亞馬遜創辦人斥資75億買下《華盛頓郵報》，
再度引發國際媒體對報業未來發展的臆測，
不過報業數位化的過程中仍有開發成本挑戰，
在新興經濟體中的發展也值得關注。
科技界和媒體圈全在議論紛紛，討論電子商務界才子貝佐斯究竟打算怎麼讓《華盛頓郵報》走向現代化；《華郵》儼然是一個過時經濟中的賠錢貨。
最主要的幾個預測是，這位改變了零售產業的人將放棄這份可敬報紙的印刷版本、為推特世代拓展《華郵》的即時內容、共享亞馬遜空前的線上消費者資訊、並想出創新管道，向《華郵》的50萬讀者販售從書籍到智慧型手機的一切物品。
亞馬遜創辦者及執行長在以2.5億美元（約新台幣75億元）買下這家135年歷史的老報紙後，並未透露太多；但他確實於5日告訴員工，在這個網路掀起新聞產業革命的時代，他們須有所「創新」並勇於「實驗」。
外界推測華郵將「亞馬遜化」
雖然貝佐斯是以個人身分買下華郵，而非由亞馬遜公司購買，外界仍普遍期待他會某種程度的把新聞產業「亞馬遜化」，用上那些他19年前在車庫創立公司時的策略。
有件事倒是毫無疑問：這位知名的創新者正帶著龐大年輕世代的認可，去影響一個過去十年來困擾著報紙業主的議題，也就是如何扭轉廣告主大舉轉往其他媒體的情況。
▲亞馬遜執行長貝佐斯在產品發表會上展示兩款Kindle電子閱讀器，圖攝於2012年9月6日。（圖／路透）
「亞馬遜瞭解到，資訊以數位形式流動的速度，要比實體形式的資訊快得多，而亞馬遜現在已經是電子書界的全球領先者了。」廣受歡迎的雲端資訊分享平台Box的創辦人及執行長李維說道：「這個情況也反應在報紙上。貝佐斯非常瞭解這種轉變，他可以協助找出轉型之道。」
這場轉變中，首先陣亡的可能就是報紙本身。貝佐斯曾向一份德國報紙發表評論，說紙本報紙將在20年內大量消失。
李維說，貝佐斯可效法Netflix的執行長哈斯汀，將實體銷售網路轉變為迎合客戶喜好的資訊串流服務，也就是透過個人電腦、平板及手機傳送更多即時新聞。
華郵與Kindle連結可能性高
讀者已能在亞馬遜的Kindle上取得《華郵》，蘋果iPad或其他谷歌的載具同樣也能取得，只不過Kindle和《華郵》的連結很可能更加緊密。
波克夏投資機構的合夥人魯索表示，其中一種想法是，《華郵》很可能透過該廠牌平板載具提供新聞，或許會贈送一年的訂閱，就像電信公司補助購買電話那樣。魯索是《華郵》公司最大的股東之一。長久以來，亞馬遜都依成本價販售Kindle、大量贈送平板，再讓消費者透過平板購買昂貴的線上產品。
亞馬遜的最大強項，或許是它從消費紀錄中累積對顧客的認知，而這也是這家公司成為成功商人的原因。若將這項科技應用在《華郵》上，將能賦予廣告更多價值。
「沒人會比貝佐斯更瞭解網路媒體傳播。」著有《亞馬遜的祕密》的布朗德說：「如果有人能找出增加報業營收的方式，那這個人非他莫屬。這將使《華郵》獲益，甚至造福所有媒體機構。」
新聞轉為在地、個人化方向
貝佐斯在給《華郵》員工的信件中寫道，他並不打算參與報紙的日常營運，並會將新聞製作的工作交給目前的領導團隊。不過他確實暗示，將讓新聞轉為更在地、更個人化的方向，與亞馬遜吸引客戶的方式雷同。
他購買《華郵》一事可被視為亞馬遜拓展內容產出的一步；亞馬遜最近製作了自己的電影和電視節目，讓這間公司又多一種與客戶互動的方式。
「『新聞』就像一個數位的高流量十字路口；人們穿越路口、想看看現在發生什麼事時，他們可能也想停下來買點東西。」新聞網站《財經內幕》的創辦人及執行長布洛傑特這麼寫道，而這也是貝佐斯早已投入研究之處：「生產內容的公司和貿易公司長久以來試著結合這兩方面的經驗，但目前沒人真正達成。」
貝佐斯有的是時間來找出對策。他已經在經營亞馬遜的經驗中展現出，他能在一個想法開始真正獲利前，為之持續努力數年。而以個人身分進行這次交易，也使他免去了其他股東對此的高度期待。
《華郵》已是網路上最主要的幾個紙本出版品之一。《華郵》公司的線上出版品主要是《華郵》網站和網路雜誌《Slate》，這些出版品在2013年第二季為《華郵》帶來2,980萬美金（約新台幣8億9千萬元）的營收，而《Slate》並不包含在貝佐斯購買《華郵》的交易中。
這只不過比《華郵》整體報紙出版營收的20％多一些，但已相當於其他大報的營收。《華郵》自教育服務和有線電視得到的營收要多得多。
「《華郵》早已成為最有前瞻視野的報社之一。」Box的李維引用《華郵》實驗團隊WaPo Labs的計畫說道。這個團隊旨在實驗提供新聞的新媒體，開發了名為Social Reader的臉書應用程式，以及能從一萬個來源收集新聞的Trove個人化新聞彙整服務。
「《華郵》對科技領域已相當熟悉。」李維表示：「這是個必須從印刷轉向數位的產業，而他們在這方面的表現相當好。擁有像貝佐斯這種買主的好處就是，你有源源不斷的實驗資金。」（路透）
Technology and media circles are abuzz at how e-commerce wunderkind Jeff Bezos plans to modernize The Washington Post, a money-losing bastion of the old economy.
