Buffett offers bleak outlook for US newspapers

OMAHA, United States: Warren Buffett is fond of newspapers - he reads five a day - but the billionaire investor warned shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc that the reeling industry may never recover because it lacks a sustainable business model.

At Saturday's annual meeting of Berkshire, which owns the Buffalo News and has a big stake in Washington Post Co, Buffett said that as readership falls, so does the attraction of newspapers for advertisers, and for investors in the companies that publish them.

"For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price," Buffett said. "They have the possibility of nearly unending losses. ... I do not see anything on the horizon that sees that erosion coming to an end."