From all visible signs, it's not a place where a news organization can survive by just doing business as usual, creating and marketing content. Indeed, it often appears as if the more our content is distributed, the more our pricing declines. And yet the audience on the other side of the bridge seems to be having fun. They're doing other things besides reading news stories - like connecting with their friends on Facebook, networking through LinkedIn, writing blogs by the millions and following interesting people, places and things on Twitter.
所有跡象表明，新聞機(jī)構(gòu)不能僅僅憑借以往的方式通過創(chuàng)作和營銷內(nèi)容而生存下去。事實(shí)上，通常的情況是，我們的內(nèi)容傳播得越多，我們的售價降低得也就越大。但是，數(shù)字之橋另一側(cè)的受眾似乎正樂在其中。他們除了閱讀新聞外還做別的事情--通過Facebook 和朋友聯(lián)系、通過LinkedIn 進(jìn)行社交、寫博客以及追尋Twitter 上有趣的人物、場景和事件。
Even before they started paying more attention to each other than to Web sites, users had adopted search as their online compass for everything including news. That easy-to-use tool led them to cultivate new sources for what they sought. Wikipedia, once a user-generated curiosity, now sits atop the leaderboard of news and information providers with a staggering monthly audience of 60 million users.
相比關(guān)注網(wǎng)站，用戶開始更關(guān)注彼此，甚至在這之前他們已經(jīng)將搜索作為其在線指南針，這里面也包括了對新聞的搜索。這種方便的工具引導(dǎo)他們開發(fā)新的渠道。維基百科曾經(jīng)是用戶為滿足好奇和求知欲而創(chuàng)造出來的，如今已經(jīng)位居新聞和信息供應(yīng)者的榜首，每月訪問用戶達(dá)到6000 萬人次之多。
The biggest names in journalism are struggling to find their place in this new game, much as the ponderous big men of the paint struggled to compete with the smaller, more fleet-footed outside shooters from the three-point arc in basketball. A simple change disrupted, and improved, that game. The smart players and coaches adapted.
新聞業(yè)的巨頭正在新的比賽規(guī)則中艱難地尋找他們的位置，正如站在籃下三秒?yún)^(qū)內(nèi)的笨重高個子球員拼命防守三分弧線外的靈活機(jī)動的小個子投手一樣。一個小的變化改變并提升了這一比賽。聰明的選手和教練能夠適應(yīng)這一變化。
Discussion of how to change AP's approach to digital news quickly led to the almost embarrassingly simple idea of an AP news blog. We, like others, had in the recent past looked at this approach, tried it in limited ways and moved on. But this time we decided to join the fray in a way that could be game-changing - look at blogging as the foundation for a model of audience engagement.
有關(guān)美聯(lián)社如何改變應(yīng)對數(shù)字新聞的討論，很快將問題引向了美聯(lián)社創(chuàng)建新聞博客這一幾乎令人尷尬的簡單想法。和其他新聞機(jī)構(gòu)一樣，我們在近幾年一直關(guān)注這一方法，以有限的幾種方式嘗試過它，并仍在進(jìn)行嘗試。但是這次我們決定以*比賽規(guī)則的方式來做這事--將博客作為受眾參與模式的基礎(chǔ)。
Rather than work only with theory, the team decided to put a real model in play - an experiment around the week-long Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court confirmation hearings in July.
不僅僅是在理論上探討，我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)還決定把該想法應(yīng)用在實(shí)際中--在7月份為期一周的關(guān)于索尼亞·索托馬約爾就任法院大法官份的確認(rèn)聽證會上進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)。
The blog idea served as the center of gravity for the new model, and other audience channels were connected to create an experimental new "ecosystem." Twitter became a facility for direct user comments and interaction. Links back and forth to member news providers, recruited in advance, were included to test the blog's ability to move traffic around a network.
The experience provided a model for what a collaborative approach to a networked news environment might look like - key ingredients being a major portal as a traffic hub, social media like Twitter for audience input and member participation to create the network effect.
創(chuàng)建博客的想法成為了這一新模式的重心，此外，我們還將其他受眾渠道連接起來，建立了一個實(shí)驗(yàn)性的新"生態(tài)系統(tǒng)"。 Twitter 成為了用戶發(fā)表評論和互動的直接平臺。此外，我們還通過鏈接到事先確定的美聯(lián)社會員新聞供應(yīng)商來檢驗(yàn)博客的網(wǎng)絡(luò)內(nèi)運(yùn)行情況。
The combination was very successful from all perspectives. Yahoo's news traffic jumped 20 percent compared to the norm for AP stories. Participating newspapers more than doubled their Web traffic from Yahoo. Twitter drove 27 percent more traffic to Yahoo than normal, and AP's blog attracted triple the traffic of the regular news story. Not incidentally, we estimate the net potential new revenue generated by the effort to be at least $200,000 greater than expenses.
