经济学人下载:新闻产业的未来,重回咖啡屋时代

The future of news新闻产业的未来

Back to the coffee house重回咖啡屋时代

The internet is taking the news industry back to the conversational culture of the era before mass media

互联网正在将新闻产业带回到大众传媒出现前的时代。

THREE hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circulated in taverns and coffee houses in the form of pamphlets, newsletters and broadsides. “The Coffee houses particularly are very commodious for a free Conversation, and for reading at an easie Rate all manner of printed News,” noted one observer. Everything changed in 1833 when the first mass-audience newspaper, the New York Sun, pioneered the use of advertising to reduce the cost of news, thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience. At the time of the launch America’s bestselling paper sold just 4,500 copies a day; the Sun, with its steam press, soon reached 15,000. The penny press, followed by radio and television, turned news from a two-way conversation into a one-way broadcast, with a relatively small number of firms controlling the media.

三百年前，新闻以口头或书面形式传播，并且以小册子、简报的形式在小餐馆或咖啡屋中流传。据一名观察员说，咖啡屋是进行自由交谈的不二选择，并且也是休闲阅读的理想场所。但是事情在1883年发生重大转变，第一个面向大众的报纸，纽约太阳报诞生，并且首次引入广告来降低新闻成本，一举两得地为赞助商寻到更多的观众。当纽约报面世时，美国销量最好的杂志每天可以卖4，500份；但是太阳报却很快达到15，000的销量。报纸以及随后而来的广播、电视将新闻传播方式从两方面的交流变为一方面的由少数公司控制的传播。

Now, as our special report explains, the news industry is returning to something closer to the coffee house. The internet is making news more participatory, social, diverse and partisan, reviving the discursive ethos of the era before mass media. That will have profound effects on society and politics.

现在，正如我们的特别报道所言，新闻产业正在向之前咖啡屋相近转变。互联网使新闻变得更易参与，更具有社会性，更容易听到不同的声音，让新闻从大众传媒时代重回百家争鸣的盛况。这对社会及政治将产生重大影响。