Posted by Rudy Baum on May 1, 2009 in The Editor's Blog
My wife and I recently saw the political thriller “State of Play,” which stars Russell Crowe as a grizzled reporter for the Washington Globe, a fictional newspaper that is an obvious stand-in for the Washington Post. It is a pretty good film: The twisting plot holds together through to the somewhat surprising climax and there’s genuine tension throughout.
The movie revolves around a congressional investigation into outsourcing international and homeland security to private contractors. The plot, however, is to some extent secondary; the movie is at its heart a paean to old-fashioned journalism. Crowe’s character, Cal McAffrey, is portrayed as a throwback, a reporter who takes the time to get a story right no matter what the consequences. He’s devoted to the print version of his newspaper, and he has little use for blogs and bloggers.
In “State of Play,” that kind of dogged journalism is under siege from owners who want a better return on their investment. Throughout the movie, there are references to the pressures the Globe is under to boost readership and financial returns. Whether one buys into the plotline of “State of Play,” that much about the movie rings true. Old-fashioned journalism is under siege in the U.S.
Detroit no longer has a daily newspaper. One of Seattle’s dailies has closed. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Inquirer are under threat of closing. The New York Times lost $74 million in the first quarter of 2009.
And it’s not just newspapers. U.S. News & World Report is no longer a weekly print publication. Newsweek has announced plans to completely redirect its efforts away from breaking news coverage toward analysis and features. National Public Radio has laid off more than 75 people since December, close to 10% of its staff.
I bring all of this up because of the news story in Monday’s issue of Chemical & Engineering News on a significant workforce action at the American Chemical Society. As News Editor Bill Schulz points out, ACS has responded to the severe recession through numerous cost-cutting measures, including, now, a workforce action that reduces the total ACS staff by about 3%.
The impact of these decisions on C&EN is significant. Nine members of C&EN’s 57-member staff had their positions eliminated, including four reporters, one production editor, one designer, two members of the C&EN Online staff, and one support staff. In addition, the Journal News & Community Department, which generated news for a number of ACS journals, has effectively been eliminated, with 10 of 13 staff members laid off and one reassigned. That unit will adopt a different, ideally more cost-effective approach to generating news for the electronic editions of ACS journals.
As I am quoted in Schulz’s story, the staff reductions were painful but necessary. Advertising revenues are off sharply from C&EN’s 2009 budget, and there is no indication that they will recover anytime soon. The allocation from member dues covers only paper, printing, and distribution of the editorial portion of C&EN.
In whatever medium, journalism in the U.S. has for decades relied on advertising revenues. The advent of the Internet and generally free distribution of news content over it began to threaten that business model several years ago. The current recession has further eroded advertising revenues, leading to the problems now being faced by most newspapers and magazines.
High-quality journalism isn’t cheap. It requires dedicated reporters and editors to produce timely, accurate, and balanced stories on complex subjects such as the many facets of the chemistry enterprise.
At C&EN, we remain committed to providing our readers with the same high-quality journalism you have come to expect of us. There may come a time when our reliance on advertising revenues to pay for that journalism is no longer a viable business model. If and when that time arrives, ACS members will have to decide what value they place on the journalistic product C&EN delivers each week.
Thanks for reading.
译文:
报刊杂志的价值
由编辑Rudy Baum于2009年5月1日发表他的博客中。
我和我的妻子最近看了一部政治惊悚片《游戏进展》，在其中名星罗素-克劳作为一名为华盛顿环球报效力的有着丰富经验的记者。那是一份虚构的、明显地代表“华盛顿邮报”的报纸。它是一部相当不错的影片：迭宕起伏的故事情节在某种程度上使高潮迭出，贯穿始终，惊心动魄。
这部影片围绕着一项针对私人承包商的国内国际外包业务安全的国会调查而展开。情节，在某种程度上来说是次位的；从本质上来说，这部影片是对老式新闻业的颂扬。克劳的角色，卡尔·麦在卡弗瑞，扮演一名无论后果怎样都要彻底调查清楚事情的记者，他全身心地致力于这份报纸的纸印版面，很少需要用博客。
在“游戏进展”这部影片中，那种守旧的新闻受到了想要得到更好收益的投资人的批评。从头到尾，整部影片有数处涉及到《环球》正处于增加读者以及财务收益的压力中。无论你是否相信“游戏进展”的主要情节是真实的，老式的新闻业正在美国遭遇炮轰。
底特津不再有一家日报。一家西雅图的日报己经倒闭了。“旧金山纪事报”和“费城询问报”也在即将倒闭的威胁中。“纽约时报”在09年第一季度也亏损了7400万美元。
并且，不仅仅是报纸业。“美国新闻与世界报道”也不再是周发行刊物。“新闻周刊”也发表声明计划放弃新闻报道向分析与特写方面彻底地重新定位它的发展方向。“美国公共无线电台”自去年12月份起解雇了超过75名的员工，接近员工总数的10%。
我将以上罗列出来是因为美国化学会下的周一发行刊物“化学与工程新闻”中的新闻事件，它是一项关于劳动力的重要行动。正如新闻编辑Bill Schulz 所言，美国化学会通过进行大量的节约成本措施，包括现在的一次劳动力行动，即减少美国化学会在职员工总数的3%，以此来对严重的经济衰退作出回应。
这些决定的影响对于“化学与工程新闻”来说是巨大的。57名员工中的9名员工的职位也己经取消。包括四名记者，一名制作编辑，两名“化学与工程新闻”在线员工以及一名支持人员。而且，为众多ACS期刊制作信息的期刊新闻与社区部也实际地取消了，13名员工中的10人下岗，一名员工重新分配。它将会采用不同的，理想地更有成本效益的方法为ACS电子期刊制作新闻。
正如我正在引用Schulz的事件，精减员工是遗憾的事，但却是必要的。2009年“化学与工程新闻”的广告收入大大减少，而且也无任务迹象表明在任何时候会恢复。来自会员的会费只够支付“化学与工程新闻”编辑部分的纸张、印刷以及配送费用。
无论哪种媒体，在美国报刊杂志几十年以来都是依靠广告收入生存。网络的出现以及通过网络发布免费的新闻内容己经在几年前就开始对这种商业模式造成了威胁。当前的经济衰退进一步侵蚀着广告收入，导致这成为很多报纸以及杂志都面临的难题。
高质量的新闻杂志并不便宜。它需要专注的记者和编辑在复杂问题上作出及时、准确、公平的报道，比如化学企业的诸多方面。
对于“化学与工程新闻”，我们仍然满怀信心为对我们有所期待的读者们提供高质量的杂志。通过广告收入来支撑这份杂志不再是可行的商业模式，这个时期可能会到来了。如果万一这个时期来到，ACS的员工将不得不决定什么新闻是值得他们入选每周发行的“化学与工程新闻”上的。
谢谢你的阅读。