????按需媒體公司（Demand Media）備受關注的轉型之旅正在繼續。這家位于加州圣莫尼卡的公司最近發布了業績報告，結果令分析人士備感鼓舞。但是，它的眾多寫手卻描繪了一幅迥然不同的圖景。

????按需媒體創建于2006年，在當年那批急于找到方法，實現網絡內容大規模生產的公司中，這家公司堪稱佼佼者。它根據互聯網用戶所搜索的內容，運用特定的算法，生成各種兼職寫作任務，再將它們分配出去。JP摩根證券公司（JMP Securities）的分析師帕特里克?瓦雷文稱：“太不可思議了。他們一年就能寫出兩百萬篇文章。”帕克里克稱，按需媒體每天炮制出成千上萬個寫作任務分配給眾多躍躍欲試的寫手。這一模式運作良好，去年的營業收入達到了2.53億美元。

????這一模式的潛在問題何在？除了那些有用的單身女子派對（wedding shower）指南，它同樣炮制了大量稀奇古怪的內容，比如速比濤泳衣（Speedo）的穿著方法，導致批評人士將這家公司稱為“內容農場”。去年2月，谷歌公司（Google）推出了代號為“熊貓”的搜索算法重大升級，此后，按需媒體就迎來了清算的時刻。這種算法提高了高質量內容在搜索結果中的排位，而眾多按需媒體擅長炮制的內容排位則急劇降低。結果，按需媒體的內容訪問量直線下降。該公司稱，搜索推薦量下跌了20%，而其最受歡迎的網站 eHow（一個在線知識資源，提供大量操作指南——譯注）頁面瀏覽量也下降了12%。

????毫無疑問，這種形勢讓投資者頗感震驚。去年1月，該公司正式上市進行首次公開募股（IPO），市值高達10億美元。自那以后，公司股價一路下行，已跌去69%。盡管目前它業績搶眼：第三財季收入從去年同期的6,500萬美元增至7,800萬美元，但卻于事無補。分析人士目前對公司的前景表示謹慎樂觀。投行Evercore 的總經理道格拉斯?亞瑟稱，按需媒體現在的行動計劃包括“用長遠眼光看待自己的內容生產工作室以及目前正在炮制的內容，削減內容的數量并專注于內容的質量。”據阿瑟稱，該公司正積極行動，滿足外界對它的期待。

????Demand Media's much-watched transformation continues. Analysts have been encouraged by the Santa Monica, California-based company's recent results. Its freelancers paint a very different picture, though.

????Started in 2006, Demand (DMD) was a front-runner in the wave of companies that rushed to find ways of creating Web content on a massive scale. Using algorithms, it generated and assigned freelance writing assignments based on what Internet users were searching for. "It was amazing. They literally wrote 2 million articles in a year," says Patrick Walravens, an analyst for JMP Securities. Demand's model of milling out tens of thousands of assignments to hungry freelancers each day worked well, he says, generating $253 million in revenues last year.

????The problem? For every useful wedding shower how-to, there were just as many odd ones, like how to put on a Speedo. That led critics to label the company a "content farm." Demand's moment of reckoning arrived when Google (GOOG) rolled out a significant update to its search algorithm, codenamed "Panda," last February. It elevated higher quality content in search results, pushing stories like many of the ones Demand specialized in further down. Traffic plummeted. The company reported that search referrals fell 20% and eHow, its most popular site, saw page views sink 12%.

????Needless to say, investors were spooked. Since the company's IPO last January, when it debuted at a $1 billion-plus valuation, shares have plummeted nearly 69%. That's despite the fact that Demand's third quarter revenues climbed to $78 million from $65 million the same time last year. Analysts are cautiously optimistic about the company's prospects.

????Evercore Managing Director Douglas Arthur says Demand's game plan now includes "taking a long look at their content production studio, what kind of content they're doing, cutting down on the amount of content and focusing on the quality of the content." According to Arthur, the company is performing to expectations.