个性化报刊

　　Your digital paper, sir

　　先生，您的电子报纸

　　The struggle to make money out of news on tablets

　　数字媒体平台的生财之道

　　1.A CUSTOMISED, constantly-updating newspaper used to be the stuff of science fiction. Now, thanks to tablet devices like the iPad, there are several. Livestand, a news app launched this week by Yahoo!, joins a field that already includes Zite, bought recently by CNN; Editions, created by AOL; and Flipboard, which Google tried to buy last year. Rebuffed, Google is expected at some point to launch its own news app, code-named Propeller.

　　量身定制，随时更新的报纸以前只存在于科幻小说中。而现在由于有了像IPAD这样的平板电脑，（许多）这样的报纸变成了现实。雅虎加入了数字媒体平台研发领域，发布了其新程序LIVESTAND；此前涉足此领域的还有被BBC所收购的ZITE，以及AOL公司开发的Editions，还有谷歌一直想要收购的FLIPBOARD。谷歌也希望在合适的时间发布其新的个性化电子杂志应用程序PROPELLER

　　2.These corporate giants aim to cash in on the desperation of traditional news publishers. A study last month by the Pew Research Centre with The Economist Group (this newspaper’s parent company) found that, less than two years after the iPad went on sale, 11% of American adults now own a tablet and more than half of this group read news on it each day. They are more avid news consumers than those without tablets (see chart), and for long articles they prefer their tablets both to ordinary computers and (remarkably) to print. Ken Doctor of Outsell, a media consultancy, says the study is the best evidence yet that tablets are gradually replacing print. 这些商业巨人都希望在身处困境的传统出版商身上大捞一笔。由皮尔研究中心和经济学人集团联合进行的研究发现，在IPAD发售后不到两年时间里，约11%的美国成年人都拥有了平板电脑，其中半数以上每天通过平板电脑阅读新闻。这些人比那些没有平板电脑的人更热衷于看新闻，而且当出现长篇文章的时候，他们更喜欢用平板，而不愿在电脑特别是报刊上阅读。奥特赛尔公司的媒体咨询师说，这项研究有力的证实了传统报刊正在被数字刊物平台所取代。

　　3.For news outlets facing dwindling print circulations and meagre online advertising rates, this is a glimmer of hope. Yet turning this readership into revenue is tricky. Not all publishers can afford to build their own tablet apps. For those that can, readers are somewhat readier to pay for subscriptions than on the web; advertising rates are (for now) six to ten times higher than online, according to Mr Doctor. But it is not yet clear how many readers will make the switch. And for publishers without an app, tablet users are just like other web users: worth very little money.

　　新闻报刊的发行量正日益萎缩，网上的广告刊登率也乏善可陈，数字媒体平台也许是个契机。但是要将读者转化为收入来源是需要智慧的。并不是每个出版商都有能力建立自己的数字媒体平台。对于那些有能力的出版商而言，读者显然更愿意付钱订阅电子杂志而非在网上浏览新闻， 道可特先生说，其广告刊登率也是在线广告的6到10倍，但目前还不清楚到底有多少读者愿意放弃浏览网页转而使用数字媒体平台。而对于没有数字刊物平台的出版商而言，平板电脑的使用者跟其他上网浏览新闻的读者没有什么不同：赚不到什么钱。

　　4.Flipboard and its rivals let users create a personalised digital magazine from a mix of sources, which can include magazines, newspapers, blogs and articles posted by their contacts on Facebook or Twitter. On the web, similar “aggregator” sites, personalised or not, have a bad name as freeloaders that create no content of their own. And the app versions have been of dubious benefit thus far to publishers, which must provide their stories free (or at least the first few lines, with a link to their websites) in return for the vague hope of getting more readers. But compared with a website cluttered with links and ads for penis enlargement, the apps are clean, stylish and nice to use. And some have started carrying glossy, high-end ads and sharing the revenue with publishers.

　　FLIPBOARD 和它的竞争对手都向其使用者提供个性化数字杂志服务，允许读者从众多电子刊物中进行选择，这些刊物包括杂志，报纸，FACEBOOK和TWITTER上的博客文章。在网上，有些类似于“大杂烩”式的网站，向读者提供免费下载服务，但他们没有自己的原创内容。迄今为止数字报刊平台并不能给出版商带来多少利润，出版商们必须提供免费新闻（至少是几个连接其主页的新闻链接）以期吸引更多的读者。与充斥着大量网站链接和阴茎增大广告的网站相比，数字媒体平台更纯净，更时尚，也更好用。有的数字平台已开始加入了一些简洁高端的广告，与商家实现共赢。

　　5.Livestand is the most publisher-friendly app so far. It is more like a digital news-stand than a personalised magazine: users can subscribe to various publications, but must read each one separately instead of seeing all their stories together. Publishers must provide the full text of their stories, but can control their visual design, and from next year they will be able to charge for subscriptions too. There will be interactive and video ads, for which Yahoo! will charge advertisers big premiums.

　　LIVESTAND 是迄今为止最具出版商亲和力的数字刊物平台。它看起来更像是一个数字杂志摊而并非个性化定制的杂志，读者可以向不同的出版商订阅电子杂志， 但每次只能读到其中一篇文章而不是读照单全读。出版商必须提供其文章的全文内容，但可以控制浏览模式，而且从明年开始，他们便可以向订购人收取费用了。平台上会有一些互动广告或视频广告，从中雅虎可以大赚广告客户一笔。

　　6.Some publishers may benefit from all this; others may lose subscribers from their own apps to the aggregators. Readers will be spoilt for choice. For Yahoo! and the rest it should be a nice little business—as long as there are any publishers left to fuel it.

　　一些出版商可能会从中受益，但还有一些出版商的客户将会被那些提供免费下载的网站抢去。读者的选择余地很大。对于雅虎而言， 接下来就可以打如意小算盘了——只要有出版商向其提供杂志。