The publicity machine is getting revved up for the release later this month (September 29) of the new authorized biography of Warren Buffett, The Snowballby Alice Schroeder.
This morning, more than 400 Sunday newspapers around the country featured Parade Magazine with a smiling Buffett on the cover. The somewhat optimistic headline: 10 Ways to Get Rich - Warren Buffett's Secrets That Can Work For You.
(Other headlines on the cover include What Really Makes You Eat More and Heidi Klum Off the Runway.)
The Buffett feature says Buffett "credits his astonishing success to several key strategies, which he has shared with writer Alice Schroeder."
They include some Buffett personal-finance basics, such as:
- "Reinvest your profits"
- "Be willing to be different"
- "Limit what you borrow"
- "Know when to quit"
Number 10 on the list, "Know what success really means" summarizes a consistent Buffett sentiment: your success is not measured by your bank account. "When you get to my age, you'll measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. That's the ultimate test of how you've lived your life."
There is no mention of durable competitive advantages, free cash flow, or Berkshire's underwhelming stock performance so far this year.
Also in the magazine, an adaptation from The Snowball, with the headline How Warren Made His First Dime. (Selling chewing gum.)
Watch for more publicity gambits over the next three weeks leading up to the book's release. While Parade is clearly aimed at a general audience (circulation: 32 million, readership: 71 million,) an audience the publishers clearly hope to reach with The Snowball, I would expect to see some more sophisticated articles/features/excerpts showing up in the business/financial media as well.
Current Berkshire stock prices:
Class A:
Class B:
Questions? Comments? Email me at buffettwatch@cnbc.com
