大傳媒集團爭搶成爲新媒體Vice

A black S.U.V. recently rolled through the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and stopped in front of the converted warehouse that is the global headquarters of Vice Media. Out of the vehicle stepped the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

前不久，一輛黑色的SUV車駛過布魯克林威廉姆斯堡的街頭，停在Vice傳媒由倉庫改建的國際總部門口，從車上走下來的是傳媒界的大人物魯伯特·默多克(Rupert Murdoch)。

Mr. Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox owns a small stake in Vice, and he was visiting Brooklyn to meet with Vice’s chief executive, Shane Smith. Among the topics at hand was a rumor that Vice was negotiating to collaborate with, and perhaps sell a large stake to, one of Fox’s competitors, Time Warner.

默多克的21世紀福克斯公司擁有Vice的一小部分股份，他來布魯克林是想見Vice的首席執行官尚恩·史密斯(Shane Smith)。他們的議題包括這樣一條謠言：Vice正在與福克斯公司競爭對手之一的時代華納公司談判合作，或許還要出賣一大筆股份給它。

Fox is discussing a deal with Vice, too. So is Disney. Any agreement is likely to value Vice, which started as a free magazine in Montreal in 1994, at $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion. A partnership could take many shapes. But Vice, which has produced limited programming expressly for television, is seeking its own TV network, a movie deal and a lot of money for its founders and investors.

福克斯公司也在和Vice談判一筆交易，迪斯尼也是。Vice的起點是一個蒙特利爾的獨立雜誌，創刊於1994年，如今，與這些公司的任何一筆交易中，它的估值都可能在15億到25億美元之間。合作可能有很多形式，但Vice已經制作了一些項目，顯然是提供給電視的，它希望建立自己的電視網絡、籤一個電影合約，爲它的創始人和投資者們大賺一筆。

The digital disruption that is transforming the news and entertainment businesses has led to many odd alliances, but few seem more incongruous than one that would join Vice with a corporate media conglomerate. Though financing itself mostly by making videos in partnership with large corporations, Vice has assiduously cultivated an insurgent image, with its tattooed news correspondents, hand-held cameras and journalistic stunts like sending the former basketball player Dennis Rodman to North Korea.

數碼產業的破壞力在改變着新聞和娛樂業，這導致了很多奇怪的聯盟，但是Vice加入一家大型傳媒集團這個想法還是讓人覺得太不搭調了。Vice賺錢主要是依靠和大公司合作製作視頻，但它也一直不懈地維持自己的叛逆者形象，它有帶紋身的新聞記者、使用手持攝像機、製造新聞噱頭，比如把前籃球運動員丹尼斯·羅德曼(Dennis Rodman)送到朝鮮訪問之類。

Along the way, Mr. Smith, 44, has routinely criticized the mainstream media and traditional television. If he can reach a deal with one of these companies, he will be joining the club he has professed to disdain.

一直以來，44歲的史密斯經常批評主流媒體和傳統電視業。如果他和這些公司籤一份合約，他就會加入那個自己公然鄙視的俱樂部。

And yet here he is, in negotiations involving the likes of James Murdoch, Rupert’s son and Fox’s heir apparent; Robert A. Iger, chief executive of Disney; and Jeffrey L. Bewkes, chief executive of Time Warner. All of them are desperately scrambling to reach a generation of consumers who are more attached to their mobile phones than to traditional television.

但他卻在與魯伯特之子、福克斯的法定繼承人詹姆斯·默多克(James Murdoch)談判，還有迪斯尼的首席執行官羅伯特·A·伊格(Robert A. Iger)、時代華納的首席執行官傑弗裏·L·比克斯(Jeffrey L. Bewkes)等人。這些人都拼命爭搶新一代的消費者，他們對手機比對傳統電視更感興趣。

The executives covet Vice’s unruly, D.I.Y. sensibility — “News from the edge” is the tagline for its 30-minute weekly program on HBO — and, above all, the connection it has established with its core audience of young men.

這些執行官們覬覦Vice這種不守規矩、自己動手的易感性——“來自邊緣的新聞”是它在HBO臺每週播放的30分鐘節目的廣告詞——最主要的是，他們還覬覦Vice和年輕的核心觀衆建立起來的聯繫。

Now that he is in conversations that could net his company hundreds of millions of dollars, Mr. Smith, normally brash and outspoken, is trying to be discreet. Though he would not speak about the various deals Vice is discussing, he talked about his vision for the company’s future and television’s role in it recently at his office.

