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Journalism in America

美國新聞業(yè)

Digital resurrection

數(shù)字復(fù)興

Some moderately good news in the news industry

新聞業(yè)的好消息

IN FEBRUARY Vice, a media firm that caters toyoungsters who like their news with a dollop of sass and hip-hop, toured the opulentresidence of the ousted president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and posted the video online. “It looks like a weird dictatorship theme park,” the sardonic reporter told the camera. A newreport by the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, finds that a third of Americans now watchnews videos online, about as many as say they watch news on cable television. Among thoseaged 18-29, around half do.

傳媒公司Vice迎合年輕人的口味播報充滿狂言妄語的新聞及嘻哈音樂。今年二月，該傳媒公司的記者參觀了已被罷黜的烏克蘭總統(tǒng)亞努科維奇豪宅并將視頻傳到了網(wǎng)上。“這個地方就像一個怪異的獨裁主題公園”記者頗具諷刺性地對著攝像機說道。智庫皮尤研究中心最近發(fā)表了一個新的報告，該報道顯示近三分之一的美國人在網(wǎng)上看視頻新聞，約近乎三分之一的人稱他們在有線電視上看新聞。在那些18-29歲的年輕人中，近一半的人在網(wǎng)上看新聞。

In years past Pew's “State of the News Media” reports have been sombre, chronicling theevisceration of jobs and the gutting of news budgets. This year, however, Pew sounded moreoptimistic, pointing to the slew of digital-news services, such as Vice's online news channel,that have sprung up recently. Around 5,000 full-time jobs have been created at 468 digital-news firms, according to Pew. Many online-news firms have hired high-profile journalists awayfrom big publications, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, and are launchingbureaus around the world (although not nearly as many as have been shuttered bynewspapers).

在過去的幾年，皮尤中心有關(guān)“新聞媒體的狀況”的報告都是陰郁的，長久以來都是老生常談的就業(yè)問題和新預(yù)算。但是今年，皮尤似乎更為樂觀，指出數(shù)字新聞服務(wù)局勢的回轉(zhuǎn)，比如說Vice在線新聞頻道，最近如雨后春筍一般冒出來。根據(jù)皮尤的數(shù)據(jù)，468家數(shù)字新聞公司已經(jīng)創(chuàng)造了近5000個全職崗位。許多在線新聞公司從大型出版社挖墻腳，雇了許多高知名度的記者，如紐約時報級華盛頓郵報，并在全球廣設(shè)分局(盡管并非很多由于紙質(zhì)新聞業(yè)而慘遭關(guān)閉)。

Digital news firms used to do little besides rehashing traditional newspapers'stories. Now theyare starting to feature more original articles. Last year Business Insider, a business-news site,ran a profile of Marissa Mayer, the boss of Yahoo. At 23,000 words, it was as long as a novella. “Online you can afford to do that. In a magazine you'd go broke,” says Henry Blodget, the bossof Business Insider. Buzz Feed, which used to be known for casting out “click bait” online, nowclaims around 170 full-time staff, including a Pulitzer-prize winner, Mark Schoofs, who has beenhired to run a new investigative team.

數(shù)字新聞公司過去除了重復(fù)傳統(tǒng)新聞報紙的故事之外很少寫自己的東西。而現(xiàn)在他們正開始創(chuàng)作更多原創(chuàng)的文章。去年，商業(yè)新聞網(wǎng)站“財經(jīng)內(nèi)幕”就寫了一篇文章概述雅虎的老板瑪麗莎·梅耶爾，該文章字數(shù)達到2.3萬，已然是一部中篇小說了。“你可以在網(wǎng)上這么做，若是在雜志上你就直接破產(chǎn)了”，該雜志的老板亨利·布洛杰特聲稱。Buzz Feed，曾經(jīng)因網(wǎng)上清楚“點擊誘惑”而聞名，現(xiàn)擁有約170名全職員工，其中包括普利策獎獲獎?wù)進ark Schoofs，他目前負責一個新聞?wù){(diào)查組。

Lower costs explain why so many digital news firms, like Silicon Valley start-ups, are launchingtoday. Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst, reckons it costs as little as $5m to start a “credible”digital news offering. Financiers and philanthropists are investing in news: eBay founder PierreOmidyar put $250m into a new non-profit, First Look Media. All this has injected hope into abeleaguered industry. Last month Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist, predicted thatjournalism may “be entering into a new golden age” and that the news industry would growten- or a hundredfold.

