紐時賞析／力求改變傳統 華爾街日報新任總編輯拚轉型

華爾街日報（The Wall Street Journal）。 路透通訊社

The Remaking of The Wall Street Journal

華爾街日報力拚轉型

Last month, Emma Tucker, the new editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, gathered the newsroom to share a blunt message: The media industry had morphed “beyond recognition,” and the Journal needed to adapt or be left behind.

上個月，華爾街日報新任總編輯艾瑪．塔克召集新聞編輯室員工，宣佈一個直截了當的消息：媒體業已「完全變樣」，華爾街日報必須適應否則就會落後。

“We don’t want to be the German car industry of news publishing,” she joked to the hundreds of staff members listening.

她對聆聽她演說的數以百計員工開玩笑表示：「我們不想當有如德國汽車產業的新聞出版業。」

Tucker, who took over as top editor in February, was addressing a group that had been, to a large degree, tentatively optimistic about its energetic new boss. But many were also unnerved by the speed of the changes she had already made to traditions some viewed as core to the character and success of the Journal, one of the world’s premier business publications.

塔克今年2月就任華爾街日報總編輯，聽她說話的這一羣人多半對這位充滿活力的新老闆暫抱持樂觀態度。但許多人也對她改變傳統的速度感到不安，有些人認爲，這些傳統是華爾街日報身爲世界頂級商業出版刊物之一的核心特質和成功秘訣。

At least 15 veteran editors and writers have left the paper in recent months. Long-held stylistic practices, such as the use of courtesy titles in articles, were disposed of overnight. The Journal’s chief enterprise editor, who had veto power over which big investigative pieces were published and which were discarded, was pushed out.

近數月來至少15名資深編輯和撰稿人離開該報。長久以來的體例，例如文章中使用尊稱，一夜之間被廢除。該報首席企業編輯對大型調查報導哪些該發表哪些該丟棄有否決權，但被趕下臺。

In the meeting with the newsroom Sept. 21, a recording of which was obtained by The New York Times, Tucker signaled that more changes were ahead as she oriented the outlet to better serve a digital audience and tried to shake off what she viewed as unnecessary stuffiness.

紐約時報取得的華爾街日報新聞編輯室9月21日會議錄音顯示，塔克指接下來還會有更多改變，因爲她將華爾街日報定位爲更能服務數位讀者的刊物，並試圖擺脫她認爲不必要的古板規則。

The goal, she told them, is to add many new online subscribers by delivering readers expertise and “distinctive” journalism. The organization faces ever-declining print circulation, lower social media traffic and strong competitors, she said, but its current mostly male and older subscriber base means there is a “robust” market of possible new readers.

塔克告訴他們，目標是透過傳達專業知識給讀者和「獨特」新聞，增加許多新的線上訂閱用戶。她說，該報面臨紙本發行量不斷下滑、社羣媒體流量下降和強勁的競爭對手，但其現有訂戶多爲男性和長者，意味有「強勁的」可能新讀者市場。

“We need to make our journalism more accessible without in any way diluting the standards or integrity of the reporting,” Tucker said in an interview a day after she addressed the newsroom. “And I think it’s possible to do both.”

塔克對新聞編輯室發表談話後第二天受訪說：「我們需要使外界更容易獲取我們新聞，同時不以任何形式降低報導標準和完整性。我認爲兼顧兩件事是可能的。」

Although the outlet started the digital race strong as one of the first newspapers to put its content behind a paywall in the mid-1990s, it has made only halting progress in adapting its newsroom as digital readers become the bulk of its subscribers. The Journal now has more than 4 million total paid subscribers, including 3.4 million digital-only subscribers. The Washington Post has fewer than 3 million total subscribers, while The New York Times has nearly 10 million.

儘管華爾街日報是1990年代中期首批將報導內容放在付費牆之後的報紙，在數位化競賽有個強勁的開始，但隨着數位讀者成爲訂戶大宗，他們調整新聞編輯室的進度停滯。華爾街日報目前有超過400萬名付費訂戶，其中340萬人僅訂閱數位版。華盛頓郵報訂戶少於300萬，而紐約時報訂戶則近1000萬。

文／Katie Robertson　譯／羅方妤