商业

　　News Corporation's travails

　　新闻集团的阵痛

　　Rising Sun, setting son

　　《太阳报》冉冉升起，太子爷黯然退场

　　James Murdoch quits the newspaper business. Will News Corp too?

　　詹姆斯.默多克不再插手报纸行业，新闻集团会停止该业务吗？

　　WHETHER James Murdoch can ever succeed his father, Rupert, at the helm of News Corporation after resigning on February 29th as head of its scandal-ridden newspaper arm, News International, is not clear.

　　2月29日，詹姆斯辞去了深陷丑闻的新闻国际公司首席运营官一职。他是否能继承他的父亲，鲁伯特.默多克成为新闻集团，即新闻国际公司的母公司的掌舵人，目前还尚不清楚。

　　The firm, of course, is depicting the change as almost trivial: he will still be deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and overseer of its international businesses,

　　新闻集团称这次只是一个小小的人事变动：他将仍然是新闻集团的副首席运营官以及其国际业务的监督人。

　　and it was first announced nearly a year ago that he would move to New York.

　　况且，早在近一年以前，已经有消息称他要搬到纽约。

　　In theory he can now make a fresh start: one of his main responsibilities will be pay television, a business in which he did well before taking over the newspapers in 2007, the move that marked him as heir apparent.

　　理论上，他现在可以重新来过：他将主要打理收费电视业务，在2007年接管新闻国际公司之前，他把这个业务搞得有声有色，人们因其接管了新闻国际公司而认为他是默克多最有可能的继承人。

　　And he will be insulated from the poisonous atmosphere in London, where it was confirmed this week that the victims of phone-hacking by News of the World (NOW) journalists included none other than Mr Murdoch's disgraced former sidekick,

　　他还可以避开在伦敦的压抑气氛。伦敦本周确认，《世界新闻报》记者窃听事件的受害人（注：这里可能是''villain"的笔误，布鲁克斯应该是指使这次丑闻的人之一）居然还包括默多克不光彩的前任下属兼密友丽贝卡.布鲁克斯（Rebekah Brooks）。

　　Rebekah Brooks, who at the time was editor of NOW's stablemate, the Sun.

　　她当时是《太阳报》的编辑。《太阳报》与《世界新闻报》同属新闻集团。

　　All the same, James Murdoch will be remembered as the man who closed Britain's biggest Sunday paper and claimed not to have known how deep the rot was despite warnings from underlings.

　　尽管如此，詹姆斯.默多克被记得最多的将是，他关闭了英国最大的周日报，并且宣称他本人并不知道该报有多腐败，虽然下属曾经提醒过他。

　　When Rupert Murdoch appeared in London in February to launch the Sun on Sunday, it was without James but with his elder son, Lachlan, prompting speculation that the latter, formerly out of favour, is back in the running to take over.

　　2月10号，鲁伯特.默多克到伦敦筹办《星期日太阳报》办报事宜，陪伴一旁的是他的大儿子拉克兰，而不是次子詹姆斯。这引起了人们的猜想：一度失宠的后者如今又将重新加入到新闻集团的继承权之争中。

　　Rupert Murdoch may be in the habit of anointing his successors with printing ink,

　　鲁伯特.默多克或许习惯于让报刊业为他的接班人镀金。

　　but to the markets his newspapers matter little.

　　但是，他的报刊业务在他所有的市场中所占的份额根本是无足轻重。

　　In 2010, the last year News Corp reported earnings separately for the papers (plus some online-information services), they brought in less than a fifth of the company's revenue and only an eighth of its profits.

　　2010年，也就是新闻集团单独公布报纸盈利(包括一些网络服务的盈利)的最后一年，所公布的收入还不足新闻集团盈利的五分之一，其利润也仅仅占了八分之一。

　　Investors welcomed the seventh-day Sun, which should win back some of NOW's lost readers, but in general they see newspapers as an "asset-intensive, slow-growth, marginally profitable business", says Todd Juenger of Sanford C. Bernstein, an investment bank.

　　来自桑福德伯恩斯坦（Sanford C. Bernstein）投资银行的托德.容格（Todd Juenger）说，投资者青睐《星期日太阳报》，这应该有助于集团挽回一些《世界新闻报》流失的读者。但是一般而言，他们认为报业是一个"资产密集型，增长缓慢，盈利极小的行业"。

　　Though its shares are at a four-year high the firm is still widely reckoned to be undervalued.

　　虽然新闻集团的股价达到了四年来最高的水平，但是很多人都估计，该集团的价值被低估了。

　　They even rose slightly the day James Murdoch resigned, and the day after his boss, Chase Carey, the chief operating officer, acknowledged at a conference that executives had discussed selling the newspaper business.

　　甚至在詹姆斯.默多克辞职当天，股票还轻微上涨了；还有他的上司，首席运营官切斯?凯里(Chase Carey)在一次会议中证实高管们曾经讨论要把报纸相关的业务卖出去的那一天，股票也上涨了。

　　That may mean investors think the papers' eventual sale is now more likely, or that the hacking affair has taken its last senior scalp, or both.

　　股票上涨可能意味着投资者认为，集团旗下的报纸现在将很有可能被卖出去，又或者是窃听事件已经告一段落，又或者是两者兼有。

　　But celebrating either would be premature. It would be hard to get a good price for the tainted News International, Mr Juenger points out,

　　但是，容格指出，现在就要庆祝以上两件事任何一件都还为时过早，如今想要声名狼藉的新闻国际公司卖个好价钱，并不容易。

　　and any buyer would probably insist that News Corp indemnify it against the effects of possible future revelations.

　　况且任何买家可能都会坚持要求新闻集团为报纸将来可能受到的指控负责任。

　　And if the investigation in Britain finds evidence of bribery, News Corp could face stiff fines in America under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and more heads could roll.

　　如果英国的调查小组发现有关贿赂的证据，根据美国的《反海外腐败法》，新闻集团很有可能面临巨额赔款，还将有更多的人受到影响。

　　Even if James Murdoch can redeem himself, likely rivals for the top job will include not just his siblings but also Mr Carey, widely seen as one of the most competent media executives in America.

　　即使詹姆斯.默多克能够挽回自己的声誉，跟其竞争总裁这一职位的潜在对手除了他的兄长和姐姐，还有凯里，后者被认为是美国最有能力的媒体管理者之一。

　　But he has time yet. And a News Corp without newspapers might be the perfect company for him.

　　但是他还有时间。如果新闻集团停止有关报刊的业务，对他来说才是最好的。