【题源外刊】第二期：科技巨头与报业

原文期刊：经济学人

原文标题：

Big tech cannot—and should not—rescue the newspaper industry

考研英语常考热点-传统行业

2011年考研英语（二）真题：艰难求生的美国报纸行业

此类题一般为新时代新技术冲击下，传统行业面临的危机与挑战。

本文选自2020年10月17日《经济学人》。作者批驳了报纸业“支持草根新闻业是在支持民主精神”、“ 科技巨头正在掠夺报纸利润”这两种观点，揭露报纸行业的本质问题在其自身而非数字平台的冲击，并建议报纸业应提升内容质量从而实现自救。

脉络:

今昔对比引出问题（第一、二段）→批判报纸业的两种观点，揭露本质问题（第三、四段）→提出建议（第五段）→总结全文，重申观点（第六段）

Part 1

原文

I For almost two centuries, newspapers have been on a journey into the mass market which gave them scale, prestige and profit but which has now reached its end. They mostly abandoned dependence on subscriptions and instead sold below what they cost to produce as a way to attract legions of readers to sell to advertisers. The aphorism today applied to users of technology platforms—“If you are not paying, you are the product”—rang almost as true of newspaper readers in the heyday of print advertising.

II No longer. Since the internet took off, the print media’s advertising-supported business model has floundered. Platforms such as Google and Facebook have become the new moguls of the media landscape. In the past 20 years newspapers’ ad revenues in America have fallen by about 80% (to Depression-era levels). Though online traffic has surged, revenue from digital advertising has failed to offset the profit draining out of print. This power shift has led newspapers in many countries to plead with politicians that they need help in the face of big tech. Partly because they have, by their very nature, a loud voice, they have generated sympathy. ⑧How much they deserve it is another matter.

III One argument is that a thriving press supports grass-roots journalism which, though often loss-making, supports democracy. That is reasonable. Yet it is muddled up with other motivations, such as the desire to throttle the tech giants. The result is an array of government interventions in recent months aimed at putting the squeeze on the tech giants. But it will not change the underlying economics of the global newspaper industry. The ad-funded business model was living on fumes even before the internet ate the world this century.

IV Claims that the tech giants are plundering newspapers for profit sound far-fetched, too. The real failure is that papers have lost control of distribution to Google and Facebook, making it harder to monetise the traffic. This is a mistake some content industries, such as video-streaming and music, have avoided. Moreover, some of the advertising dollars made by big tech came from bringing new firms, particularly microbusinesses, into the market, rather than poaching online advertisers from newspapers.

V So ignore the moaning of old-media moguls in distress and look instead at how some newspapers have already adapted to the digital onslaught. Revenues at the New York Times, for instance, are still far short of their ad-funded halcyon days. Yet the number of subscriptions exceeded 6.5m this year, a number that should give the paper enough clout to bypass the tech giants. Some digital publications with a newsworthy focus such as Axios, which produces sponsored newsletters, are thriving.

VI The question of who pays for public-interest journalism remains unanswered. But few think it ought to be Google and Facebook. That would undermine the principles of an independent press. The survival of newspapers should depend on business, not regulation. They need to produce a product that readers are happy to pay a fair price for.

Part 2

词汇短语

1.subscription：n. （报刊等的）订阅；订购（v. subscribe）

2.legion：n.（人数）众多，大批，大量

3.aphorism：n. 格言，警句

4.ring：v. 听起来

5.ring true / hollow：听起来是真的/不真实（无诚意）

6.as true of：对……而言也是一样的

7.heyday：n. 鼎盛时期；全盛期

Part 3

长难句语法点拨

本句由并列连词连接两个主句The abandoned dependence ……and instead sold ……他们大多放弃了对订阅的依赖，而是以低于其生产成本的价格售卖产品，以此来吸引大量读者，从而向广告商出售。

Part 3

写作句型借鉴

The aphorism applied to XX rang almost as true of YY。适用于XX的格言也同样适用于YY。

原文例句：The aphorism today applied to users of technology platforms—“If you are not paying, you are the product”—rang almost as true of newspaper readers in the heyday of print advertising.如今适用于科技平台用户的格言-“如果你不付钱，你就是商品” –也几乎同样适用于印刷广告鼎盛时期的报纸读者。对此类指控的典型辩词是，科技公司并非垄断企业。

Since the AA took off，BB has floundered. 自从AA蓬勃发展以来，BB就陷入困境。

原文例句：No longer. Since the internet took off, the print media’s advertising-supported business model has floundered.这种情况已经一去不复返。自从互联网蓬勃发展以来，平面媒体的广告支持商业模式就陷入困境