The Buffalo News
 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Publisher | Warren T. Colville |
| Editor | Mike Connelly[1] |
| Founded | 1880 |
| Headquarters |
1 News Plaza Buffalo, New York 14203 United States |
| Circulation |
138,895 Daily 204,504 Sunday[2] |
| Website | www.buffalonews.com |
The Buffalo News is a newspaper of the Buffalo – Niagara Falls metropolitan area.
It was for decades the only newspaper fully owned by Berkshire Hathaway.[3]
History
The News was founded in 1873 by Edward Hubert Butler, Sr. as a Sunday paper.[4] In 1880, the News began publishing daily editions as well, and in 1914, became an inversion of its original existence by publishing Monday through Saturday only, 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 just that, while the Courier-Express would be a morning-only paper. Until 1977, the News did not publish on Sundays, as per this agreement with the Courier, and its weekend edition appeared on Saturday evening.
In 1977, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased the Evening News,[3] and began publishing on Saturday and Sunday mornings.[4] After a period of financial decline, the Courier-Express published its last issue on September 19, 1982. That year, the Evening News shortened its name to The Buffalo News and until 2006, published morning and evening editions. On October 1, 2006, the News announced it would abandon its afternoon edition later that month, and publish only a morning issue.
Today, The Buffalo News publishes three editions every morning (Western New York, Final and Niagara) and appears online at BuffaloNews.com reaching over 400,000 readers across eight counties each day. The News Designated Market Area had the largest adult population in Upstate New York. Counties in total circulation area: New York - Allegheny, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Steuben, Wyoming; Pennsylvania - Cameron, Erie, McKean, Potter, Warren.
The newspaper founded and formerly owned the WBEN television and radio stations, which are now WIVB (Channel 4), WBEN (930), WYRK (106.5) and WTSS (102.5), respectively. The radio stations are now owned by separate companies (WBEN and WTSS are now held by Entercom; WYRK by Townsquare Media), but in 2014, WIVB came back under partial co-ownership with the News when Buffett's Media General merged with WIVB parent company LIN Media.
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). (Toles currently serves as an editorial cartoonist with The Washington Post, where he succeeded the late Herbert Block, known as Herblock.)
- 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 a/k/a Dick 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
Three members of the Butler family have been publisher.
- Edward H. Butler - Publisher, 1880 - 1914: founder
- Edward H. 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 Sr and mother 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
References
- ↑ Gee, Denise Jewell (18 September 2012). "Sarasota editor named Buffalo News editor". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
- ↑ "2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation" (PDF). BurrellesLuce. 2007-03-31. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
- 1 2 "EXCLUSIVE: Warren Buffett — Newspaper Industry Got Too Complacent". Editor & Publisher. December 14, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
- 1 2 Frequently Asked Questions, www.buffalonews.com