此類經(jīng)驗(yàn)構(gòu)造了一個新的合作模式，它使得網(wǎng)絡(luò)新聞環(huán)境看起來是這樣的--主要門戶中的關(guān)鍵詞組合成為流量樞紐，Twitter 之類的社交媒體讓受眾互動，會員機(jī)構(gòu)的參加產(chǎn)生網(wǎng)絡(luò)效應(yīng)。這一聯(lián)合模式從各方面來看都很成功。Yahoo 上的新聞流量與正常狀態(tài)下的AP新聞相比增長了20%。參與報(bào)紙的Yahoo網(wǎng)站瀏覽量增加一倍多。Twitter 使得Yahoo的流量比正常情況下增加了27%， 美聯(lián)社的博客吸引了普通新聞三倍的人氣。此外，我們估計(jì)新產(chǎn)生的收益至少要比成本多出20 萬美元。
The experiment also provided a reminder of a couple basic lessons for any wire service - live or real-time still matters and context - an effort to make sense of the cluttered news world - is what many news consumers seek.
這一實(shí)驗(yàn)也為所有通訊社提供了一些基本啟示-- 直擊式新聞或?qū)崟r報(bào)道仍然十分關(guān)鍵，而用來幫助理清一團(tuán)亂麻的新聞圖景的背景交代，仍是許多新聞用戶想要的東西。
President Li and others will recognize that the efforts to build traffic and relevance with customers cover only part of the game - the offensive part. Defense is just as necessary to win. And we content creators have been too slow to react to free exploitation of news content by third parties without input or permission.
李社長和其他人會認(rèn)識到，創(chuàng)建流量及與受眾的聯(lián)系只是這項(xiàng)比賽的一部分 --進(jìn)攻部分。防守也是取得成功的要素。對于第三方在沒有獲得許可權(quán)的情況下隨意傳播新聞內(nèi)容的行為，我們這些內(nèi)容制作者的反應(yīng)太慢了。
Random distribution of traffic by aggregators such as search engines directs audience and revenue away from those who invest in original news reports but assures the aggregators and their ad networks of a stream of revenue based on aggregation and indexing of published news content.
搜索引擎之類的信息聚合器對流量的隨機(jī)分配，使得受眾和收入遠(yuǎn)離那些投資原創(chuàng)新聞的機(jī)構(gòu)，但這卻確保了以信息匯集和新聞內(nèi)容索引為基礎(chǔ)的聚合器的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)及其源源不斷的網(wǎng)絡(luò)廣告收益。
所有跡象表明，新聞機(jī)構(gòu)不能僅僅憑借以往的方式通過創(chuàng)作和營銷內(nèi)容而生存下去。事實(shí)上，通常的情況是，我們的內(nèi)容傳播得越多，我們的售價降低得也就越大。但是，數(shù)字之橋另一側(cè)的受眾似乎正樂在其中。他們除了閱讀新聞外還做別的事情--通過Facebook 和朋友聯(lián)系、通過LinkedIn 進(jìn)行社交、寫博客以及追尋Twitter 上有趣的人物、場景和事件。
Even before they started paying more attention to each other than to Web sites, users had adopted search as their online compass for everything including news. That easy-to-use tool led them to cultivate new sources for what they sought. Wikipedia, once a user-generated curiosity, now sits atop the leaderboard of news and information providers with a staggering monthly audience of 60 million users.
相比關(guān)注網(wǎng)站，用戶開始更關(guān)注彼此，甚至在這之前他們已經(jīng)將搜索作為其在線指南針，這里面也包括了對新聞的搜索。這種方便的工具引導(dǎo)他們開發(fā)新的渠道。維基百科曾經(jīng)是用戶為滿足好奇和求知欲而創(chuàng)造出來的，如今已經(jīng)位居新聞和信息供應(yīng)者的榜首，每月訪問用戶達(dá)到6000 萬人次之多。
The biggest names in journalism are struggling to find their place in this new game, much as the ponderous big men of the paint struggled to compete with the smaller, more fleet-footed outside shooters from the three-point arc in basketball. A simple change disrupted, and improved, that game. The smart players and coaches adapted.
新聞業(yè)的巨頭正在新的比賽規(guī)則中艱難地尋找他們的位置，正如站在籃下三秒?yún)^(qū)內(nèi)的笨重高個子球員拼命防守三分弧線外的靈活機(jī)動的小個子投手一樣。一個小的變化改變并提升了這一比賽。聰明的選手和教練能夠適應(yīng)這一變化。
Discussion of how to change AP's approach to digital news quickly led to the almost embarrassingly simple idea of an AP news blog. We, like others, had in the recent past looked at this approach, tried it in limited ways and moved on. But this time we decided to join the fray in a way that could be game-changing - look at blogging as the foundation for a model of audience engagement.
