馬雲如何辦好《南華早報》大綱
Jack Ma of Alibaba, the $200bn Chinese ecommerce giant, is making an awful mess of the purchase of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s English-language daily. He should take a lesson from his business rival, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post.
市值達2000億美元的中國電商巨擘阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的馬雲在收購香港英文報紙《南華早報》(South China Morning Post)的問題上搞得一團糟。他應該汲取其商業競爭對手傑夫貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)的教訓。貝索斯是亞馬遜(Amazon)的創始人，《華盛頓郵報》(Washington Post)的東家。
“Trust us. Why do people have to think that if we have it, it will lose its independence?” Mr Ma asked indignantly on Tuesday at the World Internet Conference in the southern city of Wuzhen — an event demonstrating that “China has been on an upward internet spiral for 21 years, with Tencent and Alibaba becoming the beating heart,” according to news agency Xinhua.
在江南城鎮烏鎮召開的世界互聯網大會(World Internet Conference)上，馬雲惱怒地問道：“相信我們。爲什麼人們會認爲我們會讓報紙失去編輯自由呢？”新華社稱，這個大會表明，21年來中國互聯網一直在螺旋式上升，騰訊(Tencent)和阿里巴巴成爲跳動的心臟。
The answer to Mr Ma’s question is an interview given by Joseph Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice-chairman, to the paper Alibaba bought this week for $266m. Mr Tsai complained: “There is too much of a focus on what is wrong with Alibaba...I’m not saying SCMP should step up coverage of Alibaba, but it should be more curious.”
阿里巴巴集團執行副主席蔡崇信(Joseph Tsai)前一陣子接受了該集團斥資2.66億美元收購的《南華早報》的採訪，其間他在不經意間提供了對馬雲所提問題的答案。蔡崇信抱怨稱：“對阿里不好的地方的關注太多了……我不是說《南華早報》應該增加對阿里的報導，但它應該更好奇。”
Mr Tsai promised that Alibaba will not tell journalists what to report but he dropped hints about how to behave if they wish to stay employed. Western news organisations report on China “through a very particular lens” of hostility to communism, he said. “We see things differently, we believe things should be presented as they are.”
蔡崇信承諾，阿里巴巴將不會指示記者報道什麼，但他暗示，如果他們希望保留工作，就得明白如何表現。他說，西方主流媒體是從對共產主義的敵意這個“非常特定的角度”報道中國的，而“我們的看法不一樣，我們相信實事求是。擺事實，講道理，這是我們將來運作的原則”。
The trap into which Mr Ma has fallen is believing that news organisations should write what companies or governments regard as “responsible”. Most companies think journalists are too negative about them, and sometimes they are even correct, but trying to fight it is a misguided cause. If Mr Ma pursues it, he will discredit the paper by turning it into tame, predictable propaganda.
馬雲落入的陷阱是，他認爲新聞機構應該撰寫被企業或者政府視爲“負責任的”稿件。多數企業認爲記者對它們的報道過於負面，有時企業方面甚至是對的，但試圖爲此大動干戈就是受到了誤導。如果馬雲尋求這麼做，他將讓《南華早報》喪失信譽，淪爲一家馴服的、陳詞濫調的宣傳機構。
Mr Ma could yet play a vital role in restoring the SCMP, which has seen better days. Its tradition of independence and willingness to take on powerful interests remains as valuable in China as elsewhere. Other industry traditions, such as inefficiency, resistance to digital technology and preference for comfortable decline over disruptive change, do not.
馬雲仍可能在恢復《南華早報》昔日榮光方面扮演關鍵角色。它的獨立傳統和叫板強大利益集團的意願，在中國和其他地方依然可貴。其他行業“傳統”則不那麼可取，比如效率低下，抵制數字技術，以及寧願緩緩衰落也不願顛覆式變革。
Mr Ma is the latest of the technology press barons, which include figures such as Mr Bezos and Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook who acquired the New Republic magazine in 2012. They have the wealth, and hopefully the patience, to acquire titles facing digital competition and to help them adapt.
