巴菲特致股东的信（1983年）⑤水牛城晚报

Buffalo Evening News

First, a clarification: our corporate name is Buffalo Evening News, Inc. but the name of the newspaper, since we began a morning edition a little over a year ago, is Buffalo News.

水牛城晚报

首先我要澄清一点，我们公司的名称是水牛城晚报公司，但所发行的报纸名称，自从一年多以前开始发行早报开始，却是水牛城新闻。

In 1983 the News somewhat exceeded its targeted profit margin of 10% after tax. Two factors were responsible: (1) a state income tax cost that was subnormal because of a large loss carry-forward, now fully utilized, and (2) a large drop in the per-ton cost of newsprint (an unanticipated fluke that will be reversed in 1984).

1983年公司约略超过原先设定10%的税后纯益率，主要有两项原因:(1)州的所得税因前期亏损扣抵而变得很少；(2)每吨新闻印刷成本突然降低(不过隔年情况可能完全相反) 。

Although our profit margins in 1983 were about average for newspapers such as the News, the paper’s performance, nevertheless, was a significant achievement considering the economic and retailing environment in Buffalo.

虽然水牛城新闻的获利情况在一般新闻来说表现平平，但若考量到水牛城当地的经济与销售环境，这种表现却是不凡，

Buffalo has a concentration of heavy industry, a segment of the economy that was hit particularly hard by the recent recession and that has lagged the recovery. As Buffalo consumers have suffered, so also have the paper’s retailing customers. Their numbers have shrunk over the past few years and many of those surviving have cut their linage.

由于重工业聚集，故最近的不景气确使当地的一部份经济活动受到重创，且复苏缓慢，一般民众大受其害，当地的报纸也无法幸免，发行量大幅滑落，许多业者被迫删减版面作为应对。

Within this environment the News has one exceptional strength: its acceptance by the public, a matter measured by the paper’s “penetration ratio” - the percentage of households within the community purchasing the paper each day. Our ratio is superb: for the six months ended September 30, 1983 the News stood number one in weekday penetration among the 100 largest papers in the United States (the ranking is based on “city zone” numbers compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations).

在这种窘况下，水牛城新闻却拥有一项利器-大众对其的接受程度，即渗透率(指每天每个社区家庭购买该报的比率)，我们的比率相当高，以1983年九月止的前半年，水牛城新闻高居全美一百份最大报纸的第一位(这项排名系由流通量调查局依照城市邮政编码所编撰)。

In interpreting the standings, it is important to note that many large cities have two papers, and that in such cases the penetration of either paper is necessarily lower than if there were a single paper, as in Buffalo. Nevertheless, the list of the 100 largest papers includes many that have a city to themselves. Among these, the News is at the top nationally, far ahead of many of the country’s best-known dailies.

在解释所谓的排名之前，有一点必须要说明的是有许多大城市同时发行两份报纸，则其渗透率一定会比只发行一份的城市，如水牛城还低得许多，尽管如此，仍有许多名列一百大者拥有单一城市，而水牛城不但名列前茅，更远胜于许多全国赫赫有名的日报。

Among Sunday editions of these same large dailies, the News ranks number three in penetration - ten to twenty percentage points ahead of many well-known papers. It was not always this way in Buffalo. Below we show Sunday circulation in Buffalo in the years prior to 1977 compared with the present period. In that earlier period the Sunday paper was the Courier-Express (the News was not then publishing a Sunday paper). Now, of course, it is the News.

此外在周日版部份，水牛城的渗透率更挤进前三名，比某些大报还高上一到二十个百分点，而这并不是一开始就如此的，下表列示该报在1977前几年与现在发行量的比较，在水牛城所发行的周日报原来是Couier-express(当时水牛城日报还未发行周日报)而现在当然是水牛城日报了:

We believe a paper’s penetration ratio to be the best measure of the strength of its franchise. Papers with unusually high penetration in the geographical area that is of prime interest to major local retailers, and with relatively little circulation elsewhere, are exceptionally efficient buys for those retailers. Low-penetration papers have a far less compelling message to present to advertisers.

我们认为一份报纸的渗透率是该事业强弱的一项重要指标，对广告主而言若一家报纸能在某一地区拥有极高渗透率的话，便能发挥极高的经济效益，相对的若渗透率很低则无法吸引太多的广告主。

In our opinion, three factors largely account for the unusual acceptance of the News in the community. Among these, points 2 and 3 also may explain the popularity of the Sunday News compared to that of the Sunday Courier-Express when it was the sole Sunday paper:

而我们认为有三个原因使得水牛城日报广为当地民众所接受，其中第二与第三亦能解释为何水牛城周日报会比当时同时发行的Couier-express更受欢迎的原因:

(1) The first point has nothing to do with merits of the News. Both emigration and immigration are relatively low in Buffalo. A stable population is more interested and involved in the activities of its community than is a shifting population - and, as a result, is more interested in the content of the local daily paper. Increase the movement in and out of a city and penetration ratios will fall.

