美国新闻业需要公共支持
American journalism is at a transformational moment, in which an era of dominant newspapers is rapidly giving way to one in which the gathering and distribution of news is more widely dispersed. As is the case with regional newspapers in Britain, the economic foundations of many of the 1,400 local daily newspapers in the US, long supported by advertising, are collapsing. Their news staffs and printed editions, which have been the chief source of original news reporting – in print and online – are shrinking.
美国新闻业处在转型时刻。一个报纸占主导地位的时代正迅速让位于新闻的采集和传播都更为分散的新时代。与英国地方性报纸的遭遇一样，在美国的1400家地方日报中，许多报纸长期靠广告支撑财务基础，而今这一基础正在瓦解。它们的新闻团队和纸质出版物，一直是纸媒及在线原创新闻报道的主要来源，而今两者的规模都在缩减。
American newspapers are not going to vanish in the foreseeable future, despite frequent predictions of their imminent extinction. But they will play diminished roles in a rapidly changing world of digital journalism.
尽管我们常常听到关于美国报纸行将绝迹的预测，但在可预见的未来，它们并不会彻底消亡。然而，在这个飞速变化的数字新闻业时代，它们扮演的角色将不再那么重要。
Journalists leaving newspapers have started online local news sites in many cities. Some are working with residents to produce neighbourhood news blogs. Others have started investigative reporting projects, many of which are based on university campuses. Still others have started national and international news organisations with relatively small staffs and freelance journalists to fill gaps left by local newspapers that have radically reduced or eliminated national and foreign correspondents.
从报社离职的记者在许多城市创办了地方新闻网站。有些记者与当地居民合作，创建了社区新闻博客。有些则开始从事调查性报道，其中许多都把工作地点设在大学校区。还有些建立了员工相对较少、向自由记者约稿的全国性和国际性新闻机构，来填补地方报社大幅减少或停止向国内和国外派驻记者所留下的空白。
They have been joined by well-informed independent bloggers who specialise in subjects they know well, including politics, foreign policy and education. Many of these blogs are becoming influential news sources, even hiring reporting staff.
消息灵通的独立博客作家也加入了他们的行列，这些博主对自己熟知的领域——包括政治、外交政策和教育——有专门研究。许多博客已经成为有影响力的新闻来源，甚至还雇佣报道人手。
Some university journalism schools run their own news organisations that report on surrounding communities for local websites and commercial news media. Even some American philanthropic foundations have begun to report on subjects of particular interest to them – journalism they supply to newspapers free of charge. The ranks of newsgatherers in the US now include newsroom staffers, university faculty and students, bloggers and citizens armed with smartphones.
一些大学的新闻系经营着自己的新闻机构，为地方网站和商业性新闻媒体报道周边社区的动态。就连一些美国慈善基金会也开始就自己特别感兴趣的话题进行报道，并把这些新闻免费提供给报社。目前，美国的新闻采编队伍包括新闻编辑部的员工、大学师生、博主，以及配备智能手机的市民。
Some of the startup news organisations are trying to become profitable, while many are operating as non-profits, financed by donations from philanthropists, foundations and readers, plus some corporate sponsorship and advertising. They could provide communities with diverse sources of news reporting. But most of the startups and their budgets are relatively small, and their finances are fragile.
一些初创新闻机构正在试图实现盈利，但也有许多以非盈利的模式运作，其资金来自慈善家、基金会和读者的捐款，还有一些公司赞助以及广告收入。这些机构可以为社区提供来源多样化的新闻报道。然而，大多数此类初创机构的规模相对较小，预算也较少，财务状况薄弱。
American society must now take responsibility for supporting news reporting, especially local news – as it has, at much greater cost, for services such as education and healthcare. In a report on the American news media commissioned by the Columbia University School of Journalism, The Reconstruction of American Journalism, my co-author, Michael Schudson, and I suggest how to do this.
美国社会现在必须承担起为新闻业（尤其是地方新闻业）提供支持的责任，就像对教育和医疗等公共事业给予的大得多的支持一样。受哥伦比亚大学新闻学院(Columbia University School of Journalism)委托，我和迈克尔•舒德森(Michael Schudson)联合撰写了一份有关美国新闻媒体的报告：《如何重建美国新闻业》(The Reconstruction of American Journalism)。
We urge foundations and universities to substantially increase support for non-profit news organisations, including those contributing journalism to newspapers and other commercial news media. We recommend that non-profit American public radio and television stations – which are supported by relatively small indirect government grants through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and much larger amounts in donations from philanthropists, corporations and listeners – greatly increase their meagre coverage of local news.
我们敦促基金会和高校大力增加对非盈利新闻机构的支持，包括那些向报纸及其它商业性新闻媒体贡献新闻素材的组织。美国非盈利性公共广播电台和电视台对地方新闻的报道相对贫乏，我们建议它们大幅增加这类报道。这两类机构目前的资金来源中，政府通过美国公共广播公司(CPB)的间接拨款只占了较小一部分，更多则来自慈善家、企业和听众的捐赠。
We have drawn the most controversy by proposing a national fund for local news with money the federal government collects from, or could impose on, American telecom users, broadcast licenees or internet service providers. Grants would be made competitively by independent local news fund councils to news organisations for innovations in reporting and ways to support it. This would represent somewhat unusual government involvement in news reporting in the US, with its First Amendment tradition of press freedom. But it is similar to the way that government, through independent bodies like the one we are proposing, helps the arts and scientific and medical research.
招致最多争议的一项建议，是建立一个地方新闻国家基金，相关资金由联邦政府向美国电信用户、广播执照持有者或互联网服务提供商募集或征收。款项的发放将具有竞争性，由独立的地方新闻基金委员会授予在报道及相关方面具有创新性的新闻机构。考虑到美国宪法第一修正案(First Amendment)确立的新闻自由传统，这种做法意味政府多少将会干涉到新闻报道。但这与政府通过独立机构（与我们提议的基金类似）支持人文学科和科学及医疗研究的方式相仿。
News reporting, especially the sort that holds accountable those with power and influence throughout the nation, has been a vital part of American democratic life. It may not be essential to save any particular news medium, including printed newspapers. What is paramount is preserving independent, credible news reporting.
新闻报道一向是美国民主生活的重要组成部分，特别是那些要求在全国范围内拥有权势和影响力的人士承担起责任的新闻报道。拯救某个特定的新闻媒体（如报纸）或许不是必要的。但保护独立、可靠的新闻报道却是头等要务。
The writer is vice president at large and former executive editor of The Washington Post. The full report on which this article is based can be found at www.columbiajournalismreport.org and at www.cjr.org
本文作者是《华盛顿邮报》(The Washington Post)副总裁、前执行主编。这篇文章所依据的报告全文可在www.columbiajournalismreport.org和www.cjr.org上找到。
译者/何黎