有關(guān)美聯(lián)社如何改變應(yīng)對數(shù)字新聞的討論，很快將問題引向了美聯(lián)社創(chuàng)建新聞博客這一幾乎令人尷尬的簡單想法。和其他新聞機(jī)構(gòu)一樣，我們在近幾年一直關(guān)注這一方法，以有限的幾種方式嘗試過它，并仍在進(jìn)行嘗試。但是這次我們決定以*比賽規(guī)則的方式來做這事--將博客作為受眾參與模式的基礎(chǔ)。
Rather than work only with theory, the team decided to put a real model in play - an experiment around the week-long Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court confirmation hearings in July.
不僅僅是在理論上探討，我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)還決定把該想法應(yīng)用在實(shí)際中--在7月份為期一周的關(guān)于索尼亞·索托馬約爾就任法院大法官份的確認(rèn)聽證會上進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)。
The blog idea served as the center of gravity for the new model, and other audience channels were connected to create an experimental new "ecosystem." Twitter became a facility for direct user comments and interaction. Links back and forth to member news providers, recruited in advance, were included to test the blog's ability to move traffic around a network.
The experience provided a model for what a collaborative approach to a networked news environment might look like - key ingredients being a major portal as a traffic hub, social media like Twitter for audience input and member participation to create the network effect.
創(chuàng)建博客的想法成為了這一新模式的重心，此外，我們還將其他受眾渠道連接起來，建立了一個實(shí)驗(yàn)性的新"生態(tài)系統(tǒng)"。 Twitter 成為了用戶發(fā)表評論和互動的直接平臺。此外，我們還通過鏈接到事先確定的美聯(lián)社會員新聞供應(yīng)商來檢驗(yàn)博客的網(wǎng)絡(luò)內(nèi)運(yùn)行情況。
The combination was very successful from all perspectives. Yahoo's news traffic jumped 20 percent compared to the norm for AP stories. Participating newspapers more than doubled their Web traffic from Yahoo. Twitter drove 27 percent more traffic to Yahoo than normal, and AP's blog attracted triple the traffic of the regular news story. Not incidentally, we estimate the net potential new revenue generated by the effort to be at least $200,000 greater than expenses.
此類經(jīng)驗(yàn)構(gòu)造了一個新的合作模式，它使得網(wǎng)絡(luò)新聞環(huán)境看起來是這樣的--主要門戶中的關(guān)鍵詞組合成為流量樞紐，Twitter 之類的社交媒體讓受眾互動，會員機(jī)構(gòu)的參加產(chǎn)生網(wǎng)絡(luò)效應(yīng)。這一聯(lián)合模式從各方面來看都很成功。Yahoo 上的新聞流量與正常狀態(tài)下的AP新聞相比增長了20%。參與報(bào)紙的Yahoo網(wǎng)站瀏覽量增加一倍多。Twitter 使得Yahoo的流量比正常情況下增加了27%， 美聯(lián)社的博客吸引了普通新聞三倍的人氣。此外，我們估計(jì)新產(chǎn)生的收益至少要比成本多出20 萬美元。
The experiment also provided a reminder of a couple basic lessons for any wire service - live or real-time still matters and context - an effort to make sense of the cluttered news world - is what many news consumers seek.
這一實(shí)驗(yàn)也為所有通訊社提供了一些基本啟示-- 直擊式新聞或?qū)崟r報(bào)道仍然十分關(guān)鍵，而用來幫助理清一團(tuán)亂麻的新聞圖景的背景交代，仍是許多新聞用戶想要的東西。
President Li and others will recognize that the efforts to build traffic and relevance with customers cover only part of the game - the offensive part. Defense is just as necessary to win. And we content creators have been too slow to react to free exploitation of news content by third parties without input or permission.
李社長和其他人會認(rèn)識到，創(chuàng)建流量及與受眾的聯(lián)系只是這項(xiàng)比賽的一部分 --進(jìn)攻部分。防守也是取得成功的要素。對于第三方在沒有獲得許可權(quán)的情況下隨意傳播新聞內(nèi)容的行為，我們這些內(nèi)容制作者的反應(yīng)太慢了。
Random distribution of traffic by aggregators such as search engines directs audience and revenue away from those who invest in original news reports but assures the aggregators and their ad networks of a stream of revenue based on aggregation and indexing of published news content.
搜索引擎之類的信息聚合器對流量的隨機(jī)分配，使得受眾和收入遠(yuǎn)離那些投資原創(chuàng)新聞的機(jī)構(gòu)，但這卻確保了以信息匯集和新聞內(nèi)容索引為基礎(chǔ)的聚合器的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)及其源源不斷的網(wǎng)絡(luò)廣告收益。