美国国家公共电台 NPR Online Video Producers Caught In Struggle Between Advertisers And YouTube

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

People who produce content on YouTube are bringing in less money. They say their ad rates have gone down by as much as 75 percent the last couple weeks. As NPR's Laura Sydell reports, the producers are caught in a struggle between YouTube and its advertisers.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE²: YouTube has plenty of lighthearted entertainers who depend on the ads the company places on their video channels.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Want to forget that horrible illness and move on?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Take this pill, and forget you were ill.

SYDELL: David Firth is a British animator whose dark comedic videos were bringing in a good living.

DAVID FIRTH: However, recently, it's taken a huge nosedive.

SYDELL: Part of what's happened is that big companies, such as General Motors, McDonald's and Audi, pulled out of YouTube after reports of ads running next to extremist and anti-Semitic material. So there's less money to go around. To bring back advertisers, YouTube began to stop running ads against some videos.

FIRTH: They've decided³ that there are a whole new set of rules for what you can and you cannot put an advert¹ on and make money off. And they didn't tell anyone. They just suddenly start removing people's advert revenue⁴.

SYDELL: Firth says ads have been taken off videos that have the word die in the title, even though it's someone dying of laughter. It's not just entertainers who are having problems. It's advocates, like Real Women, Real Stories, which has non-graphic videos of women who've struggled with problems like physical abuse.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Then he started touching⁵ me and hitting me and kicking me.

SYDELL: The founder⁶ of the channel is Matan Uziel.

MATAN UZIEL: Real Women, Real Stories is a platform for women to say actually whatever they want to say, to speak their own mind.

SYDELL: Uziel was using the money from ads on the videos to pay for more of them. And then, the ads just stopped. YouTube is making changes to the way its algorithms plays ads. Jamie Byrne, a director of enterprise⁷ at YouTube, says the machines will get better at knowing the difference between a site fighting violence against women and one that promotes it.

JAMIE BYRNE: They need to take some time to learn where they should show ads and where they should not. And so by nature, they start out kind of with a smaller set of inventory⁸ that they serve ads on.

SYDELL: Byrne says one of the ways that the software will learn is if YouTube producers challenge a bad choice. YouTube is also making changes that give advertisers more control over where their ads are shown. They can pick categories, say, news or sports or even particular sites.

BYRNE: And if an advertiser has a specific content creator or organization that they don't feel they're comfortable with, they can always tell us that. And we can implement⁹ those types of controls for them.

SYDELL: So if an advertiser has conservative¹⁰ politics, maybe they don't want ads to run on MSNBC. The stakes are high for YouTube. According to some analysts¹¹, it stands to lose as much as $750 million this year if it doesn't bring back advertisers. Producer Matan Uziel says he's starting to see some ads come back on his videos, and he understands that YouTube is in a difficult position.

UZIEL: I don't hate YouTube. I like YouTube. And I think that because we're all very much dependent on YouTube, we have to know how it actually works.

SYDELL: For now, it seems like YouTube is also trying to figure out how its new system actually works. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF BERRY WEIGHT'S "THE WAY OF THE DODO")

1 advert   

vi.注意，留意，言及；n.广告

参考例句：

• The advert featured a dolphin swimming around a goldfish bowl.该广告的內容为一条在金鱼缸里游动的海豚。
• Please advert to the contents below.I believe you won't be disappointed.敬请留意后面的内容。相信您一定不会失望的。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 revenue   

n.总收入，财政收入，税收；税务局

参考例句：

• The country diminished the revenue by reducing tax.这个国家通过减税而使税收减少了。
• A government's revenue and expenditure should be balanced.政府的财政收入和支出要平衡。

5 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

6 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

7 enterprise   

n.企业单位，商业公司，事业，计划

参考例句：

• They are determined to carry forward the enterprise.他们决心把事业进行下去。
• The enterprise has excellent prospects.这家企业的远景极其美好。

8 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

9 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

10 conservative   

adj.保守的，守旧的；n.保守的人，保守派

参考例句：

• He is a conservative member of the church.他是一个守旧教会教友。
• The young man is very conservative.这个年轻人很守旧。

11 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。