In Buffett’s hometown, newspaper expands business coverage

The Omaha World-Herald newspaper in Nebraska, which was purchased by billionaire investor and Omaha resident Warren Buffett in 2011, has been expanding its business news coverage in recent months.

The expansion includes adding two new staffers to the business news desk —  one experienced reporter, Russell Hubbard, most recently of the Birmingham News, and one new graduate, Paige Yowell, dedicated to helping to feed the section’s online page with breaking news, started in the last two months. It also has a new blog called Money Talks that started at the end of January.

“That gives us a staff of seven business reporters, up from four when I became business editor about two years ago,” said Deb Shanahan, the Money editor at the paper, in an email to Talking Biz News.  “We also have a business editor, a deputy business editor and a designer assigned part-time to the Money section.”

Since the beginning of the year, the department has also gotten back its stand-alone weekend sections. For several years, Money was tucked inside the A section on Saturdays and Sundays — essentially an issue of balancing sections for press runs.

The daily Money sections also are larger – at least six pages combined with classifieds, not the four pages with classifieds sometimes allocated in the past.

“I think the newspaper leaders see business news as local news we can own – news that distinguishes us from area TV, radio and web reports – and we are benefiting from that,” said Shanahan.

And yes, the paper’s business desk has a reporter dedicated to covering all things Buffett. It’s Steve Jordon, who is one of the most senior reporters in the newsroom, having been there 45 years.