The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) has touched on a variety of topics, ranging from a busy year for newspaper transactions to the struggles of AOL's hyper-local Patch websites. The database -provides detailed statistics on the companies that now own our nation's news media outlets, from newspapers to local television news stations to radio to digital. The transactions continued in 2012. According to PEJ, Warren Buffett's Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Co. gobbled up 63 newspapers, including 23 dailies, in May from the debt-ridden Media General Co., creating a major new player in the industry. The flurry of paper sales activity seems odd at a time when most papers are distancing themselves from print and putting a heavier emphasis on digital. The Berkshire Hathaway purchase also capped a period of intense change in US newspaper ownership. In the past 18 months, many better-known newspaper companies sold off most or all of their holdings while a number of new entities, including hedge funds and private equity firms, jumped in.
