????上周，《尤金紀(jì)事衛(wèi)報(bào)》（Eugene Register-Guard）在其網(wǎng)站上發(fā)表了一篇關(guān)于當(dāng)?shù)刂茍D師大衛(wèi)?艾莫斯的報(bào)道。文章講述的是艾莫斯一度債臺(tái)高筑，直到網(wǎng)絡(luò)雜志《Slate》在1月份發(fā)文，大加贊揚(yáng)他的繪圖才能。現(xiàn)在，他的地圖賣(mài)瘋了，部分原因是《Slate》雜志給出了他網(wǎng)站的鏈接——艾莫斯地理（Imus Geographics）。然而，《尤金紀(jì)事衛(wèi)報(bào)》自己并沒(méi)有提供艾莫斯網(wǎng)站的鏈接，只是在文章末尾添上了《Slate》雜志和其他媒體相關(guān)報(bào)道的鏈接，而且這些也差不多是后來(lái)才加上去的東西。這個(gè)案例非常耐人尋味。

????皮尤研究中心卓越新聞項(xiàng)目（Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism）發(fā)布的一份最新研究報(bào)告稱，轉(zhuǎn)戰(zhàn)網(wǎng)絡(luò)之后獲得成功的報(bào)紙之所以寥若星辰，部分原因在于它們的“文化慣性（Cultural inertia）”。提供報(bào)道對(duì)象的網(wǎng)站鏈接這類(lèi)行為看似小事，但也是這種慣性的一種體現(xiàn)。總的問(wèn)題是，許多報(bào)紙對(duì)待互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的態(tài)度與《尤金紀(jì)事衛(wèi)報(bào)》處理鏈接的方式如出一轍——完全是馬后炮。我在這里并非單挑小小的《尤金紀(jì)事衛(wèi)報(bào)》說(shuō)事。作為世界上最好的報(bào)紙網(wǎng)站之一，《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》（The New York Times）的網(wǎng)站依然把某些短語(yǔ)鏈接到它自己的“專(zhuān)題頁(yè)面”，這有時(shí)讓習(xí)慣于點(diǎn)擊鏈接去閱讀另一篇文章或相關(guān)短語(yǔ)確切含義的讀者無(wú)所適從。很多時(shí)候，人們?cè)谶@種情況下希望看到的并不是什么專(zhuān)題頁(yè)。

????然而，文化慣性僅僅只是其中一個(gè)問(wèn)題。經(jīng)濟(jì)因素是報(bào)紙和其他“老媒體”持續(xù)萎縮的核心原因——源自在線廣告的收入現(xiàn)在還不足以彌補(bǔ)紙媒的廣告收入損失。這份研究報(bào)告顯示，由于廣告客戶紛紛退出，廣告價(jià)格急轉(zhuǎn)直下，報(bào)紙?jiān)谟∷鏄I(yè)務(wù)每損失7美元，其在線收入往往僅能彌補(bǔ)1美元。這項(xiàng)發(fā)現(xiàn)（雖然稱不上十分科學(xué)）是從一項(xiàng)針對(duì)6家公司（它們共擁有121份報(bào)紙）所做的調(diào)查中搜集得來(lái)。這些公司在提供數(shù)據(jù)時(shí)要求匿名。《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》稱這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)“相當(dāng)嚴(yán)峻”。

????的確如此，但報(bào)業(yè)的前景還存在一絲曙光，但前提條件是，報(bào)業(yè)公司必須擺脫慣性。比如，這次調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，僅有40%的報(bào)紙是根據(jù)讀者的行為來(lái)確定廣告受眾，實(shí)現(xiàn)廣告?zhèn)€性化投放。此外，印刷版的廣告銷(xiāo)售人員大大多于數(shù)字版，比例大約達(dá)到了3比1。更關(guān)注數(shù)字趨勢(shì)的報(bào)紙的業(yè)績(jī)往往好于那些轉(zhuǎn)型緩慢的報(bào)紙。

????讓一門(mén)“古老的”生意走進(jìn)新時(shí)代通常面臨的挑戰(zhàn)顯而易見(jiàn)。“其一是在一個(gè)成熟和壟斷性的行業(yè)中培養(yǎng)出來(lái)的從業(yè)者往往難以改變其行為，”皮尤研究中心指出。“另一項(xiàng)挑戰(zhàn)是一個(gè)難以回避的事實(shí)：報(bào)業(yè)中處于增長(zhǎng)態(tài)勢(shì)的部門(mén)，也就是數(shù)字版，現(xiàn)在還只能帶來(lái)一小部分的收入；而正在萎縮的部門(mén)，即紙質(zhì)版，依然提供大部分收入。這一悖論很難回避，難以辯駁。人們的普遍感受是，數(shù)字化轉(zhuǎn)型已經(jīng)啟動(dòng)了15年之久，但報(bào)業(yè)高管們?nèi)匀挥X(jué)得他們才剛剛找到一點(diǎn)門(mén)道。”

????譯者： 任文科

????Last week, the Eugene Register-Guard published an article online about David Imus, a local mapmaker who was buried in debt until the online magazine Slate praised his cartography gifts in January. Now he's selling maps like crazy, thanks in part to Slate linking to his site, Imus Geographics. The Register-Guard, however, did not provide a link to the site, and added links to Slate and other media outlets' stories only at the bottom of the article, almost as an afterthought. It was a case in point of sorts.

????"Cultural inertia" is responsible in part for the fact that so few newspapers are succeeding online, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Seemingly small things like linking to the sites that are the subjects of articles is but one manifestation of this inertia. The overall problem is that too many newspapers are still treating the Internet like the Register-Guard treats links -- as an afterthought. Which is not to single out the smallish Register-Guard. The New York Times, one of the best newspaper sites in the world, still often links certain phrases to its own "topic pages," which sometimes throws off people who are used to links taking them to another article or something that will actually explain precisely what the phrase is referring to. Often, that's not a topic page.

????Cultural inertia, though, is just one problem. Economics lie at the heart of the continued shrinking of newspapers and other "old media" -- revenues from online ads just aren't making up for the loss of print-based ad revenues. The study says newspapers on average make up just $1 online for every $7 they lose on the print side as advertisers bolt and rates decline. The findings, while not precisely scientific, were gleaned from a survey of six companies that own a total of 121 newspapers. They shared the data on condition that they remain anonymous. The New York Times pronounced the findings "grim."

????And so they are, but there are some rays of hope -- though they are dependent on newspaper companies casting off the inertia. Just 40% of the papers surveyed target and customize their ads based on reader behavior, for example. And the number of print-focused ad-sales people at the participating newspapers outnumbered digital-focused reps by about 3-to-1. The papers that are focusing more on digital tend to be doing better than those that are slow to make the transition.

????The usual challenges of converting a "legacy" business to a new age are apparent. "One involves the difficulty of changing the behavior of people trained in the ways of a mature and monopolistic industry," Pew notes. "Still another is the unavoidable fact that the part of the newspaper industry that is growing, digital, continues to provide only a small part of the revenue, while the part that is shrinking, print, provides most of the money -- a paradox that is difficult to navigate and hard to resist. One pervasive feeling is that 15 years into the digital transition, executives still feel they are in the early stages of figuring out a how to proceed."