馬雲成爲最新一位科技巨頭背景的報業大亨，加入貝索斯和克里斯休斯(Chris Hughes)等人的行列。休斯是Facebook的聯合創始人，於2012年收購《新共和》雜誌(New Republic)。他們有錢（但願也有耐心）收購面臨數字競爭的紙質媒體，幫助這些媒體適應。
Many Washington Post journalists revered the Graham family, the paper’s former proprietors, but Mr Bezos has performed a remarkable service for the Post since he acquired it (with his own money, not Amazon’s) for $250m in 2013. Indeed, he has done a notably better job than Don Graham, the family scion who sold it to him.
《華盛頓郵報》的許多記者對前東家格雷厄姆家族抱有敬意，但貝索斯自2013年以2.5億美元收購該報以來（用其自己、而非亞馬遜的資金）提供了卓越的服務。的確，貝索斯干得要比該報的賣家唐格雷厄姆(Don Graham)好得多。
The Grahams, although they were beloved stewards, curtailed the Post to a metropolitan daily with a strong circulation in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia and a limited presence outside. That was highly profitable as long as there was an abundance of print advertising but it left the Post more isolated than The New York Times in the face of digital competition.
格雷厄姆家族雖然是受人喜愛的管家，但他們讓《華盛頓郵報》降格爲一家在哥倫比亞特區、馬里蘭州和弗吉尼亞州發行量較大、在其他地區發行量有限的的都市日報。只要有大量的紙媒廣告，那種模式就會非常賺錢，但它讓該報在面臨數字化競爭時比《紐約時報》(New York Times)更加孤立。
Amazon has itself been subjected to plenty of tough, searching and critical coverage by news organisations — more hostile than the routine stuff Alibaba complains about — but as a proprietor Mr Bezos has wisely ignored that. The Post’s journalists have kept writing the same things as before.
亞馬遜本身也被新聞機構窮追猛打地發表了大量的批評報道——比阿里巴巴抱怨的不溫不火的內容更有敵意——但作爲東家，貝索斯明智地沒有把它當回事。《華盛頓郵報》的記者們和過去一樣自由報道。
Instead of moaning about bias, he has concentrated on efficiency and growth: two areas in which he has far more expertise than traditional news publishers mired in print. The Post appeared doomed to fade like other city dailies — outmatched in Washington by Politico, which was founded in 2007 by former Post journalists — but it now shows signs of recovery.
他沒有抱怨偏見，而是聚焦於效率和增長：他在這兩個領域要比傳統紙媒出版機構拿手得多。《華盛頓郵報》曾經看起來要註定像其他城市日報一樣衰落——在華盛頓已被該報前記者2007年創辦的Politico超越——但現在它顯示出復甦的跡象。
Mr Bezos has offered free digital access to subscribers to other US papers and discounted subscriptions to Amazon Prime members. The website, once a mess, is better looking and faster. It publishes more articles, some of them aggregated from other sources. Its digital reach is climbing and it has just overtaken the NYT in unique monthly visitors, with BuzzFeed in its sights.
貝索斯允許其他美國報紙的訂戶登入其網站免費閱讀文章，並對Amazon Prime會員提供折扣訂閱。該報網站一度雜亂無章，但現在好看得多，速度也快得多。它發表更多文章，其中一些從其他來源轉載。它的數字訂戶正在攀升，在每月獨立訪客(UMV)一項上已經超過《紐約時報》(NYT)，正在追趕BuzzFeed。
One can argue with aspects of this and old hands do, observing that it carries gossipy articles to boost traffic. But, together with the bulk of its old authority, the Post at least has a pulse. Taking the best of its past and turning it into a national, perhaps global, publication is bound to be a long experiment.
人們可以從某些方面說三道四（老筆桿子會這麼做），稱該網站刊登八卦文章以提升流量。但是，加上其保留的大部分權威，《華盛頓郵報》至少還有生命力。汲取過去的精華，將它轉型爲一家全國性乃至全球性的刊物，註定是一項長期實驗。
As the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once expressed in prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
正如神學家賴因霍爾德尼布爾(Reinhold Niebuhr)曾經在禱告詞中表達的那樣：“主啊，賜給我平靜去接受我所不能改變的，賜給我勇氣去改變我所能改變的，並給我智慧去分辨兩者的不同。”
Rather than telling journalists to be nicer to China and Alibaba, Mr Ma should focus on what he is good at. Then the SCMP might have a future.
與其告訴記者們對中國和阿里巴巴更加友好，馬雲應該致力於他擅長的事情。這樣《南華早報》或許還有未來。
