Posted at 2013.08.11 Category : Economist
前回の記事で以下のように書かせてもらいました。
アマゾンKindleのさらなる拡大のために、毎日発信できるものが欲しかっただけなのかと思っていましたが、ジャーナリズムのためなら体を張る準備ができていると書いています。それなりの覚悟があってジャーナリズムに参加しているということなんでしょうか。
While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. Graham’s example, I’ll be ready.
なんでwringerなんて言葉を使ったか分からなかったのですが、今週のEconomistを読んで分かりました。Watergate事件のときにオーナーのKatharine Grahamさんが脅されたときの文句だったようです。
Lexington
Keeping the mighty honest
A new wave of press barons should not allow newspapers to become niche products
Aug 10th 2013 |From the print edition
Graham braved threats—Nixon’s attorney-general growled that she would “get her tit caught in a big fat wringer” if she published fresh Watergate allegations—even while playing tennis or dining with government bigwigs (she carefully fed intelligence to her reporters afterwards). Before her death in 2001 she presided over years of hefty profits, helped by near-monopolies over Washington’s morning-news and print-advertising markets.
Katharine Grahamと、Bob WoodwardとCarl Bernsteinの二人の記者の名前があれば、ウォーターゲート事件ということになるのでしょうね。せっかくの機会なので、彼女の自伝を読み直せたらいいなと思っています。きっと、ワシントンポストの従業員達は、ベゾスの文章を読んで、このことを指しているとすぐに分かったことでしょうね。口先だけだと批判することも可能でしょうが、このようなことをあえて口に出したことは評価すべきでしょう。
ビジネスウィークもこの件について雑誌冒頭のOpen Remarksで取り上げていました。ベゾスの奥さんが小説家だということを始めて知りましたが、ベゾス本人も大変な読書家のようです。
Why Jeff Bezos Bought the Washington Post
By Brad Stone on August 08, 2013
これからデジタル化を一層推し進めるだろうというのは誰でも想像できそうな事ですが、Vijay Ravindran, the Washington Post’s chief digital officer, is a former Amazon manager who led the team that created the Amazon Prime shipping program in 2005.とすでにアマゾン経験者がワシントンポストのデジタル部門の責任者だそうです。思ったよりデジタル化への変革はスムーズにいくのかもしれませんね。
Does all this mean the sun will shine brighter on the Washington Post? Bezos was characteristically vague about his plans in the frenzy of the announcement: “There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy,” he wrote in the newspaper. “We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment.” But it’s likely he’ll bring some Amazon management techniques to the Post (get ready for those six-page documents) and encourage experimentation without regard for short-term profits and losses. Bezos abhors anything that inconveniences his customers, so the paywall that washingtonpost.com instituted this spring might crumble. And if any of these moves undermine the Post’s teetering revenue sources, such as print ad pages, Bezos probably won’t care much. He said in an interview last year with German newspaper Berliner Zeitung that he thinks print newspapers will cease to exist within two decades. His overarching goal will be to create a thriving new media species on the digital frontier.
At least one friendly face will be waiting for him. Vijay Ravindran, the Washington Post’s chief digital officer, is a former Amazon manager who led the team that created the Amazon Prime shipping program in 2005. Ravindran says that for four years he has been “running the Amazon playbook” inside the Post and that he advocated for the Bezos deal with Graham. Others in the Post newsroom are likely to greet their new overlord a bit more skeptically, and not merely because of the constitutional quirks of the profession. The Graham family viewed the Post as a public trust with an obligation to challenge power. Tycoons who buy ink by the barrel often have less noble ambitions. A newspaper gives its owner a potent form of soft power and can be a political weapon even when not wielded overtly—witness Rupert Murdoch’s decades-long influence over British politics. As Amazon continues to grow, it will have plenty of vested interests brought before regulators and legislators.
Still, there’s a much simpler answer to the question of why Bezos bought a newspaper—an answer even the crustiest journalists will own up to. Every day begins with a blank screen, a room full of smart people, and a mission to find out how the world works and the motivations of its actors. It’s a lot more fun than delivering garden gnomes.
