''The Buffalo News'' is the daily

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

of the

Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area The Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan area, designated by the United States Census Bureau, encompassing two counties — Erie and Niagara in Western New York. It has a population of almost 1.2 million peop ...

, located in downtown

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by Warren Buffett's

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...

. On January 29, 2020, the paper reported that it was being sold to

Lee Enterprises Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...

History

The ''News'' was founded in 1873 by Edward Hubert Butler, Sr. as a Sunday paper.Frequently Asked Questions
, www.buffalonews.com On October 11, 1880, it began publishing daily editions as well, and in 1914, it became an inversion of its original existence by publishing Monday to Saturday, 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 evening-only, and the ''Courier-Express'' would be morning-only. Until 1977, the ''News'' did not publish on Sundays because of the agreement, and its weekend edition appeared on Saturday evening. The Butler family owned the ''Evening News'' until 1977, when longtime owner and publisher Katherine Butler, granddaughter of the founder, died and left no heirs. The ''Evening News'' properties were placed in a blind trust, which sold the ''Evening News'' to Berkshire Hathaway. The new owners began publishing on Saturday and Sunday mornings. After a period of financial decline, the ''Courier-Express'' published its last issue on September 19, 1982. The ''Evening News'' then shortened its name to ''The Buffalo News'' and became an all-day newspaper, publishing two editions seven days a week. On October 1, 2006, the ''News'' announced it would abandon its evening edition later that month. The buffalo news building

''The Buffalo News'' had published three morning editions (Western New York, Final and Niagara) that appear online at BuffaloNews.com, reaching over 400,000 readers, across eight counties each day. These separate editions were eliminated in 2018 and consolidated into a single Final edition, in response to a newsprint shortage. ''The News'' Designated Market Area had the largest adult population in upstate New York. Counties in total circulation area: New York - Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Steuben, Wyoming; Pennsylvania - Cameron, Erie, McKean, Potter, Warren. The newspaper founded and owned the WBEN television and radio stations, which are now

WIVB WIVB-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WNLO (channel 23). WIVB-TV and WNLO share studios on Elmwood Ave ...

(Channel 4), WBEN (930), WYRK (106.5) and WTSS (102.5), respectively. The radio stations are now owned by separate companies (WBEN and WTSS are now held by

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national um ...

; WYRK by

Townsquare Media Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

), but in 2014, WIVB came back under partial coownership, with the ''News'' when Buffett's

Media General Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch ...

merged with the WIVB parent company,

LIN Media LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low powered weather station in In ...

. The online version of ''The Buffalo News'' operates under a soft paywall allowing a limited number of page views per week. All Buffalo Bills-related content, branded as "BN Blitz", is behind a hard paywall. On January 29, 2020, the ''News'' reported it was being sold along with the rest of Berkshire Hathaway's newspaper portfolio to

, an Iowa-based owner of 50 newspapers that has had significant ties to Berkshire Hathaway since 2012 and had operated Berkshire Hathaway's newspapers since 2018.

Pulitzer Prizes

Journalists for ''The Buffalo News'' and ''The Buffalo Evening News'' have won four Pulitzer Prizes: * In 1958,

Bruce Shanks Bruce McKinley Shanks (January 29, 1908 – April 12, 1980)''Florida Death Index, 1877-1998'' was an American editorial cartoonist who worked for the ''Buffalo Evening News'' during the middle of the 20th century. There he won the annual Pulitz ...

received the Editorial Cartooning award for his August 10, 1957 piece, " The Thinker", detailing union corruption. * In 1961,

Edgar May Edgar May (June 27, 1929 – December 27, 2012) was an American journalist and politician. He served in the Vermont House of Representatives 1973–1983 and the Vermont Senate 1983–1991 and he was the elder brother of three-term Vermont G ...

received the Local Reporting award for his series, "Our Costly Dilemma," concerning the need for reform of

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

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" has been cited as the work that merited the award). (Toles currently serves as an editorial cartoonist with ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', where he succeeded the late Herbert Block, known as

Herblock Herbert Lawrence Block, commonly known as Herblock (October13, 1909October7, 2001), was an American editorial cartoonist and author best known for his commentaries on national domestic and foreign policy. During the course of a career stretch ...

.) * In 2015, Adam Zyglis won the

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning The Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary is one of the fourteen Pulitzer Prizes that is annually awarded for journalism in the United States. It is the successor to the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning awarded from 1922 t ...

for using, in the committee's citation, "strong images to connect with readers while conveying layers of meaning in few words". ''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). Other journalists who won awards include Richard J. Burke, who in 1972 won the New York State Associated Press Award for his series of articles about bicycling around Western New York.

Past publishers and editors

* Edward Hubert Butler, Sr. - Publisher, 1880 - 1914: founder * Edward Hubert Butler Jr. - Publisher, 1914 - 1956: son of Butler Sr * James H. Righter - Publisher, 1956 - 1971 * Kate M. Robinson Butler - Publisher, 1971 - 1974: wife of Butler Jr * Henry Z. Urban - Publisher, 1974 - 1983 * Stanford Lipsey - Publisher, 1983 - 2013 * Alfred H. Kirchhofer - Editor, 1956 - 1966 * Paul E. Neville - Editor, 1966 - 1969 * Murray B. Light - Editor, 1979 - 1999 * Margaret M. Sullivan - Editor, 1999 - 2012 * Michael K. Connelly - Editor, 2012–2022 * Warren T. Colville - Publisher, 2013–2020 Only three members of the Butler family were publishers.

References

External links

* * * As of September 2022
New York State Historic Newspapers
has 1881-1905 issues of the ''Buffalo Evening News'' online for free, full-text access, with more to come. * As of October 2022,
Newspapers.com
has 1881-2022 issues of the ''Buffalo News'' online on a paid subscription basis. Some public and academic libraries offer Newspapers.com to their users. {{DEFAULTSORT:Buffalo News 1977 mergers and acquisitions Newspapers published in Buffalo, New York Daily newspapers published in New York (state) Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers Newspapers established in 1880 1880 establishments in New York (state) Lee Enterprises publications