From BBC to NYT

　　從 BBC 到 NYT

　　A new boss for an old paper.

　　老報紙，新總裁。

　　THE New York Times Company, an Americannewspaper group, has a history of ill-fatedacquisitions, such as About.com, a loss-makingonline information service it bought in 2005 and may soon offload. On August 14th thecompany appointed Mark Thompson, the departing director-general of the BBC, a Britishpublic broadcaster, as its new boss. Will Mr Thompson be another acquisition that thecompany will regret?

　　作為一家美國報紙集團，紐約時報公司的收購之路一直坎坷不平。它曾于2005年收購 About.com，但可能很快就要將這個包袱易手他人了。8月14日，該公司委派馬克湯普生為新任總裁。湯普生是英國公共廣播公司 BBC的總裁，但即將離任。 收購 湯普生是否將再次讓紐約時報公司感到后悔?

　　Arthur Sulzberger, the paper s hands-on publisher and chairman, is hoping that Mr Thompsoncan help to rescue the Grey Lady, which has swooned because of falling print circulationand advertising revenues. Janet Robinson, chief executive since 2004, abruptly resignedlast December; she had risen up through the ranks of the advertising division.

　　《紐約時報》凡事親力親為的出版人兼董事長阿瑟蘇茲伯格希望湯普生能夠幫助拯救由于印刷版發(fā)行量下滑、廣告收入降低而深陷泥潭的 灰色女士 。自2004年起擔(dān)任《紐約時報》執(zhí)行總裁的詹妮特羅賓遜于去年十二月突然辭職;她在就任總裁之前曾在公司廣告部工作，后來步步高升。

　　Expertise of that sort is passe: newspapers can no longer rely on big cheques fromadvertisers to sustain them. Mr Thompson, the thinking goes, can help to boost revenuesby attracting a more global audience and experimenting with new platforms. Under hisleadership, the BBC launched innovative tools, such as the iPlayer, a popular onlinetelevision and radio service.

　　廣告這種專長已經(jīng)落伍了：報紙公司現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)無法依靠廣告商的大額支票來養(yǎng)活自己了。《紐約時報》認為湯普生能夠吸引更多來自全球各地的讀者并嘗試新的平臺，借此來幫助公司增加收入。BBC 曾在他的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下推出了創(chuàng)新業(yè)務(wù)，比如受人歡迎的在線電視廣播服務(wù) iPlayer。

　　But Mr Thompson is an odd choice to lead a big, struggling private company. One analystuncharitably compares his appointment to hiring the boss of a big charity to do a corporateturnaround. Mr Thompson has spent most of his career in public-service broadcasting at theBBC, save for a few years as boss of Britain s Channel 4 television, a commercialbroadcaster. The BBC is state-backed, and owes its survival to a tax on every household inBritain with a television set. That tax brought in ￡3.6 billion last year.

　　但選擇湯普生來領(lǐng)導(dǎo)一家在泥潭中掙扎的大型私營公司，不免有些奇怪。一位分析人士刻薄地將任命湯普生比作雇傭大型慈善機構(gòu)的老板來重振商業(yè)公司。除了曾在一家商業(yè)電視臺英國第四頻道擔(dān)任了幾年總裁之外，湯普生大部分的生涯都花在 BBC 公共服務(wù)廣播方面。BBC 是由國家支持的，其生存依靠稅收維系。在英國，每個有電視機的家庭都需要繳納這筆稅收。去年，該稅收讓 BBC 進賬36億英鎊。

　　The New York Times, by contrast, needs to make money to survive. The fundamentalchallenge facing newspapers, says Mark Oliver of Oliver Ohlbaum Associates, aconsultancy, is how to get readers to pay for news online. At the BBC Mr Thompson did nothave to worry about that.

　　相比之下，《紐約時報》需要賺錢才能生存。一家咨詢公司奧利弗和歐哈巴姆聯(lián)合公司的馬克奧利弗表示，報紙公司所面臨的根本挑戰(zhàn)在于如何讓讀者為在線資訊付費。而在 BBC，湯普生不需要為此擔(dān)心。

　　He will have to start. Recently the New York Times found some success getting more onlinereaders to fork out. Last year it adjusted its pay wall and by June had boosted the numberof digital subscribers to 509,000 between the New York Times and its stablemate, theInternational Herald Tribune, up by 12% in three months. However, the company still relieson advertisers for over 40% of its revenues, and online advertising rates are lower than thosein print. Mr Thompson will have to devise a more radical business plan than trying to catchprint papers fleeing subscribers.