史密斯現在正在進行能令公司獲益數億美元的談判，他一貫傲慢而坦率，如今正學着審慎一點。儘管他不願談起Vice目前正在進行的各種談判，但最近他在自己的辦公室接受採訪時談了自己對公司未來的看法，以及電視在其中扮演的地位。

“It’s the next step in our evolution,” he said. “Our mobile and online stuff is going to grow exponentially, but we want a three-legged stool, and the third leg is TV.”

“這是我們發展的下一步，”他說，“我們的移動與網絡部門員工正在呈指數級別增加，但我們希望用三條腿站立，這個第三條腿就是電視。”

Bearded and bearish, Mr. Smith looks as if he belongs at a Viking feast, drinking mead from his helmet. Instead, he was sipping chilled premier cru Chablis poured by an assistant.

史密斯滿臉鬍鬚，脾氣粗暴，彷彿是維京人盛宴上用頭盔暢飲蜜酒的人物。事實上，他喝的是冰鎮的夏布利一級葡萄酒，是助理倒給他的。

Fox, Disney and Time Warner all declined to comment.

福克斯、迪斯尼和時代華納都拒絕對此進行評論。

Deals that join heavily hyped digital companies with large media conglomerates do not always end well. News Corporation bought the website Myspace for $580 million in 2005, and sold it six years later for $35 million. Time Warner’s 2000 merger with AOL is now taught to aspiring M.B.A.s as the worst business transaction in history.

大熱的數碼公司與大型媒體集團進行的談判，最後的結局通常通常不怎麼美妙。2005年新聞集團曾以5.8億美元收購Myspace網站，6年後以3500萬美元賣出。2000年，時代華納與AOL的聯合如今已經作爲史上最糟的商業交易案例用於MBA教學。

Mr. Smith contends Vice is different. The company’s finances are private, but a person familiar with its business said it expected to generate about $500 million in revenue in 2014. A vast majority comes not from online news content but from videos created to resemble news content, paid for by companies like Intel and AT&T.

史密斯聲稱，Vice是不一樣的。公司的財務狀況是保密的，但一位熟悉Vice經營的人士稱，2014年它預計創造5億美元的收入。其中大部分不是來自網絡新聞，而是來自類似新聞的視頻內容，由英特爾與AT&T等公司出錢。

Vice would also arrive with a devoted following, though the size of its audience is hard to verify independently. The hope is that it will not become another Myspace, but a modern, multiplatform MTV. Tom Freston, a founder and former chief executive of MTV who went on to run Viacom, is one of Vice’s investors and closest advisers.

Vice還擁有一批忠實擁躉，儘管它的觀衆數量很難單獨覈算。希望它不會成爲另一個Myspace，而是成爲現代的、跨平臺的MTV。MTV的創始人之一與前首席執行官湯姆·弗萊斯頓(Tom Freston)後來執掌維亞康姆公司，他是Vice的投資者與最密切的顧問之一。

MTV was built on an original concept: the pop-music video. Vice’s appeal is that it has branded a certain kind of cool, but coolness is an ephemeral concept. And there is exponentially more content to compete with now than when MTV began in 1981, making it harder than ever to stand out.

MTV成立之初是建立在流行音樂錄像的基礎之上。Vice的魅力來自它已爲自己打上“酷”的標記，但“酷”是個短暫易逝的概念。和MTV在1981年初創之時相比，現在需要競爭的東西要多得多，一直保持卓越不凡就更難了。

Vice got its first taste for television when it started producing its weekly newsmagazine show for HBO last year. It recently broadcast the final episode of its second season, featuring reports from crime-ridden Camden, N.J., and refugee camps in Chad and Darfur. (In last year’s infamous finale, Mr. Rodman and three members of the Harlem Globetrotters played before Kim Jong-un in North Korea.)

去年，Vice開始爲HBO臺製作每週的新聞雜誌秀，這是它第一次製作電視節目。最近，這個節目的第二季剛剛播出了最後一集，內容包括犯罪猖獗的新澤西州卡姆登，以及乍得和達爾富爾的難民營。去年這個節目的最後一集可謂臭名昭著，拍的是羅德曼和其他三個哈林花式籃球隊的隊員在朝鮮爲金正恩表演。

In its first year, Vice’s HBO show averaged 821,000 viewers a week, including the original broadcast and viewings in the next seven days, according to Brad Adgate, the director of research for Horizon Media. Weekly viewership fell to 760,000 in its second season. HBO says the number is 2.8 million weekly viewers when repeat broadcasts, online and on-demand viewings are included.

