《紐約時報》主編下課幕後：曾主導創新 管理水平受好評

Jaws collectively dropped in the media fishbowl yesterday with the announcement that New York Times editor-in-chief Jill Abramson was losing her job. Even the Times' crack reporters were initially "gob-smacked" by the news in their front yard, delivered to them by publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. -- who merely said that Abramson had been dismissed over "an issue with management in the newsroom."

《紐約時報》（the New York Times）日前宣佈解僱總編吉爾o艾布拉姆森時，傳媒界一片譁然。即便是《紐約時報》那些見多識廣的記者們也一下子被這條消息“弄懵”了，發行人小阿瑟o蘇茲伯格在宣佈時只是說，艾布拉姆森被解僱是因爲“新聞編輯室的管理出了問題。”

But in all the talk about Abramson's management style -- and the important debate about whether or not women executives are held to a double standard -- there has been little said on a topic that may be most relevant of all: In a just plain lousy environment for traditional broadsheets, Abramson's newsroom was managing far better than most.

但在所有關於艾布拉姆森管理風格的討論中，在所有是否針對女性管理者實施雙重標準的討論中，很少有人談到一個話題，同時也可能最最重要的一個話題：在暮氣沉沉的傳統報業中，艾布拉姆森的新聞編輯室管理水平遠超業界大多數人。

In the past decade, newspapers -- the most bludgeoned segment of the ink-on-paper realm -- have shut down, cut staff, gone online-only, thrown up paywalls, and/or outsourced content-producing to less vetted, lesser paid (if vetted and paid at all) community members and "contributors." For a brief time, the Chicago Tribune and Houston Chronicle even relied on computer algorithms and a corps of writers in the Philippines.

過去十年，出版界受衝擊最大的報業頻頻傳來倒閉、裁員、轉爲網絡版、取消收費牆和/或將內容製作外包給資歷較淺、薪酬較低的社區成員和“供稿人”（如果多少還有一點資歷，多少還支付一點薪酬的話）的種種消息。有一段時間，《芝加哥先驅報》（Chicago Tribune）和《休斯頓紀事報》（Houston Chronicle）甚至依賴電腦算法和一幫菲律賓寫手。

Yet while much of old media remains adrift (and still trying to figure out how to turn that thing called the Internet into a sustainable business model), The Gray Lady has managed its digital transformation relatively well. Its website leads the industry in delivering old-school journalism with new-age enhancement from data visualizations to video. Abramson, who spent her executive editorship with one foot in the future (and at the occasional tech media conference), deserves some credit for this.

雖然不少傳統媒體依然缺乏方向（依然搞不清如何將那個被稱爲互聯網的東西變成一個可持續的商業模式），被戲稱爲“灰色女士”的《紐約時報》已經較好地完成了數字化轉型。《紐約時報》網站走在了行業前面，積極運用從數據圖形化到視頻等諸多新生代功能，製作傳統新聞。艾布拉姆森在主編生涯中對未來的重視（間或還參加科技傳媒會議）值得讚許。

Her tenure, which began months after the paper put up its paywall, brought a handful of digital initiatives that have served as models for the industry. In December 2012, the Times debuted a new digital storytelling platform for "Snow Fall," a long-form narrative written by John Branch. The platform demonstrated both new creative and revenue-generating possibility for multimedia storytelling, and has become so widely admired and imitated by media companies, that the form itself is now known as Snowfall.

她在《紐約時報》樹立收費牆數月後上任，實施了多項堪稱行業典範的數字項目。2012年12月，《紐約時報》全新的數字敘事平臺亮相，在這個平臺上，約翰o布蘭奇的長篇敘事報道《雪從天降》(Snow Fall)一炮而紅。這個平臺展現了多媒體敘事的創意和創收可能，受到廣泛推崇和效仿，這種形式更是被冠以“雪從天降”體。

In March, the Times launched a handful of subscription digital products, including an app that curates news and others that highlight areas of coverage like food and opinion. It's too early to know how well these have worked, but that Abramson committed newsroom resources to them is something.

3月份，《紐約時報》推出了幾款付費數字產品，包括一個應用軟件，提供新聞、美食、評論等內容。目前要判斷這些產品的效果仍爲時過早，但艾布拉姆森能把編輯部的資源集合在這些地方仍然值得嘉許。

As Reed Phillips, of the media investment bank DeSilva and Phillips told me at the time, "My impression is these products are trial balloons, but at least they're innovating. That's the most important thing."

正如傳媒投資銀行DeSilva and Phillips的裏德o菲利普斯當時告訴我：“我的印象是，這些產品是小試牛刀，但他們至少是在創新。這一點最重要。”

He added, "They're clearly the leader among U.S. newspapers in how they're approaching the future of news."

他還說：“在探索未來新聞方面，他們顯然是美國報業的先鋒。”

In any case, Abramson was clearly focused on the modern-day challenges of delivering the news. She and her successor, Dean Baquet, commissioned a team of journalists -- headed by Sulzberger's son, A.G. -- to develop an Innovation Report for the Times. The group spent several months on the study and their findings -- ahem, that the Times needs to move faster -- were shared last week.

不管發生什麼，艾布拉姆森顯然是在專注於當代新聞報道面臨的種種挑戰。她和她的繼任者迪安o巴奎特曾經委託以發行人蘇茲伯格的兒子A.G.爲首的一組記者爲《紐約時報》製作一份《創新報告》。這個小組花了幾個月的時間進行調研，並在上週公佈了調查的結論：好吧，《紐約時報》需要加快行動。

Ironically, that report led some to suggest that it was Abramson's fault that the newsroom wasn't further ahead.

具有諷刺意味的是，這份報告出爐後，一些人暗示，《紐約時報》編輯部之所以沒能更進一步，全是艾布拉姆森的錯。