PBSニューズアワーでは今回たまたまワシントンポストの記者が登場していましたので、この件について聞かれていました。What did you think?にSurprise is not a strong enough word. Stunned.と答えています。XXX is not a strong enough word. YYY.という強調する表現はいろいろな場所で使えそうですね。また、surprisedよりもstunnedの方が驚きの度合いが強いということもこの表現から学べます。
（９時５０分当たりから）
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, nothing to do with blinking, but Ruth, the newspaper for whom you write for which you write your column, The Washington Post, big sale announced this week to the man who started Amazon.
Surprised? How did you -- you and your colleagues, what did you think?
RUTH MARCUS: Surprise is not a strong enough word. Stunned.
This was something -- I said it was the day our earth stood still. This was something we never in a million years contemplated, because the Graham family is The Washington Post. The Washington Post is the Graham family. We had always understood that their ownership structure -- we are a publicly held company, but they had the controlling shares -- was our bulwark against bad things happening to the paper.
That said, this was a very sad day for people like me, who spent 30 years working at The Washington Post, love the Graham family. I have worked for Mrs. Graham, for Don Graham, for Katharine Weymouth, the current publisher. And she will continue as publisher.
But the Graham family decided in the end to transfer the newspaper, sell it to Jeff Bezos of Amazon, in order to help protect it. And so there's reasons to be -- I'm stunned. I'm sad. But there's reasons to be hopeful here. First of all, Jeff Bezos has a lot of men to help the paper.
Second of all, he's got patience to work it out. And, third, he's got experience in this new age of the Internet. My Amazon products come very quickly and effectively. And if he can do for The Post what he did for Amazon, God bless him.
最後の部分は、個人的に思う事と一緒でもあり、しかも、簡潔に表現されているので、こういう風にしゃべれるようになれれば英検などの面接なんて楽勝でしょうね。
（残念で驚きだが、希望が持てる理由があること）
And so there's reasons to be -- I'm stunned. I'm sad.
But there's reasons to be hopeful here.
（希望が持てる理由3つ）
First of all, Jeff Bezos has a lot of men to help the paper.
Second of all, he's got patience to work it out.
And, third, he's got experience in this new age of the Internet.
（補足説明）
My Amazon products come very quickly and effectively. And if he can do for The Post what he did for Amazon, God bless him.
もちろん、アマゾンという企業の利益を代弁するロビー活動紙になってしまう危険性もないわけではないので、楽観視はできないかもしれません。
アマゾンKindleのさらなる拡大のために、毎日発信できるものが欲しかっただけなのかと思っていましたが、ジャーナリズムのためなら体を張る準備ができていると書いています。それなりの覚悟があってジャーナリズムに参加しているということなんでしょうか。
While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. Graham’s example, I’ll be ready.
なんでwringerなんて言葉を使ったか分からなかったのですが、今週のEconomistを読んで分かりました。Watergate事件のときにオーナーのKatharine Grahamさんが脅されたときの文句だったようです。
Lexington
Keeping the mighty honest
A new wave of press barons should not allow newspapers to become niche products
Aug 10th 2013 |From the print edition
Graham braved threats—Nixon’s attorney-general growled that she would “get her tit caught in a big fat wringer” if she published fresh Watergate allegations—even while playing tennis or dining with government bigwigs (she carefully fed intelligence to her reporters afterwards). Before her death in 2001 she presided over years of hefty profits, helped by near-monopolies over Washington’s morning-news and print-advertising markets.
 | Personal History (Vintage) (1998/02/24) Katharine Graham 商品詳細を見る |
Katharine Grahamと、Bob WoodwardとCarl Bernsteinの二人の記者の名前があれば、ウォーターゲート事件ということになるのでしょうね。せっかくの機会なので、彼女の自伝を読み直せたらいいなと思っています。きっと、ワシントンポストの従業員達は、ベゾスの文章を読んで、このことを指しているとすぐに分かったことでしょうね。口先だけだと批判することも可能でしょうが、このようなことをあえて口に出したことは評価すべきでしょう。
ビジネスウィークもこの件について雑誌冒頭のOpen Remarksで取り上げていました。ベゾスの奥さんが小説家だということを始めて知りましたが、ベゾス本人も大変な読書家のようです。
Why Jeff Bezos Bought the Washington Post
By Brad Stone on August 08, 2013
これからデジタル化を一層推し進めるだろうというのは誰でも想像できそうな事ですが、Vijay Ravindran, the Washington Post’s chief digital officer, is a former Amazon manager who led the team that created the Amazon Prime shipping program in 2005.とすでにアマゾン経験者がワシントンポストのデジタル部門の責任者だそうです。思ったよりデジタル化への変革はスムーズにいくのかもしれませんね。
Does all this mean the sun will shine brighter on the Washington Post? Bezos was characteristically vague about his plans in the frenzy of the announcement: “There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy,” he wrote in the newspaper. “We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment.” But it’s likely he’ll bring some Amazon management techniques to the Post (get ready for those six-page documents) and encourage experimentation without regard for short-term profits and losses. Bezos abhors anything that inconveniences his customers, so the paywall that washingtonpost.com instituted this spring might crumble. And if any of these moves undermine the Post’s teetering revenue sources, such as print ad pages, Bezos probably won’t care much. He said in an interview last year with German newspaper Berliner Zeitung that he thinks print newspapers will cease to exist within two decades. His overarching goal will be to create a thriving new media species on the digital frontier.
