Warren Buffett

“Currently, Omaha Public Libraries’ spending per capita is substantially below that of surrounding communities.” – Library Board of Trustees President Mike Meyer, as quoted by KETV, source of a related video. The TeleRead take: The busiest library branch in the city may cut hours, and meanwhile the budget for books and other content is suffering. Hello, Warren […]

The post In Warren Buffett’s own backyard: Underfunded Omaha libraries. National digital library endowment, anyone? appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

Warren Buffett was on CBS Sunday Morning. The interviewer, Rebecca Jarvis, asked if he owned an iPhone. No. iPad? No. “He prefers books,” she said in an admiring way, “and reads avidly.” As if electronic books don’t exist! As if millions of Americans are not downloading e-books to iPhones, iPads and other devices! As if a young Buffett [...]

The post A national digital library endowment: How America’s billionaires could be modern Carnegies for real appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

Microsoft rolls out the Zune to go up against the iPod in 2006. And then, three years later, a new Zune HD to vie with the iPod Touch.  The Zune gets more traction with late-night talk-show comedians than with consumers. Both the player and the brand are now dead. Burger King gives away a free AOL Music download with every Original Whopper. The download code is on the burger wrapper — try not to get grease on your screen! McDonald’s begins renting DVDs. Actually, this one wasn’t a total flop: Turns out people don’t want DVDs with their fries, but Redbox, which now has

On Reuters, Jack Shafer ponders the question of who was the first company to abandon ship when the newspaper industry first began to founder. As far back as 1991, Warren Buffett had warned that newspapers were no longer the value proposition they had been, and he would not be buying any more of them. But [...]