Among the top predictions: the man who transformed retailing will want to wean the venerable paper off its print edition; expand the Post's real-time content for a Twitter generation; share Amazon's near-unparalleled data on online buyers; and devise novel avenues to sell anything from books to smartphones to the Post's half a million readers.
The founder and CEO of Amazon.com Inc hasn't given much away since he struck a deal to buy the 135-year-old paper for $250 million. But he did tell employees on Monday that they will have to "invent" and "experiment" as the Internet revolutionizes the news business.
Although Bezos, not Amazon, is buying the Post, it is widely expected that he will in some way 'Amazon-ify' the news business, bringing across strategies imprinted on the company he founded in a garage 19 years ago.
One thing is clear: the famed innovator is bringing enormous street cred to bear on a problem that has baffled（1） newspaper owners for over a decade: how to reverse the ebb of advertisers to other media.
"Amazon realized information travels much faster as a digital object rather than a physical object, and now Amazon is a world leader in e-books," said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, a popular online content sharing platform. "The analogy holds true for newspapers. Bezos knows that transformation incredibly well and he can help them navigate that transition."
The first casualty of this shift will likely be newspapers themselves. Bezos remarked to a German paper last year that printed news would largely disappear in 20 years.
Bezos could emulate Netflix Inc CEO Reed Hastings, said Levie, transforming a physical distribution（2） network into a streaming service that adapts to customers' choices. That means more real-time news delivered via PCs, tablets and phones.
Readers can already get the Post on Amazon's Kindle - as well as on Apple Inc's iPad and other devices powered by Google Inc - but a closer tie-up seems likely.
One idea would be for the Post to offer news via a branded tablet, perhaps given away with a one-year subscription, much as phone companies subsidize（3） handsets, said Thomas Russo, a partner of the Gardner Russo & Gardner investment firm, one of the biggest Washington Post Co shareholders. Amazon for a long time sold its Kindle e-readers at cost, effectively giving away a device through which buyers then access its online trove（4）.
Perhaps Amazon's greatest strength is its knowledge of customers built up through their buying history, which makes the company a very efficient marketer. That technology applied to the Post could make its advertising business much more valuable.
"Nobody knows more about Internet media distribution than Jeff Bezos," said Richard Brandt, author of 'One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com.' "If anyone can figure out how to do this profitably, it is he. That will benefit the Post and, possibly, all media organizations."
Bezos wrote in a letter to Post employees that he did not intend to get involved in day-to-day management of the paper, and would leave news production to the existing leadership team. But he did hint at a shift to a more local, personalized idea of news, which echoes Amazon's approach to customers.
His purchase of the Post could be viewed as an extension of Amazon's move towards content creation, most recently creating its own movies and TV series, which gives the company a new way of engaging with customers.
"'News' is the digital equivalent of a high-traffic intersection: as people pass through to figure out what's happening they might also stop to do some shopping," wrote Henry Blodget, founder and CEO of news site Business Insider, which Bezos has also invested in. "Content and commerce companies have long dabbled with combining the two experiences, but no one has really nailed it."
Bezos has time to work out a formula. He has shown at Amazon that he is willing to work on ideas for years before they become profitable. And by making the purchase personal, he has removed demanding shareholders from the equation.
The Post is already one of the more prominent print publications on the web. The Washington Post Co's online publishing activities, primarily washingtonpost.com and Slate, took in $29.8 million in revenue（5） for the second quarter of 2013, up 15 percent from a year ago. Slate is not included in the sale to Bezos.
That is just over 20 percent of The Washington Post Co's overall newspaper publishing revenue, but is in line with other large papers. The company earned much greater revenue from its education and cable TV operations.
"The Washington Post has already been one of the most forward-thinking newsrooms," said Box's Levie, citing its WaPo Labs project, a team that experiments with new ways of providing news from a 'Social Reader' Facebook app to the Trove personalized news gatherer, which pulls from 10,000 sources. WaPo Labs is also not included in the sale.
"They have already been fairly tech-savvy," said Levie. "It's a business that has to transform itself from print to digital and they've done a pretty good job doing so. The benefit of having an owner like Jeff Bezos is you'll be able to continue to fund those experiments."（Reuters）
關鍵字詞
1.baffle（v.）困擾
2.distribution（n.）銷售
3.subsidize（v.）補助
4.trove（n.）寶藏；貴重物品
5.revenue（n.）營收