Warren Buffett Dumped 77% of Berkshire's Amazon Stake and Opened a New Position in This Digital Media Juggernaut

The investing world marveled in 2019 when legendary investor Warren Buffett bought shares of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) as part of the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKB) portfolio. The notoriously tech-averse billionaire's only other long-term tech holding at the time was Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Now the investing world is reeling again, because shortly before Buffett stepped down as Berkshire CEO, Berkshire sold off most of its Amazon shares. But instead of buying into another tech stock, Berkshire -- where Buffett remains chairman of the board -- piled into a very different type of digital company.

Here's what stock Buffett bought, and why he would have chosen it as one of the last big buys of his investing career.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Buffett loves a good paper... or five

Buffett was once asked in an interview about how he keeps up to date on all the things he needs to know. He responded with characteristic candor:

I read and read and read. I probably read five to six hours a day. I don't read as fast now as when I was younger. But I read five daily newspapers.

Those newspapers included financial publications The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, his hometown newspaper The Omaha World-Herald, USA Today, and the namesake newspaper of his most recent stock buy, The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT).

Yes, according to its most recent 13-F filing, Berkshire unloaded more than 7 million shares of Amazon.com, worth approximately $1.8 billion, and opened a new position in The New York Times Company. Berkshire scooped up more than 5 million shares at an average price of $61.09/share. Since the shares are currently trading at about $78/share, it's already proving to be a solid investment.

The paper's not on paper anymore

Although we don't know whether Buffett still gets print copies of his favorite newspapers, the investment thesis of The New York Times is all about digital media.

In its most recent quarter, The New York Times Company reported 12.78 million subscribers, 12.21 million of which were digital-only. That means the company's entire print subscriber base -- including those who have print and digital subscriptions --was just 570,000. Compare that to the company's net increase of 450,000 digital-only subscribers during the quarter, and you can see why investors consider The New York Times Company to be a digital media company. Nearly half of its $802.3 million in quarterly revenue -- 47.5% -- now comes from digital-only subscriptions.

Image source: Getty Images.

All that digital subscriber growth is fueling more digital ad revenue, which increased a staggering 24.9% year over year to $147.2 million. Add that to the digital subscription revenue, and about two-thirds of the company's revenue is coming from digital-only sources.

Of course, that means that the company's print readers and advertisers are punching well above their weight when it comes to revenue generation, so I wouldn't expect the paper to go all-digital anytime soon. With more subscriber and ad revenue growth expected and a growing dividend to boot, this looks like a Buffett pick that will stand the test of time.

John Bromels has positions in Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and The New York Times Co. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and The New York Times Co. and is short shares of Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.