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美国繁荣的八卦杂志

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:31:52 +0800

America's thriving gossip magazines
美国繁荣的八卦杂志

Rags to riches 杂志致富

Jun 18th 2009 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

One corner of the print-news industry is relatively healthy
新闻印刷业的一隅相对繁荣

FOR seven of the past eight weeks the front cover of Us Weekly magazine has featured salacious stories about Jon and Kate Gosselin. The Gosselins, who have eight children including sextuplets, are the stars of an obscure American reality-TV programme that briefly became the most watched show on cable. Sensing a surge of interest, other celebrity magazines have piled in with reports of marital disharmony. Even in a recession, tittle-tattle sells.

过去的八周有七周,《美国周刊》封面以Jon和Kate Gosselin的粗俗故事为特色。Gosselin一家，有包括6胞胎在内的8个孩子，成了美国现实-TV节目的明星，节目短时间也在有线电视上备受瞩目。其他名人杂志发觉公众兴趣激增，便在杂志中插入关于不和谐婚姻的报道。即使经济衰退，八卦还是有的卖。

Buoyed by recession-resistant food, pharmaceutical and shampoo advertisements, gossip magazines have lost fewer advertising pages in the past year than business or news magazines, according to a tally by Mediaweek. The two biggest, People and Us Weekly, each sold more copies last year than they did in 2001. In a world of fragmenting audiences they boast an enormous reach. Fully 43m Americans, about two-thirds of them women, flick through a copy of People each week.

据《媒体周刊》统计，过去一年里，由抵制衰退的食粮——药品和香波广告维持着，比起商业或新闻杂志，八卦杂志失去的广告页较少。两家最大的杂志《人物》和《美国周刊》，每家去年比2001年卖出了更多的杂志。拥有大量分散读者，他们占据了极大的范围。足有四千三百万美国人，妇女大约占三分之二，每周浏览一份《人物》杂志。

This is odd, because the forces blamed for the decline of print news are no less potent in the celebrity sector. Celebrity news has its own online aggregators, several of them linked to web portals, such as omg!, the gossip arm of Yahoo!. The self-publicising Perez Hilton leads a legion of bloggers. Tweets, mobile-phone alerts and gossipy television shows (there are five, up from three in 2000) provide much more timely information about the lives of the beautiful than do magazines. There is more direct competition, too, with three big glossy magazines having launched since 2002.

这很奇怪，因为谴责新闻印刷业衰退的力量在名人部分依旧有力。人物新闻有自己的网络聚合器，有几个聚合器链接到了网络门户，像是对象管理集团（omg!）和雅虎（Yahoo!）的八卦部。自我宣传的Perez Hilton带领了一大队博客。Tweets，手机提醒和八卦电视节目（2000年有3个，现在升至5个）提供名人生活信息比杂志更加及时。2002年开办的3家精品杂志，也是个更为直接的竞争。

It may be that the new entrants have simply mopped up excess interest in the doings of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Larry Hackett, the editor of People, reckons that the public appetite for entertainment news was underserved until recently. Far from harming the established publications, the multimedia gossip barrage may be driving readers to check scurrilous rumours with them.

也许新加入者挖一下Paris Hilton和Lindsay Lohan的故事就轻而易举满足公众额外的兴趣。《人物》编辑Larry Hackett认为，公众对娱乐新闻的需求至今未得到满足。多媒体八卦的攻势非但不会波及现有杂志，也许会驱使读者和他们一起核查粗俗的谣言。

The field is probably too crowded. None of the three new publications—In Touch, Life & Style and OK!—sold more than a million copies a week on average last year. The turbulent economy has shaken lucrative news-stand sales in particular. As the weaker publications struggle, though, the strongest ones are expanding boldly into new platforms and products. People has launched an iPhone application and its website receives 13m unique visitors per month, according to comScore, a research firm. Its empire includes a fashion portal, a Spanish-language magazine, a country issue, puzzle books and a pets website, all written in the same reassuring style.

这个行业或许太过密集。去年3家新杂志《接触》、《生活&方式》和《OK!》，平均每周没有一家能卖出一百万份。尤其是动荡的经济动摇了有利可图的报摊销售。愈加衰弱的杂志还在挣扎，而顶强大的却在大胆开拓新平台和新产品。据调查公司comScore，《人物》已着手一份iPhone申请，其网站每月接待一千三百万独立访客。《人物》帝国包括一个时尚门户网站、一份西语杂志、一个国家问题、几本智力测验书和一个宠物网站，所有的编辑风格都是统一的并且有所保证。

However far-flung their operations, celebrity publishers know they must drive traffic to the weekly magazine, where the real money is still to be made. The best websites offer titbits, updates and quotes. When it comes to longer articles and scoops, though, online readers are firmly steered to the news-stand with notes that begin, “To find out more…”. Janice Min, the editor-in-chief of Us Weekly, reckons the content of her magazine and its associated website overlap by no more than 15%. “Why would you post your entire cover story online?” she asks.

