Warren Buffett’s media group to buy the Roanoke Times

Published May 30, 2013 by Paula C. Squires

The Roanoke Times joined a growing list of BH Media Group-owned properties in Virginia Thursday with the announcement that a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will buy the newspaper on Friday.

BH Media Group, based out of Omaha, Neb., said in a news release that it would purchase the Times for an undisclosed amount from Landmark Media Enterprises in Norfolk, which also owns The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

The deal gives BH Media a growing presence in Virginia. It purchased the Richmond Times-Dispatch, along with seven other daily newspapers in Virginia last year. One of those publications, the News & Messenger in Manassas, has since been closed.

The company also purchased the Greensboro News & Record, the third largest newspaper in North Carolina, earlier this year.

The circulation of the Roanoke Times is about 90,000 copies on Sunday and 76,000 during the week. The newspaper employs about 300 people. BH Media has named Terry Jamerson as the new publisher of the Roanoke Times. He will replace Debbie Meade. Jamerson is a former publisher of the Lynchburg, Va., News and Advance.

“I’m looking forward to working with the team at The Roanoke Times, which is truly one of Virginia’s outstanding newspapers and digital enterprises, “ Jamerson said in a statement.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger and acquisition firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Landmark Media Enterprises in the transaction.
It said the acquisition was announced today at an employee meeting by Landmark Chairman and CEO Frank Batten Jr. Landmark has owned the Roanoke Times since 1969.

BH Media owns 29 daily newspapers and other weekly papers in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma.