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Journalism in America
美国新闻业
Digital resurrection
数字复兴
Some moderately good news in the news industry
新闻业的好消息
IN FEBRUARY Vice, a media firm that caters to youngsters who like their news with a dollop of sass and hip-hop, toured the opulent residence 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 new report by the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, finds that a third of Americans now watch news videos online, about as many as say they watch news on cable television. Among those aged 18-29, around half do.
传媒公司Vice迎合年轻人的口味播报充满狂言妄语的新闻及嘻哈音乐。今年二月，该传媒公司的记者参观了已被罢黜的乌克兰总统亚努科维奇豪宅并将视频传到了网上。“这个地方就像一个怪异的独裁主题公园”记者颇具讽刺性地对着摄像机说道。智库皮尤研究中心最近发表了一个新的报告，该报道显示近三分之一的美国人在网上看视频新闻，约近乎三分之一的人称他们在有线电视上看新闻。在那些18-29岁的年轻人中，近一半的人在网上看新闻。
In years past Pew's “State of the News Media” reports have been sombre, chronicling the evisceration of jobs and the gutting of news budgets. This year, however, Pew sounded more optimistic, 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 away from big publications, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, and are launching bureaus around the world (although not nearly as many as have been shuttered by newspapers).
在过去的几年，皮尤中心有关“新闻媒体的状况”的报告都是阴郁的，长久以来都是老生常谈的就业问题和新预算。但是今年，皮尤似乎更为乐观，指出数字新闻服务局势的回转，比如说Vice在线新闻频道，最近如雨后春笋一般冒出来。根据皮尤的数据，468家数字新闻公司已经创造了近5000个全职岗位。许多在线新闻公司从大型出版社挖墙脚，雇了许多高知名度的记者，如纽约时报级华盛顿邮报，并在全球广设分局（尽管并非很多由于纸质新闻业而惨遭关闭）。
Digital news firms used to do little besides rehashing traditional newspapers'stories. Now they are 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 boss of Business Insider. Buzz Feed, which used to be known for casting out “click bait” online, now claims around 170 full-time staff, including a Pulitzer-prize winner, Mark Schoofs, who has been hired to run a new investigative team.
数字新闻公司过去除了重复传统新闻报纸的故事之外很少写自己的东西。而现在他们正开始创作更多原创的文章。去年，商业新闻网站“财经内幕”就写了一篇文章概述雅虎的老板玛丽莎·梅耶尔，该文章字数达到2.3万，已然是一部中篇小说了。“你可以在网上这么做，若是在杂志上你就直接破产了”，该杂志的老板亨利·布洛杰特声称。Buzz Feed，曾经因网上清楚“点击诱惑”而闻名，现拥有约170名全职员工，其中包括普利策奖获奖者Mark Schoofs，他目前负责一个新闻调查组。
Lower costs explain why so many digital news firms, like Silicon Valley start-ups, are launching today. 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 Pierre Omidyar put $250m into a new non-profit, First Look Media. All this has injected hope into a beleaguered industry. Last month Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist, predicted that journalism may “be entering into a new golden age” and that the news industry would grow ten- or a hundredfold.
低成本运行解释了为什么现在如此之多的新闻公司就像硅谷的暴发户一般地崛起。新闻分析人肯·多科特回想当时打造可靠的数字新闻产品仅需500万美元。现在金融家和慈善家都在投资新闻：易趣网创始人皮尔斯·奥米戴尔投资了2,5亿元运营一个新的非盈利网站First Look Media。所有的这些为这个四面楚歌的行业注入了一缕希望。上个月，风险资本家Andreessen预测新闻业将“进入一个新的黄金期”并且新闻业的利润将增长十倍甚至百倍。
Journalism is at least becoming more participatory. Pew finds that around half of social-media users share news articles or videos, and comment on them. Around 7% of American adults have posted their own news video to a social network, or submitted one to an established news site. Interactive features are doing particularly well. Last year the New York Times's most popular “article” was a quiz in which people could test whether they spoke more like a Los Angeleno or a Louisianan.
至少现在新闻业变得越来越具参与度了。皮尤研究中心发现近乎一半的社交媒介用户分享新闻视频和文章并且在上面发表评论。约7%的美国成年人将他们自己的新闻视频传到社交网站，或转交至已存在的新闻网站。交互式的特写做的尤其出色。去年，纽约时报最受欢迎的文章是一个小测试，通过该测试人们可以知道他们的口音是更像洛杉矶人还是更像路易斯安娜人。
Some positive news is welcome, but newsrooms continue to bleed jobs (see chart). The rise of digital-media firms has done little to restore local news coverage, which has suffered with the closure of many local papers. Digital-news firms'long-form narratives and investigative journalism may grab attention, but they are unlikely to compensate for projects that will never take place again in old newsrooms because of budgetary woes.
积极的新闻总是受欢迎的，但是新闻编辑室持续削减全职编辑（见图）。数字媒体公司的崛起为重建本地新闻报道做的事少之又少，当地许多报刊倒闭。数字新闻公司长篇的叙事手法以及调查性新闻或许能吸引读者的眼球，但是他们依然不能弥补那些由于预算困难而不再恢复其在新闻编辑室的位置。
Facebook users may be reading news, but they spend on average only a minute and a half on a news site each month if they come from Facebook, about a third of the time that visitors spend if they go to a newspaper's site directly. And digital video may be growing, but its advertising only accounts for around 10% of all digital ad revenues, and viewing growth has slowed. Even television 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 news industry today resembles Newton's third law of motion, says Amy Mitchell, Pew's director of journalism research: for every action, there is an equally strong reaction. The momentum might have shifted online, but gravity is still pulling everyone down to earth.
脸谱网的用户或许在读新闻，但是如果消息来自脸谱网，他们平均一个月花一分半钟看新闻，若他们直接进入新闻网网页，访客花费的时间约占三分之一。数字视频或有增长，但是其广告收入仅占所有数字广告收入的10%，并且据观察增长已放缓。即便是电视新闻日子也不好过。2013年，三大新闻频道，美国有线新闻网、福克斯和微软全国有线广播电视新闻公司黄金时间流失了约11%的共同观众。今天的新闻业与牛顿的第三运动定律很像，皮尤新闻调查中心的主任Amy Mitchell如是道，每一步都会有同等强烈的反应。新闻业的发展势头或许已经转向了网络，但是重力作用依然在将人们往地上拽。译者:占文英
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