地平線傳媒的研究主管布拉德·艾德蓋特(Brad Adgate)說，Vice在HBO的節目第一年平均每週有82.1萬名觀衆收看，包括首日播出的收看者和其後七天內的收看者。到第二季，每週收視率降低到了76萬人。HBO說重播的收視率是每週280萬人，包括網絡和點播收視。

People familiar with the negotiations say the talks with Time Warner have made the most progress. It could buy a large, minority stake in Vice, and give Vice control of the cable channel HLN, or they could operate the network as a joint venture. The deal would give Vice a 24-hour news network that reaches more than 100 million households. Time Warner would get a potential solution to a channel that has struggled to find an audience.

瞭解這些談判的人說，與時代華納的談判進展最大。時代華納有可能買下Vice的大筆少數股權，把有線電視HLN臺的控制權交給Vice，或者兩個公司會像合資企業那樣運營電視網。該項合同交給Vice的是一個24小時播出、入戶一億個家庭的新聞臺。這樣，時代華納也可能爲一個難以找到觀衆羣的頻道找到潛在的解決方案。

But the companies remain at odds over how much influence Time Warner would have over Vice and HLN, said the people familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are continuing and delicate. The two also disagree about the total value of Vice. Time Warner contends it is worth about $1.5 billion; Vice says it is worth at least $2.5 billion.

但瞭解這些談判的人說，兩家公司仍然在爲華納公司應該對Vice和HLN擁有多少影響力而爭執，這些知情者要求匿名，因爲談判還在繼續，而且非常微妙。兩家公司對Vice的總價值也未能達成一致。時代華納認爲它價值15億美元，Vice認爲自己價值至少25億美元。

These people also cited another matter. In March, Mr. Smith delivered a profanity-laced assessment of CNN — also owned by Time Warner — to The Daily News in New York, calling the network “a disaster.” The president of CNN, Jeff Zucker, was furious, a Time Warner official said. If Vice were to take over HLN, Mr. Zucker and Mr. Smith would be colleagues.

這些知情者還提到另一件事。三月，史密斯在紐約的《每日新聞報》(The Daily News)上，就時代華納旗下的CNN臺發表了髒話連篇的評價，他說CNN臺是“災難”。一個時代華納的主管說，CNN臺長傑夫·扎克(Jeff Zucker)勃然大怒。如果Vice接手HLN，扎克和史密斯就會成爲同事。

Among its other suitors, Vice has the strongest relationship with Fox, which last year bought a 5 percent stake in the company for $70 million. James Murdoch is on Vice’s board.

在所有追求者當中，Vice和福克斯的關係最密切，福克斯以7000萬美元買下了Vice至少5%的股份，詹姆斯·默多克是Vice的董事會成員。

But a Fox deal faces hurdles, too. The company does not have a logical single channel to give Vice, which is what Mr. Smith most wants. “You can’t be MTV without a TV network,” he said.

但是和福克斯合作也有障礙。這個公司並沒有一個獨立的電視頻道可以提供給Vice，而這正是史密斯最想要的。“沒有電視臺，我們就成不了MTV臺，”他說。

An agreement might instead call for Vice to program blocks of time on a few Fox networks. And, of course, Fox’s defining news brand, Fox News, is not popular among Vice’s core audience.

福克斯的替換方案可能是在旗下的電視臺裏提供給Vice的節目一些時段。當然，福克斯的招牌新聞品牌福克斯新聞在Vice的核心觀衆中並不流行。

The talks with Disney were initiated more recently — it is not clear at whose prompting — after news of the Time Warner discussions broke. It is also unclear how a deal might be structured.

和迪斯尼的談判是最近纔開始的，是在Vice和時代華納的談判破裂的新聞爆出之後，不清楚是誰先提起的，合同的框架尚不分明。

Disney has recently pursued digital media assets that cater to a younger audience. In March, it acquired the YouTube video production network Maker Studios.

