1:06 p.m. | Updated Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s Omaha-based business conglomerate, is buying the Omaha World-Herald Company, publisher of Nebraska’s principal daily newspaper, The World-Herald, as well as six other daily papers.

Mr. Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive, and Terry Kroeger, the chief executive of the newspaper company, announced the purchase on Wednesday. No terms were disclosed. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, pending approval of the Omaha World-Herald shareholders, including current and retired employees.

Mr. Buffett, who in the past has expressed reservations about the newspaper industry, said The World-Herald “delivers solid profits and is one of the best-run newspapers in America.” He pledged that the paper would continue to have editorial independence despite being owned by a prominent hometown business.

In a statement, Mr. Kroeger said that Mr. Buffett’s offer to purchase the company “presented a unique opportunity to address our long-term capital needs and continue local ownership of the Omaha World-Herald, which is consistent with the legacy left to us by Mr. Kiewit.” Peter Kiewit, the owner of an Omaha-based construction and mining company, purchased the paper in 1962.

After Mr. Kiewit’s death in 1979, 80 percent of the paper became owned by employee shareholders and 20 percent by the Peter Kiewit Foundation. The paper was founded in 1885 by Gilbert Hitchcock.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the World-Herald has an average weekday circulation of 135,282.

Berkshire Hathaway also owns The Buffalo News, and is the largest shareholder in the Washington Post with about 21 percent of the publicly traded shares. In January, Mr. Buffett left the board of the Washington Post Company.

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