大传媒集团争抢成为新媒体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，一辆黑色的SUV车驶过布鲁克林威廉姆斯堡的街头，停在Vice传媒由仓库改建的国际总部门口，从车上走下来的是传媒界的大人物鲁伯特·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世纪福克斯公司拥有Vice的一小部分股份，他来布鲁克林是想见Vice的首席执行官尚恩·史密斯(Shane Smith)。他们的议题包括这样一条谣言：Vice正在与福克斯公司竞争对手之一的时代华纳公司谈判合作，或许还要出卖一大笔股份给它。

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谈判一笔交易，迪斯尼也是。Vice的起点是一个蒙特利尔的独立杂志，创刊于1994年，如今，与这些公司的任何一笔交易中，它的估值都可能在15亿到25亿美元之间。合作可能有很多形式，但Vice已经制作了一些项目，显然是提供给电视的，它希望建立自己的电视网络、签一个电影合约，为它的创始人和投资者们大赚一笔。

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.

数码产业的破坏力在改变着新闻和娱乐业，这导致了很多奇怪的联盟，但是Vice加入一家大型传媒集团这个想法还是让人觉得太不搭调了。Vice赚钱主要是依靠和大公司合作制作视频，但它也一直不懈地维持自己的叛逆者形象，它有带纹身的新闻记者、使用手持摄像机、制造新闻噱头，比如把前篮球运动员丹尼斯·罗德曼(Dennis Rodman)送到朝鲜访问之类。

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.

一直以来，44岁的史密斯经常批评主流媒体和传统电视业。如果他和这些公司签一份合约，他就会加入那个自己公然鄙视的俱乐部。

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.

但他却在与鲁伯特之子、福克斯的法定继承人詹姆斯·默多克(James Murdoch)谈判，还有迪斯尼的首席执行官罗伯特·A·伊格(Robert A. Iger)、时代华纳的首席执行官杰弗里·L·比克斯(Jeffrey L. Bewkes)等人。这些人都拼命争抢新一代的消费者，他们对手机比对传统电视更感兴趣。

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.

这些执行官们觊觎Vice这种不守规矩、自己动手的易感性——“来自边缘的新闻”是它在HBO台每周播放的30分钟节目的广告词——最主要的是，他们还觊觎Vice和年轻的核心观众建立起来的联系。

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.

史密斯现在正在进行能令公司获益数亿美元的谈判，他一贯傲慢而坦率，如今正学着审慎一点。尽管他不愿谈起Vice目前正在进行的各种谈判，但最近他在自己的办公室接受采访时谈了自己对公司未来的看法，以及电视在其中扮演的地位。

“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.”

“这是我们发展的下一步，”他说，“我们的移动与网络部门员工正在呈指数级别增加，但我们希望用三条腿站立，这个第三条腿就是电视。”

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.

史密斯满脸胡须，脾气粗暴，仿佛是维京人盛宴上用头盔畅饮蜜酒的人物。事实上，他喝的是冰镇的夏布利一级葡萄酒，是助理倒给他的。

Fox, Disney and Time Warner all declined to comment.

福克斯、迪斯尼和时代华纳都拒绝对此进行评论。

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.

大热的数码公司与大型媒体集团进行的谈判，最后的结局通常通常不怎么美妙。2005年新闻集团曾以5.8亿美元收购Myspace网站，6年后以3500万美元卖出。2000年，时代华纳与AOL的联合如今已经作为史上最糟的商业交易案例用于MBA教学。

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.

史密斯声称，Vice是不一样的。公司的财务状况是保密的，但一位熟悉Vice经营的人士称，2014年它预计创造5亿美元的收入。其中大部分不是来自网络新闻，而是来自类似新闻的视频内容，由英特尔与AT&T等公司出钱。

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还拥有一批忠实拥趸，尽管它的观众数量很难单独核算。希望它不会成为另一个Myspace，而是成为现代的、跨平台的MTV。MTV的创始人之一与前首席执行官汤姆·弗莱斯顿(Tom Freston)后来执掌维亚康姆公司，他是Vice的投资者与最密切的顾问之一。

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乐录像的基础之上。Vice的魅力来自它已为自己打上“酷”的标记，但“酷”是个短暂易逝的概念。和MTV在1981年初创之时相比，现在需要竞争的东西要多得多，一直保持卓越不凡就更难了。

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开始为HBO台制作每周的新闻杂志秀，这是它第一次制作电视节目。最近，这个节目的第二季刚刚播出了最后一集，内容包括犯罪猖獗的新泽西州卡姆登，以及乍得和达尔富尔的难民营。去年这个节目的最后一集可谓臭名昭著，拍的是罗德曼和其他三个哈林花式篮球队的队员在朝鲜为金正恩表演。

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.