迪斯尼最近開始收購數碼媒體，以迎合年輕觀衆。三月，它買下了YouTube的視頻製作公司Maker Studios。

Mr. Smith said Vice was in a powerful bargaining position. “It’s not like we’re beggars coming cap in hand saying please give me a network,” he said. “We’re bringing Gen Y, we’re bringing mobile, we’re bringing social, we’re bringing all of these things that they don’t have.”

史密斯說，Vice在談判中的立場很強硬。“我們並不是手捧帽子的乞討者，祈求別人給我一個電視頻道，”他說，“我們能吸引Y世代(Gen Y)，我們能吸引移動用戶，我們能吸引社交媒體用戶，我們能爲他們帶來他們沒有的一切。”

Vice has focused most of its energy and resources on the web. But while its six YouTube channels and various websites attract plenty of digital advertising, those rates pale in comparison to what Vice’s shows could potentially command on television.

Vice最關注自己在網絡上的能量與資源。但是，雖然它的六個YouTube頻道和若干網站吸引了大量網絡廣告，這些和它的節目吸引電視廣告的潛在能力相比還是太少。

More to the point, the move into television might also allow Vice to become less financially dependent on advertising agency work and corporate partnerships. In other words, it could try to evolve into a pure content-only operation.

此外，走向電視這個舉措可能會令Vice在經濟上不那麼依賴廣告經紀的工作與公司合作伙伴。換言之，它想試着發展爲更純粹的內容運營者。

Even if Vice can make a deal, there is no guarantee that its fans will follow the company to television in an era when young people are getting their news, increasingly, on other types of screens. “News on TV skews very old,” said Tom Rogers, the chief executive of TiVo, who helped start CNBC and MSNBC among other cable channels. “Most news channels have average audiences of 60 or older.”

就算Vice能簽下一份合同，也不能保證它的粉絲就一定會追隨這個公司去看電視。在這個時代，年輕人愈來愈多地從電視以外的其他屏幕獲取新聞。“從電視上看新聞的方式太古老了，”TiVo的首席執行官湯姆·羅傑斯(Tom Rogers)說，他曾協助開創了CNBC和MSNBC等有線臺。“大多數新聞臺的觀衆平均年齡是60歲或更爲年長的人。”

The average age of Vice’s HBO viewers is 46 to 50, Mr. Adgate said. Its online audience is a good deal younger, but on television anyway, it has not reached the elusive millennial demographic.

Vice在HBO的節目的觀衆平均年齡是46-50歲，艾德蓋特說。它的網絡觀衆則比較年輕，但在電視上，它還是沒有得到難以捉摸的千禧年一代觀衆羣。

Developing a television show is also very different from developing a web series; Vice has produced about 76 hours of domestic and international programming. Michael Lombardo, the president of programming at HBO, said the network had worked very closely with Vice to shape the newsmagazine show into something it felt could build an audience on television. The conversations were not always easy, he said.

做電視節目和做網絡系列是非常不一樣的；Vice已經制作了大約76小時的國內和國際電視節目內容。HBO的節目總監邁克爾·倫巴多(Michael Lombardo)說，HBO臺和Vice密切合作去製作這檔新聞雜誌秀，讓它能適合電視觀衆。他說，雙方溝通並不總是輕鬆的。

“When you’re in the digital space and you’re looking for clicks the idea is to just be noisy,” he said. “That impacts not only the subjects of your story but the way you tell a story. It’s different when you have someone sit down to a half-hour or hour show.”

“在追求點擊率的數碼世界裏，只要足夠吵鬧就行了，”他說。“影響力不是來自故事題材本身，也是來自你講故事的方式。但是要讓人坐下來看半小時或一小時的電視節目，那就是另一回事了。”

Last week, the talks over Vice’s future moved from Brooklyn to Cannes, the site of an annual international media conference that attracts many of the world’s biggest companies. Vice rented three villas for the occasion, and, hosted a couple of big parties. One had been scheduled for a French strip club, but the guest list grew so long that it had to be moved to a more conventional location, the Palais des Festivals.

上個星期，關於Vice未來的談判從布魯克林移到了戛納，年度國際傳媒大會在那裏召開，吸引了全世界許多頂級公司。Vice包下了三座別墅，舉辦了幾個大派對。其中一個本來計劃在法國脫衣舞俱樂部舉行，但是賓客名單太長，只好搬到比較傳統的地點——戛納電影節宮。