He Bought a Local Newspaper… Now He Makes $600K/YR

**Sam Parr** (0:00)
So, the article tells a story of multiple 80-something-year-old guys who own publications that are making, that are fine businesses. Maybe they make six figures a year in profit, but they can't find anyone to take it over, so they're literally just shutting it down.

**Shaan Puri** (0:23)
Should we start with this, this tweet? It's Media Gazer, which I guess some media.

**Sam Parr** (0:28)
Publication.

**Shaan Puri** (0:29)
Commentary on media companies. It says, Small town newspapers are shutting down due to lack of a succession plan, not financial issues. In nearly a dozen US states, this is a growing problem, okay?

**Sam Parr** (0:39)
And so the article tells a story of multiple 80 something year old guys who own publications that are making, that are fine businesses. Maybe they make six figures a year in profit, but they can't find anyone to take it over. So they're literally just shutting it down. And here we have a tweet from Matthew Prince. I think his name is Matthew is worth, I think something like four or five billion dollars. He's the CEO of Cloudflare. Do you want to kind of read what he says? Yeah.

**Shaan Puri** (1:05)
So he says, actually, this is a recipe for a really rewarding life. If you're a recent college grad and not sure what to do, find a small town you could love with a local newspaper whose owners are ready to retire. Raise the capital to buy it. Run it with the community's interest at heart. You'll not get too rich, but you'll do well. More importantly, you'll be a hero to the community and have influence even early in your career. You'll meet the love of your life at some point at some event you otherwise wouldn't get invited to. You'll have kids who will proudly call you their parent and make this corner of the world meaningfully better. If anyone wants to seriously follow this recipe and just lacks the capital, happy to talk.

**Sam Parr** (1:39)
So I think that's an amazing insight, but the true insight. So someone chirps at them and they say something like, go ahead, what do they say? I can't read it all.

**Shaan Puri** (1:47)
So literally the guy's name who's replying is some guy. So I'm not not even disparaging this guy. Some guy tweets at him and says, this is the sort of unwittingly funny stuff that wealthy people say, that 130 IQ guys should be content with an imaginary small town life lived in anonymity near, I don't even know what this word is, being 180 degrees from their own choices, which deliver untold wealth and influence. I don't even, what is this guy saying? I didn't understand this tweet. He's basically saying like, this is something that wealthy dudes say that's so funny because it's so wrong that a guy would be happy doing this.

**Sam Parr** (2:22)
Yeah, and here's why I like Twitter. So Matt Prince, he's not high profile. He's not like an average, like the average person has no idea who this is, but he's worth $5 billion. And it's so interesting to get his insight.
This is the tweet that I really care about. The rest was for context. Read this next one.

**Shaan Puri** (2:41)
All right, so he says, he just replies to some guy. He goes, I have untold financial wealth and I own a local newspaper. So I have some perspective. Like Warren Buffett likes to say, surprisingly little changes when you move from upper middle class to truly rich. Houses are houses, cars are cars, and watches are stupid. That's so good. What's more important is meaning. I feel lucky to have achieved financial wealth while chasing meaning. That is super rare and I feel incredibly fortunate to have gotten both. But if you're early in your career and decide, I'd rather optimize for meaning than financial wealth, I think this is a better path than most would consider. Example, volunteer for the Peace Corps.
It will actually make you a good leaving and you'll have incredible influence and meeting within your community. And if you later decide to go for untold financial wealth, always remember, Rupert Murdoch's empire began with the Adelaide advertiser, which he bought when he was 21

**Sam Parr** (3:30)
How fantastic is that?

**Shaan Puri** (3:32)
This is really great. Although, you know, not to be a reply guy, but like CloudFair is not the Peace Corps or owning a small town newspaper in a community. So like, is he saying that CloudFair was his meaning thing or he did something before that? Do you know?

**Sam Parr** (3:43)
That's his meaningful thing.

**Shaan Puri** (3:45)
But the point is, for one, he has another one. So he's like, some guy goes, how is one supposed to make a good living from a small town newspaper? Do you have a model, a new model for profitability? Blah, blah, blah. I want to hear a breakdown. And he said, Matthew Prince says, the local paper we bought cashflowed around 600,000 when we bought it. We wanted to run it as a non-profit. So we plowed it all back into expanding coverage, but it is not the case that these are bad businesses. They're just not big businesses.