　　現(xiàn)在他得開始考慮這個問題了。最近，《紐約時報》成功地讓更多的在線讀者大掏腰包了。去年，該報調(diào)整了其支付墻。截至去年六月為止，《紐約時報》和同公司的《國際先驅(qū)論壇報》的數(shù)字訂戶增加到了50.9萬人，在三個月內(nèi)上升了12%。然而，該公司超過40%的收入仍然依賴于廣告商，而在線廣告費用相比印刷版要低一些。湯普生將必須設(shè)計出更具新意的商業(yè)方案，而不是試圖去挽留印刷版迅速流失的訂戶。

　　He will also have to confront Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation, who has tried to lureaway some of the New York Times s subscribers and advertisers by bulking up the Wall StreetJournal s general coverage and its news about New York in particular. Mr Thompson mayrelish the fight: as boss of the BBC, he publicly criticised Mr Murdoch s Britishtelevision network for threatening to dwarf its rivals. So he will fit right in with theManhattan media set. But complaining about Mr Murdoch is not the same thing as beatinghim.

　　他還將不得不對抗資訊集團的魯伯特默多克。默多克一直試圖吸引部分《紐約時報》的訂戶和廣告商，為此，他增大了《華爾街日報》的總體報道范圍，特別是紐約方面的資訊報道。湯普生可能會從這場爭斗中獲得樂趣：他在 BBC 擔(dān)任總裁時，曾公開抨擊默多克英國電視網(wǎng)絡(luò)，稱該網(wǎng)絡(luò)揚言要將讓其競爭對手 顯得渺小 。因此湯普生將與曼哈頓媒體模式完全相符。但要戰(zhàn)勝默多克，可不只是發(fā)發(fā)牢騷那么簡單

　　From BBC to NYT

　　從 BBC 到 NYT

　　A new boss for an old paper.

　　老報紙，新總裁。

　　THE New York Times Company, an Americannewspaper group, has a history of ill-fatedacquisitions, such as About.com, a loss-makingonline information service it bought in 2005 and may soon offload. On August 14th thecompany appointed Mark Thompson, the departing director-general of the BBC, a Britishpublic broadcaster, as its new boss. Will Mr Thompson be another acquisition that thecompany will regret?

　　作為一家美國報紙集團，紐約時報公司的收購之路一直坎坷不平。它曾于2005年收購 About.com，但可能很快就要將這個包袱易手他人了。8月14日，該公司委派馬克湯普生為新任總裁。湯普生是英國公共廣播公司 BBC的總裁，但即將離任。 收購 湯普生是否將再次讓紐約時報公司感到后悔?

　　Arthur Sulzberger, the paper s hands-on publisher and chairman, is hoping that Mr Thompsoncan help to rescue the Grey Lady, which has swooned because of falling print circulationand advertising revenues. Janet Robinson, chief executive since 2004, abruptly resignedlast December; she had risen up through the ranks of the advertising division.

　　《紐約時報》凡事親力親為的出版人兼董事長阿瑟蘇茲伯格希望湯普生能夠幫助拯救由于印刷版發(fā)行量下滑、廣告收入降低而深陷泥潭的 灰色女士 。自2004年起擔(dān)任《紐約時報》執(zhí)行總裁的詹妮特羅賓遜于去年十二月突然辭職;她在就任總裁之前曾在公司廣告部工作，后來步步高升。

　　Expertise of that sort is passe: newspapers can no longer rely on big cheques fromadvertisers to sustain them. Mr Thompson, the thinking goes, can help to boost revenuesby attracting a more global audience and experimenting with new platforms. Under hisleadership, the BBC launched innovative tools, such as the iPlayer, a popular onlinetelevision and radio service.

