????上周，《尤金紀事衛報》（Eugene Register-Guard）在其網站上發表了一篇關于當地制圖師大衛?艾莫斯的報道。文章講述的是艾莫斯一度債臺高筑，直到網絡雜志《Slate》在1月份發文，大加贊揚他的繪圖才能。現在，他的地圖賣瘋了，部分原因是《Slate》雜志給出了他網站的鏈接——艾莫斯地理（Imus Geographics）。然而，《尤金紀事衛報》自己并沒有提供艾莫斯網站的鏈接，只是在文章末尾添上了《Slate》雜志和其他媒體相關報道的鏈接，而且這些也差不多是后來才加上去的東西。這個案例非常耐人尋味。

????皮尤研究中心卓越新聞項目（Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism）發布的一份最新研究報告稱，轉戰網絡之后獲得成功的報紙之所以寥若星辰，部分原因在于它們的“文化慣性（Cultural inertia）”。提供報道對象的網站鏈接這類行為看似小事，但也是這種慣性的一種體現。總的問題是，許多報紙對待互聯網的態度與《尤金紀事衛報》處理鏈接的方式如出一轍——完全是馬后炮。我在這里并非單挑小小的《尤金紀事衛報》說事。作為世界上最好的報紙網站之一，《紐約時報》（The New York Times）的網站依然把某些短語鏈接到它自己的“專題頁面”，這有時讓習慣于點擊鏈接去閱讀另一篇文章或相關短語確切含義的讀者無所適從。很多時候，人們在這種情況下希望看到的并不是什么專題頁。

????然而，文化慣性僅僅只是其中一個問題。經濟因素是報紙和其他“老媒體”持續萎縮的核心原因——源自在線廣告的收入現在還不足以彌補紙媒的廣告收入損失。這份研究報告顯示，由于廣告客戶紛紛退出，廣告價格急轉直下，報紙在印刷版業務每損失7美元，其在線收入往往僅能彌補1美元。這項發現（雖然稱不上十分科學）是從一項針對6家公司（它們共擁有121份報紙）所做的調查中搜集得來。這些公司在提供數據時要求匿名。《紐約時報》稱這個發現“相當嚴峻”。

????的確如此，但報業的前景還存在一絲曙光，但前提條件是，報業公司必須擺脫慣性。比如，這次調查發現，僅有40%的報紙是根據讀者的行為來確定廣告受眾，實現廣告個性化投放。此外，印刷版的廣告銷售人員大大多于數字版，比例大約達到了3比1。更關注數字趨勢的報紙的業績往往好于那些轉型緩慢的報紙。

????讓一門“古老的”生意走進新時代通常面臨的挑戰顯而易見。“其一是在一個成熟和壟斷性的行業中培養出來的從業者往往難以改變其行為，”皮尤研究中心指出。“另一項挑戰是一個難以回避的事實：報業中處于增長態勢的部門，也就是數字版，現在還只能帶來一小部分的收入；而正在萎縮的部門，即紙質版，依然提供大部分收入。這一悖論很難回避，難以辯駁。人們的普遍感受是，數字化轉型已經啟動了15年之久，但報業高管們仍然覺得他們才剛剛找到一點門道。”

????譯者： 任文科

????Last week, the Eugene Register-Guard published an article online about David Imus, a local mapmaker who was buried in debt until the online magazine Slate praised his cartography gifts in January. Now he's selling maps like crazy, thanks in part to Slate linking to his site, Imus Geographics. The Register-Guard, however, did not provide a link to the site, and added links to Slate and other media outlets' stories only at the bottom of the article, almost as an afterthought. It was a case in point of sorts.

????"Cultural inertia" is responsible in part for the fact that so few newspapers are succeeding online, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Seemingly small things like linking to the sites that are the subjects of articles is but one manifestation of this inertia. The overall problem is that too many newspapers are still treating the Internet like the Register-Guard treats links -- as an afterthought. Which is not to single out the smallish Register-Guard. The New York Times, one of the best newspaper sites in the world, still often links certain phrases to its own "topic pages," which sometimes throws off people who are used to links taking them to another article or something that will actually explain precisely what the phrase is referring to. Often, that's not a topic page.

????Cultural inertia, though, is just one problem. Economics lie at the heart of the continued shrinking of newspapers and other "old media" -- revenues from online ads just aren't making up for the loss of print-based ad revenues. The study says newspapers on average make up just $1 online for every $7 they lose on the print side as advertisers bolt and rates decline. The findings, while not precisely scientific, were gleaned from a survey of six companies that own a total of 121 newspapers. They shared the data on condition that they remain anonymous. The New York Times pronounced the findings "grim."

????And so they are, but there are some rays of hope -- though they are dependent on newspaper companies casting off the inertia. Just 40% of the papers surveyed target and customize their ads based on reader behavior, for example. And the number of print-focused ad-sales people at the participating newspapers outnumbered digital-focused reps by about 3-to-1. The papers that are focusing more on digital tend to be doing better than those that are slow to make the transition.

????The usual challenges of converting a "legacy" business to a new age are apparent. "One involves the difficulty of changing the behavior of people trained in the ways of a mature and monopolistic industry," Pew notes. "Still another is the unavoidable fact that the part of the newspaper industry that is growing, digital, continues to provide only a small part of the revenue, while the part that is shrinking, print, provides most of the money -- a paradox that is difficult to navigate and hard to resist. One pervasive feeling is that 15 years into the digital transition, executives still feel they are in the early stages of figuring out a how to proceed."