地平线传媒的研究主管布拉德·艾德盖特(Brad Adgate)说，Vice在HBO的节目第一年平均每周有82.1万名观众收看，包括首日播出的收看者和其后七天内的收看者。到第二季，每周收视率降低到了76万人。HBO说重播的收视率是每周280万人，包括网络和点播收视。

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.

了解这些谈判的人说，与时代华纳的谈判进展最大。时代华纳有可能买下Vice的大笔少数股权，把有线电视HLN台的控制权交给Vice，或者两个公司会像合资企业那样运营电视网。该项合同交给Vice的是一个24小时播出、入户一亿个家庭的新闻台。这样，时代华纳也可能为一个难以找到观众群的频道找到潜在的解决方案。

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.

但了解这些谈判的人说，两家公司仍然在为华纳公司应该对Vice和HLN拥有多少影响力而争执，这些知情者要求匿名，因为谈判还在继续，而且非常微妙。两家公司对Vice的总价值也未能达成一致。时代华纳认为它价值15亿美元，Vice认为自己价值至少25亿美元。

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.

这些知情者还提到另一件事。三月，史密斯在纽约的《每日新闻报》(The Daily News)上，就时代华纳旗下的CNN台发表了脏话连篇的评价，他说CNN台是“灾难”。一个时代华纳的主管说，CNN台长杰夫·扎克(Jeff Zucker)勃然大怒。如果Vice接手HLN，扎克和史密斯就会成为同事。

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.

在所有追求者当中，Vice和福克斯的关系最密切，福克斯以7000万美元买下了Vice至少5%的股份，詹姆斯·默多克是Vice的董事会成员。

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碍。这个公司并没有一个独立的电视频道可以提供给Vice，而这正是史密斯最想要的。“没有电视台，我们就成不了MTV台，”他说。

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.

福克斯的替换方案可能是在旗下的电视台里提供给Vice的节目一些时段。当然，福克斯的招牌新闻品牌福克斯新闻在Vice的核心观众中并不流行。

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.

和迪斯尼的谈判是最近才开始的，是在Vice和时代华纳的谈判破裂的新闻爆出之后，不清楚是谁先提起的，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.

迪斯尼最近开始收购数码媒体，以迎合年轻观众。三月，它买下了YouTube的视频制作公司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.”

史密斯说，Vice在谈判中的立场很强硬。“我们并不是手捧帽子的乞讨者，祈求别人给我一个电视频道，”他说，“我们能吸引Y世代(Gen Y)，我们能吸引移动用户，我们能吸引社交媒体用户，我们能为他们带来他们没有的一切。”

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最关注自己在网络上的能量与资源。但是，虽然它的六个YouTube频道和若干网站吸引了大量网络广告，这些和它的节目吸引电视广告的潜在能力相比还是太少。

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，走向电视这个举措可能会令Vice在经济上不那么依赖广告经纪的工作与公司合作伙伴。换言之，它想试着发展为更纯粹的内容运营者。

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能签下一份合同，也不能保证它的粉丝就一定会追随这个公司去看电视。在这个时代，年轻人愈来愈多地从电视以外的其他屏幕获取新闻。“从电视上看新闻的方式太古老了，”TiVo的首席执行官汤姆·罗杰斯(Tom Rogers)说，他曾协助开创了CNBC和MSNBC等有线台。“大多数新闻台的观众平均年龄是60岁或更为年长的人。”

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的节目的观众平均年龄是46-50岁，艾德盖特说。它的网络观众则比较年轻，但在电视上，它还是没有得到难以捉摸的千禧年一代观众群。

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.

做电视节目和做网络系列是非常不一样的；Vice已经制作了大约76小时的国内和国际电视节目内容。HBO的节目总监迈克尔·伦巴多(Michael Lombardo)说，HBO台和Vice密切合作去制作这档新闻杂志秀，让它能适合电视观众。他说，双方沟通并不总是轻松的。

“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.”

“在追求点击率的数码世界里，只要足够吵闹就行了，”他说。“影响力不是来自故事题材本身，也是来自你讲故事的方式。但是要让人坐下来看半小时或一小时的电视节目，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.

上个星期，关于Vice未来的谈判从布鲁克林移到了戛纳，年度国际传媒大会在那里召开，吸引了全世界许多顶级公司。Vice包下了三座别墅，举办了几个大派对。其中一个本来计划在法国脱衣舞俱乐部举行，但是宾客名单太长，只好搬到比较传统的地点——戛纳电影节宫。