低成本運行解釋了為什么現(xiàn)在如此之多的新聞公司就像硅谷的暴發(fā)戶一般地崛起。新聞分析人肯·多科特回想當時打造可靠的數(shù)字新聞產(chǎn)品僅需500萬美元。現(xiàn)在金融家和慈善家都在投資新聞：易趣網(wǎng)創(chuàng)始人皮爾斯·奧米戴爾投資了2,5億元運營一個新的非盈利網(wǎng)站First Look Media。所有的這些為這個四面楚歌的行業(yè)注入了一縷希望。上個月，風險資本家Andreessen預(yù)測新聞業(yè)將“進入一個新的黃金期”并且新聞業(yè)的利潤將增長十倍甚至百倍。

Journalism is at least becoming more participatory. Pew finds that around half of social-mediausers share news articles or videos, and comment on them. Around 7% of American adultshave posted their own news video to a social network, or submitted one to an establishednews site. Interactive features are doing particularly well. Last year the New York Times's mostpopular “article” was a quiz in which people could test whether they spoke more like a LosAngeleno or a Louisianan.

至少現(xiàn)在新聞業(yè)變得越來越具參與度了。皮尤研究中心發(fā)現(xiàn)近乎一半的社交媒介用戶分享新聞視頻和文章并且在上面發(fā)表評論。約7%的美國成年人將他們自己的新聞視頻傳到社交網(wǎng)站，或轉(zhuǎn)交至已存在的新聞網(wǎng)站。交互式的特寫做的尤其出色。去年，紐約時報最受歡迎的文章是一個小測試，通過該測試人們可以知道他們的口音是更像洛杉磯人還是更像路易斯安娜人。

Some positive news is welcome, but newsrooms continue to bleed jobs (see chart). The rise ofdigital-media firms has done little to restore local news coverage, which has suffered with theclosure of many local papers. Digital-news firms'long-form narratives and investigativejournalism may grab attention, but they are unlikely to compensate for projects that willnever take place again in old newsrooms because of budgetary woes.

積極的新聞總是受歡迎的，但是新聞編輯室持續(xù)削減全職編輯(見圖)。數(shù)字媒體公司的崛起為重建本地新聞報道做的事少之又少，當?shù)卦S多報刊倒閉。數(shù)字新聞公司長篇的敘事手法以及調(diào)查性新聞或許能吸引讀者的眼球，但是他們依然不能彌補那些由于預(yù)算困難而不再恢復(fù)其在新聞編輯室的位置。

Facebook users may be reading news, but they spend on average only a minute and a half on anews site each month if they come from Facebook, about a third of the time that visitors spendif they go to a newspaper's site directly. And digital video may be growing, but its advertisingonly accounts for around 10% of all digital ad revenues, and viewing growth has slowed. Eventelevision news is not having an easy time. In 2013 the three big cable news channels—CNN,Fox and MSNBC—lost around 11% of their combined audience during prime-time. The newsindustry today resembles Newton's third law of motion, says Amy Mitchell, Pew's director ofjournalism research: for every action, there is an equally strong reaction. The momentummight have shifted online, but gravity is still pulling everyone down to earth.

臉譜網(wǎng)的用戶或許在讀新聞，但是如果消息來自臉譜網(wǎng)，他們平均一個月花一分半鐘看新聞，若他們直接進入新聞網(wǎng)網(wǎng)頁，訪客花費的時間約占三分之一。數(shù)字視頻或有增長，但是其廣告收入僅占所有數(shù)字廣告收入的10%，并且據(jù)觀察增長已放緩。即便是電視新聞日子也不好過。2013年，三大新聞頻道，美國有線新聞網(wǎng)、�？怂购臀④浫珖�有線廣播電視新聞公司黃金時間流失了約11%的共同觀眾。今天的新聞業(yè)與牛頓的第三運動定律很像，皮尤新聞?wù){(diào)查中心的主任Amy Mitchell如是道，每一步都會有同等強烈的反應(yīng)。新聞業(yè)的發(fā)展勢頭或許已經(jīng)轉(zhuǎn)向了網(wǎng)絡(luò)，但是重力作用依然在將人們往地上拽。譯者:占文英