　　廣告這種專長已經(jīng)落伍了：報紙公司現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)無法依靠廣告商的大額支票來養(yǎng)活自己了。《紐約時報》認為湯普生能夠吸引更多來自全球各地的讀者并嘗試新的平臺，借此來幫助公司增加收入。BBC 曾在他的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下推出了創(chuàng)新業(yè)務(wù)，比如受人歡迎的在線電視廣播服務(wù) iPlayer。

　　But Mr Thompson is an odd choice to lead a big, struggling private company. One analystuncharitably compares his appointment to hiring the boss of a big charity to do a corporateturnaround. Mr Thompson has spent most of his career in public-service broadcasting at theBBC, save for a few years as boss of Britain s Channel 4 television, a commercialbroadcaster. The BBC is state-backed, and owes its survival to a tax on every household inBritain with a television set. That tax brought in ￡3.6 billion last year.

　　但選擇湯普生來領(lǐng)導(dǎo)一家在泥潭中掙扎的大型私營公司，不免有些奇怪。一位分析人士刻薄地將任命湯普生比作雇傭大型慈善機構(gòu)的老板來重振商業(yè)公司。除了曾在一家商業(yè)電視臺英國第四頻道擔(dān)任了幾年總裁之外，湯普生大部分的生涯都花在 BBC 公共服務(wù)廣播方面。BBC 是由國家支持的，其生存依靠稅收維系。在英國，每個有電視機的家庭都需要繳納這筆稅收。去年，該稅收讓 BBC 進賬36億英鎊。

　　The New York Times, by contrast, needs to make money to survive. The fundamentalchallenge facing newspapers, says Mark Oliver of Oliver Ohlbaum Associates, aconsultancy, is how to get readers to pay for news online. At the BBC Mr Thompson did nothave to worry about that.

　　相比之下，《紐約時報》需要賺錢才能生存。一家咨詢公司奧利弗和歐哈巴姆聯(lián)合公司的馬克奧利弗表示，報紙公司所面臨的根本挑戰(zhàn)在于如何讓讀者為在線資訊付費。而在 BBC，湯普生不需要為此擔(dān)心。

　　He will have to start. Recently the New York Times found some success getting more onlinereaders to fork out. Last year it adjusted its pay wall and by June had boosted the numberof digital subscribers to 509,000 between the New York Times and its stablemate, theInternational Herald Tribune, up by 12% in three months. However, the company still relieson advertisers for over 40% of its revenues, and online advertising rates are lower than thosein print. Mr Thompson will have to devise a more radical business plan than trying to catchprint papers fleeing subscribers.

　　現(xiàn)在他得開始考慮這個問題了。最近，《紐約時報》成功地讓更多的在線讀者大掏腰包了。去年，該報調(diào)整了其支付墻。截至去年六月為止，《紐約時報》和同公司的《國際先驅(qū)論壇報》的數(shù)字訂戶增加到了50.9萬人，在三個月內(nèi)上升了12%。然而，該公司超過40%的收入仍然依賴于廣告商，而在線廣告費用相比印刷版要低一些。湯普生將必須設(shè)計出更具新意的商業(yè)方案，而不是試圖去挽留印刷版迅速流失的訂戶。

　　He will also have to confront Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation, who has tried to lureaway some of the New York Times s subscribers and advertisers by bulking up the Wall StreetJournal s general coverage and its news about New York in particular. Mr Thompson mayrelish the fight: as boss of the BBC, he publicly criticised Mr Murdoch s Britishtelevision network for threatening to dwarf its rivals. So he will fit right in with theManhattan media set. But complaining about Mr Murdoch is not the same thing as beatinghim.

　　他還將不得不對抗資訊集團的魯伯特默多克。默多克一直試圖吸引部分《紐約時報》的訂戶和廣告商，為此，他增大了《華爾街日報》的總體報道范圍，特別是紐約方面的資訊報道。湯普生可能會從這場爭斗中獲得樂趣：他在 BBC 擔(dān)任總裁時，曾公開抨擊默多克英國電視網(wǎng)絡(luò)，稱該網(wǎng)絡(luò)揚言要將讓其競爭對手 顯得渺小 。因此湯普生將與曼哈頓媒體模式完全相符。但要戰(zhàn)勝默多克，可不只是發(fā)發(fā)牢騷那么簡單