At least one friendly face will be waiting for him. Vijay Ravindran, the Washington Post’s chief digital officer, is a former Amazon manager who led the team that created the Amazon Prime shipping program in 2005. Ravindran says that for four years he has been “running the Amazon playbook” inside the Post and that he advocated for the Bezos deal with Graham. Others in the Post newsroom are likely to greet their new overlord a bit more skeptically, and not merely because of the constitutional quirks of the profession. The Graham family viewed the Post as a public trust with an obligation to challenge power. Tycoons who buy ink by the barrel often have less noble ambitions. A newspaper gives its owner a potent form of soft power and can be a political weapon even when not wielded overtly—witness Rupert Murdoch’s decades-long influence over British politics. As Amazon continues to grow, it will have plenty of vested interests brought before regulators and legislators.
Still, there’s a much simpler answer to the question of why Bezos bought a newspaper—an answer even the crustiest journalists will own up to. Every day begins with a blank screen, a room full of smart people, and a mission to find out how the world works and the motivations of its actors. It’s a lot more fun than delivering garden gnomes.
PBSニューズアワーでは今回たまたまワシントンポストの記者が登場していましたので、この件について聞かれていました。What did you think?にSurprise is not a strong enough word. Stunned.と答えています。XXX is not a strong enough word. YYY.という強調する表現はいろいろな場所で使えそうですね。また、surprisedよりもstunnedの方が驚きの度合いが強いということもこの表現から学べます。
（９時５０分当たりから）
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, nothing to do with blinking, but Ruth, the newspaper for whom you write for which you write your column, The Washington Post, big sale announced this week to the man who started Amazon.
Surprised? How did you -- you and your colleagues, what did you think?
RUTH MARCUS: Surprise is not a strong enough word. Stunned.
This was something -- I said it was the day our earth stood still. This was something we never in a million years contemplated, because the Graham family is The Washington Post. The Washington Post is the Graham family. We had always understood that their ownership structure -- we are a publicly held company, but they had the controlling shares -- was our bulwark against bad things happening to the paper.
That said, this was a very sad day for people like me, who spent 30 years working at The Washington Post, love the Graham family. I have worked for Mrs. Graham, for Don Graham, for Katharine Weymouth, the current publisher. And she will continue as publisher.
But the Graham family decided in the end to transfer the newspaper, sell it to Jeff Bezos of Amazon, in order to help protect it. And so there's reasons to be -- I'm stunned. I'm sad. But there's reasons to be hopeful here. First of all, Jeff Bezos has a lot of men to help the paper.
Second of all, he's got patience to work it out. And, third, he's got experience in this new age of the Internet. My Amazon products come very quickly and effectively. And if he can do for The Post what he did for Amazon, God bless him.
最後の部分は、個人的に思う事と一緒でもあり、しかも、簡潔に表現されているので、こういう風にしゃべれるようになれれば英検などの面接なんて楽勝でしょうね。
（残念で驚きだが、希望が持てる理由があること）
And so there's reasons to be -- I'm stunned. I'm sad.
But there's reasons to be hopeful here.
（希望が持てる理由3つ）
First of all, Jeff Bezos has a lot of men to help the paper.
Second of all, he's got patience to work it out.
And, third, he's got experience in this new age of the Internet.
（補足説明）
My Amazon products come very quickly and effectively. And if he can do for The Post what he did for Amazon, God bless him.
もちろん、アマゾンという企業の利益を代弁するロビー活動紙になってしまう危険性もないわけではないので、楽観視はできないかもしれません。
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