(1)第一点与水牛城日报本身无关，水牛城居民的流动率相对较低，稳定的居民对于当地社区事务保持着更多的关心，也因此对当地地区性报纸的当地新闻更感兴趣。

(2) The News has a reputation for editorial quality and integrity that was honed by our longtime editor, the legendary Alfred Kirchhofer, and that has been preserved and extended by Murray Light. This reputation was enormously important to our success in establishing a Sunday paper against entrenched competition. And without a Sunday edition, the News would not have survived in the long run.

(2)该报长期由传奇人物Alfred Kirchhofer领导，以编辑品质与公正客观性著称，并由Murray Light继承并保存之，这对于我们能够成功战胜Courier-express的激烈竞争极为重要，若没有周日报，水牛城日报可能无法存活至今。

(3) The News lives up to its name - it delivers a very unusual amount of news. During 1983, our “news hole” (editorial material - not ads) amounted to 50% of the newspaper’s content (excluding preprinted inserts). Among papers that dominate their markets and that are of comparable or larger size, we know of only one whose news hole percentage exceeds that of the News. Comprehensive figures are not available, but a sampling indicates an average percentage in the high 30s. In other words, page for page, our mix gives readers over 25% more news than the typical paper. This news-rich mixture is by intent. Some publishers, pushing for higher profit margins, have cut their news holes during the past decade. We have maintained ours and will continue to do so. Properly written and edited, a full serving of news makes our paper more valuable to the reader and contributes to our unusual penetration ratio.

(3)水牛城日报就如其名一般，它刊载大量的新闻，在1983年我们的新闻版面，即真正的新闻而非广告，约占超过一半(不包括夹报的部份)，就我们所知在所有主宰当地地区的大报之中，只有一家的比例是超越我们的，虽然没有具体明确的数字，但一般估计的平均比例约为三十几，换言之，我们提供的新闻份量比其它同业还要多上25%，事实上丰富的新闻内容是经过精心安排的，有些出版业者为了提高获利，大幅删减新闻版面，但我们却不愿如此做并坚持至今，而我们相信只要好好地撰写与编辑提供丰富的新闻内容，将是对读者最大的服务，而读者对我们刊物的珍视也将转化成极高的渗透率。

Despite the strength of the News’ franchise, gains in ROP linage (advertising printed within the newspaper pages as contrasted to preprinted inserts) are going to be very difficult to achieve. We had an enormous gain in preprints during 1983: lines rose from 9.3 million to 16.4 million, revenues from $3.6 million to $8.1 million. These gains are consistent with national trends, but exaggerated in our case by business we picked up when the Courier-Express closed.

尽管水牛城日报本身极具竞争力，但是ROP(报纸版面上的广告与夹报的广告量的比)却很难有再增加的空间，虽然我们在1983年有大幅成长，广告数则由九百多万增加为一千六百多万，营收则由360万成长至810万美元，增加幅度与全美其它地区差异不大，但以我们的例子来说考量到Courier-express同时关闭则视嫌高估。

On balance, the shift from ROP to preprints has negative economic implications for us. Profitability on preprints is less and the business is more subject to competition from alternative means of delivery. Furthermore, a reduction in ROP linage means less absolute space devoted to news (since the news hole percentage remains constant), thereby reducing the utility of the paper to the reader.

平心而论，若广告由报纸版面移到夹报对我们来说有负面的经济影响，夹报的利润较低，且受限于其它相同传递方式的竞争，更甚者ROP则数的减少连带使得新闻版面亦跟着减少(因为新闻版面须维持一定比例)，进而减少对读者的实用性。

Stan Lipsey became Publisher of the Buffalo News at midyear upon the retirement of Henry Urban. Henry never flinched during the dark days of litigation and losses following our introduction of the Sunday paper - an introduction whose wisdom was questioned by many in the newspaper business, including some within our own building. Henry is admired by the Buffalo business community, he’s admired by all who worked for him, and he is admired by Charlie and me. Stan worked with Henry for several years, and has worked for Berkshire Hathaway since 1969. He has been personally involved in all nuts-and-bolts aspects of the newspaper business from editorial to circulation. We couldn’t do better.

Stan Lipsey在年中接替Henry Urban成为水牛城日报的发行人，Henry在日报因发行周日版而面对诉颂与损失的灰暗时期从未退缩，当时这项决定受到许多当地新闻同业质疑，但Henry仍受到水牛城日报所有员工，也包含我与查理的敬重，Stan跟Henry从1969年起便为伯克希尔工作，它对于水牛城日报从编辑到发行的大小事务亲身参与，他的表现无与伦比。

Buffalo Evening News First, a clarification: our corporate name is Buffalo Evening News, Inc. but the name of the newspaper, since we began a morning edition a little over a year ago, is Buffalo News.

Although our profit margins in 1983 were about average for newspapers such as the News, the paper’s performance, nevertheless, was a significant achievement considering the economic and retailing environment in Buffalo.

In our opinion, three factors largely account for the unusual acceptance of the News in the community. Among these, points 2 and 3 also may explain the popularity of the Sunday News compared to that of the Sunday Courier-Express when it was the sole Sunday paper:

Buffalo Evening News

First, a clarification: our corporate name is Buffalo Evening News, Inc. but the name of the newspaper, since we began a morning edition a little over a year ago, is Buffalo News.