時世艱難，收購紙媒為哪般？

By David Folkenflik

Audie Cornish （Host）： The sale of The Washington Post to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos struck NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik as a bit surprising. Given the tough times in the newspaper business， David sought to figure out why smart people with no apparent ties to journalism would want to buy these things anyway.

David Folkenflik： Donald Graham is the chairman of The Washington Post Company， the son and grandson of its leaders for the past 80 years. And along with his 1）niece， the publisher Katharine Weymouth， Graham had to admit the family simply didnt have the answers to questions about the papers future.

Donald Graham： Katharine and I started to look at the numbers， realized that this year， 2013， would be the seventh 2）straight year of significant declining revenues.

Folkenflik： Graham spoke in a video posted on The Posts website.

Graham： We knew we could keep The Post alive. We knew it could survive. But our aspirations for The Post have always been higher up than that. So we went to see if we could find a buyer.

Folkenflik： Or， one might think， a 3）sucker. Jeff Bezos just paid $250，000，000 for an unprofitable newspaper that doesnt look likely to reverse its fortunes anytime soon. Why would a smart business leader do that？ I turned for answers to Brian Tierney， the public relations executive who led a 4）consortium to take over The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. He became publisher and said he was moved， as he saw the effects of his reporters work exposing local corruption， injustice and crime.

Brian Tierney： And I thought： Thank you， God， for putting me here at this point in my career. Because， I mean， I loved being part of helping Verizon sell， you know， phone service， and Im proud of the work we did for the Pennsylvania Lottery. But this， you felt like this is the peoples work.

Folkenflik： Those 5）beleaguered Philadelphia papers have since changed hands twice. But whatever the economics， owning a major newspaper buys you a seat at the national table. Mort Zuckerman， once solely a successful real estate investor， became a familiar face on national TV public affairs shows only after he became the owner of the New York Daily News and other publications.

Cathy Merrill Williams： Well， look， theres always been 6）egos that have bought newspapers. If you go back to the 1930s， you had people like Dorothy Schiff that came from a big banking family that bought the New York Post. So theres always been an ego play.

Folkenflik： Cathy Merrill Williams is publisher of Washingtonian magazine. She has ink in her veins. When she was 5， she first started the presses at the Annapolis Capital newspaper owned by her family. After the death of her father in 2006， the Merrills sold their newspapers to a small media company.

Williams： The big difference now is there is a play of people with money who want to see if they can reinvent an industry. Its more fun， its more exciting， its more challenging， and theyre looking at it as an opportunity to remake the future of journalism and media.

Folkenflik： The media analyst and consultant Ken Doctor says Bezos， wholl own The Post personally， is unlikely to use his new property to 7）goose the profits of Amazon.

Ken Doctor： The 8）payoff is clearly not financial. He doesnt need more money. The payoff is doing something that other people havent done. He sees technology as a great positive 9）disrupter in human life. And he believes thats what hes done with Amazon. He believes that it could be done for news.

Folkenflik： Doctor， who recently consulted for The Post on 10）instituting a digital pay wall， says newspapers would do well to embrace Amazons specialty of serving and satisfying customers quickly and effectively. But Doctor says that other than offering assurances of editorial integrity， Bezos has not signaled how he expects to lead The Post.

Doctor： Were going back to the future. Question is， are we getting the right billionaires？ And we dont know that answer yet.

Folkenflik： Bezos has asked Katharine Weymouth to continue on as publisher. She is said to be sad at the loss of The Post but relieved to be heading into an era when she can invest in the paper rather than continue cutting costs year after year.

奧迪·科尼什（主持人）：亞馬遜創(chuàng)始人杰夫·貝索斯收購了《華盛頓郵報》，（這一消息）讓NPR媒體記者戴維·福肯弗利克為之震驚。考慮到報紙行業(yè)的艱難時世，戴維試圖弄明白那些跟新聞業(yè)沒有明顯關(guān)系的精明企業(yè)家究竟為什么想要收購這些企業(yè)。

戴維·福肯弗利克：唐納德·格雷厄姆是華盛頓郵報公司的董事長，也是過去80年里該企業(yè)幾代掌門人的兒子和孫子。他和他的侄女、報紙發(fā)行人凱瑟琳·韋莫斯一起，不得不承認家族并沒有關(guān)于報紙未來發(fā)展問題的答案。

