经济学人429:Buzzfeed与在线新闻

 　　Buzzfeed and online news

　　Buzzfeed与在线新闻

　　Which media company are you?

　　你是哪种媒体公司？

　　How a young company plans to take on the news Leviathans

　　一家年轻的公司该如何计划成为新闻业霸主

　　WHEN Arianna Huffington sold her online-news firm for $315m in 2011, people gawked at the price tag. Now BuzzFeed, a hipper¹ digital news firm co-founded by Jonah Peretti, a Huffington Post alumnus, has one-upped her. On August 10th Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital firm, said it was investing $50m in BuzzFeed, reportedly valuing the eight-year-old website at $850m, half the market value of the New York Times.

　　当Arianna Huffington在2011年以3.15亿美元的价格卖掉她的在线新闻公司时，人们被这个价签惊呆了。如今，BuzzFeed—家由赫芬顿邮报员工Jonah Peretti联合创立的新潮的数字新闻公司，比她更胜一筹。8月10日，一家风险投资公司Andreessen Horowitz称其正拿出5000万美元对BuzzFeed公司进行投资，据报道，成立八年的BuzzFeed网站的估价为8.5亿美元，约为纽约时报市值的一半。

　　Buzzfeed与在线新闻.jpg

　　Perhaps the investment is not so extraordinary. According to comScore, a research firm, BuzzFeed had around 75m unique visitors in June—more than the websites of the Times and other bigdailies. It makes money through “sponsored content”—which often looks remarkably² and deliberately³ like a normal article, but is commissioned by advertisers. “Which Barbie Doll Are You?” was one of Buzzfeed's quizzes earlier this year . It was paid for by Mattel, Barbie's maker⁴.

　　或许这一投资并非如此令人意外。根据一家研究公司comScore的数据，BuzzFeed 在6月拥有约7500万独立访问者，这个数字超过了时报等其他大型日报网站的独立访问量。它通过发布“赞助内容”来赚钱，这些“赞助内容”通常很引人注目且看起来很像普通的文章，但是实际上是由广告方委托发布的。BuzzFeed 今年年初的一个调查问卷—“你是哪种芭比娃娃？”就是由芭比娃娃的制造商—美泰花钱委托发布的。

　　BuzzFeed is only one of several new-media firms making headlines. Others include Business Insider, Quartz⁵ and Vice⁶. These firms know how to present stories slickly on screens and to create a buzz for their wares⁷ on social media.

　　在这些新型媒体公司中，BuzzFeed 是唯一一家上头条的。这些新型媒体公司还包括Business Insider， Quartz 和Vice。这些公司熟知如何将故事巧妙的呈现在屏幕上，并在社交媒体上为其商品制造话题。

　　It'sSilicon Valley. They say we're toast

　　这里是硅谷。他们说：我们完蛋了。

　　It is rare for venture capitalists to invest in the news business, especially at a time when many owners of newspapers are selling them, from Gannett (publisher of USA Today) to Tribune Company (the Los Angeles Times). Perhaps Silicon⁸ Valley has so much cash that money is flooding all the way toNew York. But venture capitalists also seem to see an opportunity for new firms in a business mostly controlled by veterans.

　　风险投资者鲜少投资新闻业，尤其是在这个众多报业拥有者纷纷出售其报纸产业的时期，从Gannett报业集团到论坛报业集团。

　　Surprisingly, BuzzFeed is starting to look a bit like an old-media organisation⁹ itself. It plans to hire more journalists, opening outposts around the world this year. But Mr Peretti does not see any tension. “What you see in the history of media is that companies start out doing small, lower-cost ways of content and then move up the chain,” he says. BuzzFeed could yet go from producing “listicles” to listing on the stockmarket. But it still needs to answer the question, “Which Media Company Are You?”

　　令人惊奇的是，BuzzFeed正开始看起来有点像一家传统媒体机构。它计划今年雇佣更多的记者，在全世界部署前哨。但Peretti先生没有感到任何压力。他说“你们在媒体历史中看到的是媒体公司一开始使用低档的低成本的方法从事媒体工作以及随后升级产业链”。 BuzzFeed 还能通过开发listicles功能进而使公司上市。但是“你是哪种媒体公司？”—这个问题依然需要解答。

1 hipper   

hip（（衣服、音乐等方面）时髦的，赶时髦的）的比较级形式

参考例句：

• So were the two pocket battleships and the big cruisers Admiral Hipper, Seydlitz and Derfflinger. 和这两艘袖珍战列舰一样的还有重巡洋舰希佩海军上将号，赛德利兹号以及德尔福林格号。 来自互联网

2 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

3 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

4 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

5 quartz   

n.石英

参考例句：

• There is a great deal quartz in those mountains.那些山里蕴藏着大量石英。
• The quartz watch keeps good time.石英表走时准。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

8 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

9 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。