Rieder: Why Buffett didn’t buy ‘Washington Post’

Investor nonpareil Warren Buffett was close to the Graham family, which owned The Washington Post until it agreed in August to sell the paper to Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, for years was a major owner of Washington Post Co. stock. And he has been buying up newspapers over the past couple of years.

So why didn't the Oracle of Omaha purchase the Post when it went on the block?

In fact, Buffett did consider it briefly, according to Fortune magazine. But he decided to pass because he didn't want the financially struggling daily to ultimately be a burden to either to his company or his family, the magazine reported.

A spokeswoman said Buffett was traveling and wouldn't be available to comment.

Buffett, who once said he wouldn't buy newspapers "at any price" given the tumult in the industry in the digital age, has changed his mind in a big way. He now owns 30 dailies.

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But while he told me earlier this year, "It's almost unnatural how much I love newspapers," he doesn't love them indiscriminately. Buffett has stressed that he is only interested in acquiring small and medium-size papers, not larger metropolitan dailies, which face stiffer challenges.

Buffett briefly discussed the Post nonpurchase in a question-and-answer session at the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C., according to Fortune. He said that if he had Berkshire Hathaway buy it, he might leave a future CEO with an asset he or she didn't want. And if he bought it individually, it might become a burden for his three children.

Bezos, who paid $250 million for the Post, took possession of the paper on October 1.