評論
打印
Spain's press
西班牙報業的壓力
A shrinking order
一個持續緊縮的制度
Sacked editors are a sign more of financial than political pressures
不斷失業的編輯們背后意味的經濟壓力遠大于政治壓力
Two of the remaining readers
剩余讀者中的兩位。
JOURNALISTS are supposed to check their facts, but when editors are sacked rumours will do. Some see dark political forces behind the ousting of editors at Spain's three big dailies,El Pais, El Mundo and La Vanguardia. But the upheaval also reflects a deeper business crisis.
原本應該是記者們去調查事件的真相，但是當編輯們不斷被解雇，謠言開始出現了。實際上一些人已經透過西班牙三大日報—國家報（El Pais）;西班牙世界報（El Mundo）和先鋒報（La Vanguardia.）不斷解雇編輯這一事件的表面，看到了藏在幕后操作的政治黑手。但是這種劇變更加折射出來的是一次更嚴重的商業危機。
Until last month, Pedro Ramirez had edited El Mundo from its birth 25 years ago. Famed for investigations, sharp-tongued columnists and conspiracy theories, it ruffled many feathers. Mr Ramirez blames Mariano Rajoy's ruling Popular Party (PP) for his sacking. The new editor, Casimiro Garcia-Abadillo, points to poor sales, which have halved in five years, and says Mr Ramirez alienated readers loyal to Mr Rajoy who found a feud over PP corruption too personal.
到上個月為止，Pedro Ramirez 已經在世界報做了25年的主編了。這份報紙一向以深查事件真相，尖酸刻薄的專欄作家和充滿陰謀論的言論而聞名于世，當然它也得罪了不少人。Ramirez譴責馬里亞諾·拉霍伊為了一己私欲在毀滅人民黨。新任主編CasimiroGarcia-Abadillo 則指出近五年來報紙的銷量下滑了一半多，并且說Ramirez對于拉霍伊的指責太個人化，讓那些原本忠于這位發現人民黨貪污現象的黨魁的讀者們開始變得生疏。
El Pais's editor, Javier Moreno, also pursued corruption. But he has overseen a fall in circulation and last year sacked almost a third of the staff, damaging morale even as he cut operating losses. El Pais aims to be “the global newspaper” in Spanish; its next editor, Antonio Cano, ran its Latin American website. Mr Cano denies that El Pais will shed its centre-left identity, though he is clearly more conservative than Mr Moreno.
至于國家報的前主編，Javier Moreno，同樣在追查貪污的事。但是他全然忽視了銷量的暴跌，而且去年他們報社差不多解雇了三分之一的雇員，在他降低運營虧損的同時也嚴重地打擊了員工的士氣。國家報的目標直指“世界級的”西語報紙；它的下一任主編，Antonio Cano 已經開始運營它的拉丁語美國網站。Cano否認國家報要推翻自己左傾的立場，盡管他明顯要比Moreno要保守。
El Mundo vies with El Pais for domination of the Hispanic world's online news audience, but turning that into money is an uphill task, admits a senior executive at El Mundo. La Vanguardia's local Catalan subscription base has kept it mostly profitable. There the choice of Marius Carol as the next editor is being interpreted as a shift from the Catalan nationalist flag-waving of his predecessor, Jose Antich.
世界報和國家報一直在網絡上競爭西語讀者的占有率，但是事實上要將這種占有率轉化為盈利是一件很艱巨的任務，對此世界報的高級執行官也不得不承認。反觀先鋒報，它本身的西語讀者訂閱量就足以讓它維持盈利。但是對于新任主編馬呂思·卡羅爾來說卻有很多選擇，他解釋說這對先鋒報來說是從加泰羅尼亞語主義的旗幟中轉型的一次機會，這將于他前任Jose Antich.大不相同。
If newspapers are not bending to political pressures, might they bow to more commercial ones? Some journalists admit to self-censorship for fear of annoying big advertisers. El Mundo accused Telefanica of cutting advertising after it reported a 2002 insider-trading probe against the firm's chairman, Cesar Alierta, a charge Telefanica denied. Although Telefanica accounts for only a small fraction of advertising—the biggest general advertisers are non-Spanish multinationals like Procter & Gamble and L'Oreal—other channels of influence also exist. Loss-making Prisa, the owner of El Pais, has been repairing its balance-sheet and has won a reprieve from its bankers. But after conversion of a convertible bond, Prisa's banks will own 16% of the shares, more than the founding Polanco family. Telefanica will also have a stake, and hedge funds claim another 17%.
如果報紙行業不對政治壓力屈服，他們是否會對更加商業化的因素彎腰？一些記者在自我審視時承認，他們會害怕讓那些大的廣告客戶感到厭煩。世界報指控Telefanica在2002年報紙刊登了他與公司董事長（Cesar Alierta）的內部交易之后減少了報紙的廣告刊登量。但是Telefanica否認了這一指控。盡管Telefanica解釋說，只有一小部分的廣告業受到了影響—傳統的大額廣告發布商依然是那些非西語系的跨國公司，諸如寶潔和歐萊雅。—但是對于其它的渠道的影響肯定也是存在的。而國家報的控股人—總是虧損的Prisa，已經開始修復它的收支平衡并且從銀行債主那獲得了一定的延期。但是在債券轉換完成之后，銀行將持有公司16%的股份，這甚至超過了創始家族—Polanco的持股量。Telefanica同樣執有一部分股票，還有17%的股權在放虧損基金會手中。
The biggest challenge is more fundamental. Dailies reach just a third of Spaniards. Print-advertising income has fallen by 56% since 2008; digital advertising has not made up for this. Owners want higher paper sales, more advertising and fancy websites, all done with smaller budgets and fewer staff. Battling political pressure is the least of their worries.
其實最大的挑戰是來自更基層的方面。這些日報在西班牙人中只有三分之一的覆蓋率。2008年之后印刷業的廣告收入下降了56%；而數字廣告帶來盈利并不足以填補這一空缺。老板們都想要更高的報紙銷量，更多的廣告和完美的線上網站，少而精的預算以及更少的雇員。相比之下，與政治壓力的對抗對他們來說實在不值一提。譯者：曾擎禹 校對：王童
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