". investors.lee.net. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "EXCLUSIVE: Warren Buffett — Newspaper Industry Got Too Complacent". Editor & Publisher. December 14, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
  4. 1 2 Robinson, David (January 29, 2020). "The Buffalo News is being sold to Lee Enterprises". The Buffalo News. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Frequently Asked Questions Archived 2011-03-28 at the Wayback Machine, www.buffalonews.com
  6. ↑ "About Buffalo Evening News. [volume] (Buffalo, N.Y.) 1880-1982". Library of Congress. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  7. ↑ "Mrs. Edward H. Butler, News Publisher, is Dead; a Civic, Cultural Leader". Buffalo Evening News. 5 August 1974. Retrieved 16 March 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ James Fink (May 23, 2018). "Nine Buffalo News staffers take buyout offers". Buffalo Business First. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  9. ↑ Gee, Denise Jewell (18 September 2012). "Sarasota editor named Buffalo News editor". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata
  • Media related to The Buffalo News at Wikimedia Commons
  • As of September 2022, New York State Historic Newspapers has 1881-1905 issues of the Buffalo Evening News online for free, full-text access, with more to come.
  • As of October 2022, Newspapers.com has 1881-2022 issues of the Buffalo News online on a paid subscription basis. Some public and academic libraries offer Newspapers.com to their users.
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