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Journalism in America

美國新聞業

Digital resurrection

數字復興

Some moderately good news in the news industry

新聞業的好消息

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亞努科維奇豪宅并將視頻傳到了網上。“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表了一個新的報告，該報道顯示近三分之一的美國人在網上看視頻新聞，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“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問題和新預算。但是今年，皮尤似乎更為樂觀，指出數字新聞服務局勢的回轉，比如說Vice在線新聞頻道，最近如雨后春筍一般冒出來。根據皮尤的數據，468家數字新聞公司已經創造了近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，并在全球廣設分局(盡管并非很多由于紙質新聞業而慘遭關閉)。

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.

數字新聞公司過去除了重復傳統新聞報紙的故事之外很少寫自己的東西。而現在他們正開始創作更多原創的文章。去年，商業新聞網站“財經內幕”就寫了一篇文章概述雅虎的老板瑪麗莎·梅耶爾，該文章字數達到2.3萬，已然是一部中篇小說了。“你可以在網上這么做，若是在雜志上你就直接破產了”，該雜志的老板亨利·布洛杰特聲稱。Buzz Feed，曾經因網上清楚“點擊誘惑”而聞名，現擁有約170名全職員工，其中包括普利策獎獲獎者Mark Schoofs，他目前負責一個新聞調查組。

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在如此之多的新聞公司就像硅谷的暴發戶一般地崛起。新聞分析人肯·多科特回想當時打造可靠的數字新聞產品僅需500萬美元。現在金融家和慈善家都在投資新聞：易趣網創始人皮爾斯·奧米戴爾投資了2,5億元運營一個新的非盈利網站First Look Media。所有的這些為這個四面楚歌的行業注入了一縷希望。上個月，風險資本家Andreessen預測新聞業將“進入一個新的黃金期”并且新聞業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.

至少現在新聞業變得越來越具參與度了。皮尤研究中心發現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站，或轉交至已存在的新聞網站。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削減全職編輯(見圖)。數字媒體公司的崛起為重建本地新聞報道做的事少之又少，當地許多報刊倒閉。數字新聞公司長篇的敘事手法以及調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算困難而不再恢復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.

臉譜網的用戶或許在讀新聞，但是如果消息來自臉譜網，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網頁，訪客花費的時間約占三分之一。數字視頻或有增長，但是其廣告收入僅占所有數字廣告收入的10%，并且據觀察增長已放緩。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、福克斯和微軟全國有線廣播電視新聞公司黃金時間流失了約11%的共同觀眾。今天的新聞業與牛頓的第三運動定律很像，皮尤新聞調查中心的主任Amy Mitchell如是道，每一步都會有同等強烈的反應。新聞業的發展勢頭或許已經轉向了網絡，但是重力作用依然在將人們往地上拽。譯者:占文英