What Warren Buffett and I have in common

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett

It looks like Warren Buffett and I have something in common. No, we're not both filthy rich, but it appears we both have a belief in community newspapers.

Buffet, who in 2009 said he would not buy a newspaper under any circumstance, has changed his tune, as evidenced by this story: http://paidcontent.org/2012/05/17/why-warren-buffett-is-buying-newspapers/. Given that the newspaper industry has been in an open boat in the middle of an unfriendly ocean for several years, this has to be taken as good news. Or does it?

Buffett, who according to legend started Berkshire Hathaway with $4,000 he made as a paperboy in Omaha, did not make a fortune by being sentimental. For those of you who've stayed on this page rather than going to the link (or as newspaper people would call it, the "jump"), here are a few observations and comments that got my attention:

The experience of small towns and counties has been different. In these places, a lack of print and online competition has allowed newspapers to hold onto some of their traditional monopoly power.
“In these communities, the local paper is the sole source of everyday news — from high school sports, local events or obituaries,” says Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal and founder of digital subscription service, Press+.

Gordon Borrell (comment): (Newspapers) will bounce back. That prediction (which we thought would happen last year) is starting to come true, though it’s actually predicted to be more of a flattening than a bounceback. While they grow ad revenues over the next five years, they actually lose market share. Still, all the trimming since 2008 has made them a leaner, and thus more profitable, business. ... The size of newspapers Mr. Buffett is buying are perfect: Dominant newspapers in midsize markets with very little competition from smaller suburban newspapers. They have a strong market niche, and I don’t suspect we’ll see the death of newspapers (with the exception, perhaps, of large metros) anytime soon.

Dmitriy (comment): I don’t get Buffet on this move. He may get a modest profit given how low price he had to pay but this is not the business you want to be in if you want to keep minting the coins for the shareholders for years to come.

Ballco (comment): What you don’t understand is the great cash flow from old media products. Newspaper subscribers pay you 3 to 12 months in advance. That lets you keep a large amount of cash around to invest. Buffett doesn’t seem to have any problem finding profitable places to put cash. 10-year Treasury bills are paying 1.7% right now. 5% return for 10 years from the newspapers seems like a pretty good alternative.

Matthew (comment): Commenters and commentators may come to the internet, but without quality content and trust within the community they will not pose a threat to the position of newspapers (at least for mindshare among readers).

Tony McFarlane (comment): Now the speculators have lifted their bloody snouts from the trough, and they see these smaller papers doing just fine. So what do they do? They bundle them with bigger media entities, and make off like bandits. I gotta hand it to Buffet for being the first to see it, because soon, like carpetbaggers in Atlanta, the rest of the vulture capitalists will soon swarm in and swallow up all these local papers that communities do indeed rely on. And what will happen to these bastions of truth, once the greed destroys another once-lucrative market? Bah! You mark my words: local papers will start getting flushed before the decade is out. And of course, the bastards will tell you it’s all about new media, while they tweet from their golden toilets.

Developer eyes mid-July opening for Idaho Falls Marriott Residence Inn

The scene this week in the lobby of the Idaho Falls Marriott Residence Inn. Developers of the hotel say they hope to have it open in early July.

Earlier this year, the plan was for the Idaho Falls Marriott Residence Inn to be open by Memorial Day weekend, but that has not come to pass. The developer said Wednesday that they expect to have the work done by early July, but probably not in time for the Fourth of July celebration.

"There have been a lot of details that have needed our attention," said John Brunt of Woodbury Corp., the Salt Lake City development company in charge of the project.. "What we're most concerned with is that our guests have the best experience possible."

Construction of the hotel began more than four years ago, but stalled out when McNeil Development, the original company in charge, ran into recession- and credit-related difficulties. After they re-started the project, Woodbury discovered a lot of changes Marriott has brought to its building standards that weren't in place when the project started.

Daylight Donuts to open on 17th Street in Idaho Falls

Those of you who mourned the departure of Daylight Donuts can take heart. A new Daylight Donuts will be opening in early June at 1225 E. 17th St., next door to Staker Floral.

Jim Feuling, who runs I Buy Gold, the business in the building at the moment, said he has always liked Daylight Donuts. When he saw an opportunity to open a new one (the shop in Taylor's Crossing closed this past winter), "I decided to grab it," he said.

Daylight Donuts was begun in Tulsa, Okla., in 1954 when Tommy and Lucille Day began producing a light donut mix each morning and selling it to local shops, most often from the trunk of their car. When they sold the business in 1977, to Jerry and Linda Hull, the company consisted of 200 shops and a fleet of trucks. The Hulls sold the company in 2002 to John and Sheila Bond, who have guided growth to nearly 1,000 retail outlets worldwide.

For an operator like Feuling, there is a licensing agreement under which he receives products and the rights to use the name. He said he is shooting for an opening sometime around June 6.

Kiwi Loco plans summer opening for second Idaho Falls frozen yogurt shop

Kiwi Loco's frozen yogurt machines will require extra plumbing at the store it plans to open this summer on Houston Street, its second in Idaho Falls.

Kiwi Loco is planning to open a second frozen yogurt shop in Idaho Falls, at 163 Houston Street, near Wal-Mart and Olive Garden. Remodeling has begun and an opening date should be in late June or early July.

"We definitely needed something on that side of town," said owner Justin Turley, who opened the Kiwi Loco on Hitt Road in December 2012. "We got comments from people all the time saying you need to come to the west side."

Turley's parents, Gene and Carol Turley, and a partner, Doug Birch, started Kiwi Loco in April 2010. The new Idaho Falls store will be the eighth in the family-owned chain, which extends west to Ontario, Ore., and as far east as Palm Bay, Fla.

The new Idaho Falls store will be 1,200 square feet, smaller than the Hitt Road location. Some extra plumbing has to be done for Kiwi Loco's machines.

New cancer center being built in Idaho Falls

IFSC Partners, a company based in Portland, Ore., is remodeling the Surgical Center on 17th Street and buiding 12,850-square-foot cancer treatment center directly to the north.

According to the building permit records on file at the city of Idaho Falls Building Department, the remodel and new building will have an estimated value of $2.79 million. The contractor is Morgan Construction of Idaho Falls.

Doing business as Idaho Falls Oncology, the cancer center will have 4,271 square feet at the ground level and a 4,271-square-foot basement. The floor plan includes 10 clinical examination rooms and two infusion rooms.