唐納德·格雷厄姆：我和凱瑟琳開始看報表，意識到2013年將是年收入連續(xù)明顯下降的第七年。

福肯弗利克：格雷厄姆在郵報網(wǎng)站發(fā)布的視頻聲明里如是說。

格雷厄姆：我們知道我們能讓《華盛頓郵報》存活，我們知道它能生存下去。但是我們對《郵報》的期望向來比那樣更高，所以我們?nèi)タ纯茨懿荒苷业劫I家。

福肯弗利克：或者，有人會認為，是找個易受騙的傻子。杰夫·貝索斯剛以2.5億美元收購了這家不盈利的報紙，這家報紙看來不會在短期內(nèi)扭轉(zhuǎn)它的命運。為什么一個聰明的企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人要這樣做？我向布萊恩·蒂爾尼尋求答案，他是公共關(guān)系執(zhí)行官，曾聯(lián)合一個財團收購了《費城問詢報》和《費城每日新聞》。他成為了報紙發(fā)行人，他說自己深受感動，因為他看到自己的記者在披露當(dāng)?shù)馗瘮　⒉还胶头缸锸聦嵥a(chǎn)生的影響。

布萊恩·蒂爾尼：我在心里說：感謝上帝，把我放在職業(yè)生涯中的這個位置。我的意思是，我樂意成為威瑞森電信電話服務(wù)銷售的一員，我也以我們?yōu)橘e夕法尼亞州彩票所做的工作為傲。然而，你會覺得經(jīng)營報紙才是真正為人民服務(wù)的工作。

福肯弗利克：那些飽受困擾的費城報紙已經(jīng)兩次轉(zhuǎn)手，無論經(jīng)濟狀況如何，擁有一家大型報紙讓你在國家占有一席之位。莫特·祖克曼曾經(jīng)只是一名成功的房地產(chǎn)投資商，他成為《紐約每日新聞》和其他出版物的所有人后才成為國家電視公共事務(wù)節(jié)目的常客。

凱茜·梅里爾·威廉斯：是的，你看，收購報紙行業(yè)向來是一種滿足自我的行為。回顧20世紀(jì)30年代，來自大銀行家族的多蘿西·希夫收購了《紐約郵報》。所以那始終是一種滿足自我的游戲。

福肯弗利克：凱茜·梅里爾·威廉斯是《華盛頓人》雜志的發(fā)行人，報紙是她的家族生意。五歲的時候，她就開始接觸在首府安納波利斯由她家族經(jīng)營的報紙。2006年她父親去世后，梅里爾家族把他們的報紙企業(yè)賣給了一家小媒體公司。

威廉斯：現(xiàn)在最大的不同是這是有錢人的一種游戲，想看看他們是否能讓一個企業(yè)起死回生。那樣更好玩、更令人興奮、更有挑戰(zhàn)性，他們把收購的行為看作是再造新聞業(yè)和媒體業(yè)未來的機會。

福肯弗利克：媒體分析師和顧問肯·多科特說到，貝索斯是以個人名義擁有《華盛頓郵報》，不太可能用他的新資產(chǎn)來提高亞馬遜的利潤。

肯·多科特：這次的收購很明顯并不是為了商業(yè)目的。他不需要更多的錢，這次收購是在做其他人沒做過的事情。他把科技看作是改善人類生活的巨大作用者。他相信他就是這樣經(jīng)營亞馬遜的，也相信同樣的做法照樣適用于新聞業(yè)。

福肯弗利克：多科特最近為《華盛頓郵報》提議制定一個數(shù)字付費墻，他說報紙會很好地接受亞馬遜快速并有效地服務(wù)和滿足顧客的專業(yè)性，但多科特還說除了保證編輯誠信，貝索斯仍沒有表示他將如何領(lǐng)導(dǎo)《郵報》。多科特：我們準(zhǔn)備回到未來，然而問題是，這些億萬富翁們就是我們需要的正確人選嗎？我們?nèi)匀灰媚恳源?/p>

福肯弗利克：貝索斯邀請凱瑟琳·韋莫斯繼續(xù)當(dāng)發(fā)行人。聽說她在失去《郵報》的時候很傷心，但也安心地準(zhǔn)備邁進新時代，這樣她可以在報紙上投資，而不是年復(fù)一年地不斷削減成本。