Buffalo Newspaper

The Buffalo News is the primary newspaper of the Buffalo, New York, metropolitan area and its surrounding suburbs. It is wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway.
The News was founded in 1873 by Edward H. Butler as a Sunday paper. 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, and began publishing on Saturday and Sunday mornings. After a period of financial decline, the Courier-Express published its last issue on September 19, 1982. At least part of its troubles were attributable to union strife within the Buffalo Newspaper Guild. That same year, the Evening News shortened its name to The Buffalo News and, until 2006, published morning and evening editions. The News remains Buffalo’s only daily newspaper, and forecast a trend in which most American cities are served by only one daily newspaper. The newspaper also founded and formerly owned the WBEN stations, which are now WIVB (Channel 4), WBEN (930), WYRK (106.5) and WTSS (102.5), respectively.

Journalists for The Buffalo News and The Buffalo Evening News have won three 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” is often cited as the “exemplary” work that merited the award). (Toles currently serves as an editorial cartoonist with The Washington Post, where he replaced Herblock.) 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).

The News participates in the Buffalo community and sponsors charitable, social, and educational events. The News also holds an annual Kids’ Day newspaper sale in which civic groups sell the morning edition of the newspaper for double the usual price, with all proceeds directed to Buffalo’s Children’s Hospital.

On October 1, 2006, the News announced it would abandon its afternoon edition later that month, and publish only a morning issue. The move appears to complete a 50-year shift in news publication during which televised news, traffic congestion (which made timely delivery increasingly difficult) and the flight of readers to the suburbs undermined the old evening-delivery model.

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