社交媒體能讓《華盛頓郵報》返老還童嗎？

2）分銷——要么數字化，要么滾回家：

????第一步當然是徹底放棄報紙的印刷版。是的，我非常了解喝上兩杯咖啡，翻閱厚厚一疊報紙周末版那種無與倫比的感受。但我們當年乘坐馬車的感覺或許也是如此。不過，等到轎車時代來臨，我們還是學會了沒有馬車的生活。

????緊握印刷版不放將帶來沉重的負擔，它的代價遠不止生產和分銷等顯而易見的開支，以及制造數百萬份報紙對環境的影響那么簡單。從分銷的角度看，一份印刷版報紙的確無法實現可定制、可追蹤和共享（至少不會像數字內容那樣共享）等功能，而所有這些事情都是極其重要的——唯如此，一家媒體才能夠擁有一個心滿意足，而且不斷壯大的用戶群。

????相比之下，一個強大的數字版——無論是在線閱讀，還是在平板電腦后電子閱讀器閱讀——可以自動且永無止境地根據個體用戶的需要和興趣定制內容。隨著時間的推移，它可以不斷演變和完善，以更好地滿足每位讀者的喜好。根據哪些故事正在受到關注，頁面和版塊可以隨時重新配置。此外，引人注目的內容可以即刻與朋友和同事共享，從而抵達更多的受眾。

????這些非常基本的概念一直是社交媒體成長歷程中不可或缺的因素。然而，當你印制出一份報紙，并把它放在別人家門口時，你就預先制止了這些好處。換句話說，亞馬遜不向數以億計的家庭遞送一份碩大無比的產品目錄有充分的理由。但愿貝佐斯能夠為《華盛頓郵報》帶來這種數字化變革。

3）速度——讓新聞重新變“新”：

????不管怎么說，從最近的波士頓轟炸案到埃及的動蕩局勢，一旦出現重大新聞，越來越多的讀者都開始轉向Twitter了解詳情。盡管這些消息或許并不總是可靠，但它們具有誘人的新鮮感，它提供訊息的時間大大早于傳統新聞網站。

????報紙官網根本跟不上這種速度——它們需要對消息源進行研究、驗證和分析（所有這些皆是一家新聞網站內在價值的組成部分）。但速度依然令人向往。盡管大家都在談論一周7天，每天24小時的新聞周期，但引用媒體博客喬希?馬歇爾的話說，主流報紙撰寫文章的速度依然“像是在寫學術論文”。報紙必須放棄這種做法。

????在新聞業的黃金時代——在這個持續時間不長、伍德沃德和伯恩斯坦們大放異彩的時期，資金充沛的報紙能夠產生嚴肅的調查報道——這種方式或許是可行的。但現在已經行不通了。讀者數量不斷下降，分類廣告收入急轉直下。這些大報風光不再，步履維艱。為了在勇敢的新網絡世界中競爭，新聞業有必要回歸其更加古老、不那么光鮮的根源——以差不多與新聞同步的速度迅捷地推出短篇幅報道（這種持續的新聞流恰恰非常適合在線出版）。

????作為物流領域無可爭議的王者，貝佐斯具備帶來這些變化的充分條件。曾經效力于《華盛頓郵報》、現供職于在線新聞網站The Verge的記者格雷格?桑多瓦爾指出：“貝佐斯將提供技術解決方案，幫助記者和編輯更快、更高效地工作，因為他已經在亞馬遜非常好地做到了這一點。”實際上，貝佐斯已經表達出了他對于電子郵件通訊和簡短報道的強烈偏好。這種偏好暗示，已經盛行于《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)等大報的短篇幅報道或許將降臨《華盛頓郵報》。

2) Distribution -- Go digital or go home:

????Step one in this process, of course, is ditching the paper's print edition once and for all. Yes, I know there's nothing like leafing through a thick Sunday paper over a second cup of coffee. But there was probably nothing like taking a horse-drawn carriage ride either. And we learned to live without that when the car came along.

????There are serious liabilities of clinging to print, which go well beyond the obvious expense of production and distribution and the environmental impact of making millions of hard copies. From a distribution perspective, a printed newspaper is really not all that customizable, trackable, or shareable (at least, not in the same way digital content is), and all of these things are hugely important to having a satisfied and growing user base.

????By contrast, a robust digital edition -- whether viewed online, on a tablet or on an e-reader -- can be endlessy and automatically customized to the needs and interests of individual users. It can evolve and improve over time to better accommodate each reader's tastes. Pages and sections can be reconfigured on the fly, based on what stories are getting traction at any moment. Plus, compelling content can be instantly shared with friends and colleagues, reaching an even larger audience.

????These very basic concepts have all been integral to the growth of social media. Yet when you print out a newspaper and plop it down on someone's doorstep, you preempt these benefits. Put another way, there are very good reasons why Amazon doesn't ship a big, fat catalogue to hundreds of millions of homes. Here's hoping Bezos brings that learning to his latest undertaking.

3) Velocity -- Put the "new" back in news:

????For better or worse, when major news breaks - from the recent Boston bombing to unrest in Egypt -- readers increasingly turn to their Twitter feeds for details. While information may not always be reliable, it is tantalizingly fresh, offering accounts well before traditional news sites.

????There's no way a newspaper site could ever match this pace -- research, verification, and analysis take time (and this is all part of the intrinsic value of a news site). But speed is still something to aspire to. For all the talk of a 24/7 news cycle, articles at leading papers are still often written at "an almost academic pace," to quote media blogger Josh Marshall. This has got to give.

????During the golden age of journalism -- the brief Woodward-and-Bernstein era when well-funded papers could produce serious investigative reports -- this approach may have been viable. But that's no longer the case. Readership is sinking, ad and classified revenue is plummeting, and these same big papers are tanking. To compete in the brave new online world, it's necessary for journalism to return to its older and less glamorous roots -- quick, short-form stories pushed out nearly as fast as the news breaks (i.e. exactly the kind of continuous news stream that online publishing is ideally suited to).

????And these are changes Bezos -- the uncontested king of logistics -- is well equipped to bring. "Bezos will come up with technological solutions to help reporters and editors be speedier and more efficient because that's what he has done at Amazon so well," notes Greg Sandoval, a former reporter at the Post now with online-only news site The Verge. Indeed, Bezos has already expressed a strong preference for email newsletters and brief reports, a hint that shorter-form stories -- already prevalent at such venerable papers as the Wall Street Journal -- may be coming to the Post.