Earlier today, Warren Buffett announced he’ll be stepping down from the board of the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO). He will continue to serve on the board until his existing term expires in May, but the company will have to find a new director for its newspaper and Kaplan education business.

The departure may not come as a surprise for longtime Warren Buffett watchers. After all he’s been unraveling his position in another top newspaper stock, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) for some time. According to the latest Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) filings from Sept. 30, 2010, Buffett held 1.74 million Gannett shares. That’s roughly half the 3.4 million GCI shares as of Sept. 30, 2009 – a sign Buffett may not be too keen on print media.

But for Washington Post stockholders, there’s no reason to panic just yet. Warren Buffett stepped down from the board at Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) in 2006 and yet Berkshire still owns a whopping 20 million shares. Though Buffett may not be a director, his 7% of the company’s stock is valued at over $1 billion and he doesn’t appear to be running towards the exit five years after leaving the board.

It’s also worth noting that positions wax and wane among Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. Take Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), which Buffett owned about 62 million shares of at one time. In March of 2010, Berkshire reported under 24 million shares of JNJ stock – but in the most recent filing, Johnson & Johnson is back up to nearly 43 million shares. Even the reduction of shares in Johnson & Johnson early last year wasn’t as clear of a sell signal as some thought at the time.

So the takeaway here? Not to be anticlimactic, but there may not be one. Investors would be wise to judge stocks based on their individual valuation and fundamentals when investing for the long term, and not get caught up in Buffett’s every move.

Jeff Reeves is editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow Jeff on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JeffReevesIP.