不论名人杂志出版商的经营多么广泛，他们知道必须驱使人们买周刊才能真正赚到钱。最棒的网站提供花絮趣闻、更新材料和援引。然而一看到较长的文章和独家报道，在线读者会坚定地奔向标有“欲知详情……”的报摊。《美国周刊》总编辑Janice Min估计，其杂志与相关网站重复的内容不足15%。她问：“为什么要把全部封面专题放到网上呢？”

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津巴布韦：找欧美要钱

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:30:52 +0800

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:54:15 +0800

India's cheap housing boom
印度廉价房热销

The nano home
“nano”房

Jun 11th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Indian property developers cater to the masses with low-cost housing
印度的房地产商建造平价屋迎合大众需求

LAST month ten-year-old Azharuddin Ismail was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of bulldozers. As policemen beat him with a bamboo stick to shoo him and his family away, his home in Mumbai’s slums was swiftly demolished. Azhar, a celebrity since appearing in the film “Slumdog Millionaire”, has since been given a new home by the filmmakers. But other residents were not so fortunate.

上个月，10岁的阿扎鲁丁·伊斯梅尔（Azharuddin Ismail）午夜被清拆人员吵醒。警察用竹棍打他，把他和她的家人赶走，他在孟买贫民窟的家就这样轻易的被毁了。阿扎（Azhar）在电影《贫民富翁》演出成名，电影制作人曾因此给了他一个新住处。但是其他本地居民可没这么幸运。

Tata Housing
塔塔房产

Small flats, big profits
小公寓，大利润

India’s cities need at least 25m more homes, according to report from McKinsey, a consultancy, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce. In Mumbai, the commercial capital, more than 8m people now live in shantytowns, often paying substantial rent for the privilege. But buying a home of their own is way out of reach for most of them: a 70-square-metre flat in the centre of the city costs $500,000 or so.

根据印度商会联盟的麦肯锡咨询公司的一份报告来看，印度至少需要2500万房屋。在孟买商业中心，8百多万人住在贫民窟，经常要支付大量的租金。但是买一间自己的房子是他们大部分人力所不能及的，因为在市中心一个70平米的房子大约就要50万美元。

Matheran Realty is one of several firms that think they have a solution: ultra-low-cost housing. In Karjat, 90km east of Mumbai, Matheran Realty is in the process of building 15,000 flats with prices starting at just 210,000 rupees ($4,500) for 19-square-metre units. Tata, the firm that makes the $2,500 “Nano” car, is building 1,300 basic units at Boisar, about 100km north of the city, and may add more. Priced at 390,000-670,000 rupees each, they are already oversubscribed. Other firms are planning similar developments elsewhere in India.

其中的一家公司Matheran Realty认为他们有解决办法：超低价房屋。在孟买东部90km的Karjat，Matheran Realty正在建15000间价格在210000卢比（4500美元）的19平米的公寓。曾经推出2500美元最便宜汽车的塔塔集团，正在市中心以北 100km的博伊萨(Boisar)建1300间基础公寓，并且可能再增建一些。价格在390,000-670,000卢比的房屋已经被超额预定了。其他的公司也正计谟《绕渌胤浇ㄕ庵址课荨?

The cost is being kept low chiefly because the flats are being built outside big cities, where land is much cheaper. Owners are expected to commute. The units are also very small and spartan. The simplest consist of a single room with a sink in the corner and a toilet behind a partition. They are in buildings of no more than three storeys, so there is no need for expensive structural works. Instead of bricks, lightweight moulded concrete blocks are used for the walls. The concrete is often made with foam, fly-ash or other waste materials to make it lighter as well as cheaper. There are no lifts and just one staircase per block. All this means that the homes can be built very quickly and with unskilled labour.

价格之所以保持如此之低，是因为这些房子建在城市外，那里的土地价格更便宜。房主们需要通勤。房子十分狭小。最简单的户型只有一间屋子，角落有一张床，一个隔墙后边是厕所。整栋楼只有三种户型，所以基本不需要昂贵的结构设计工作。墙不是用砖砌的，而是用轻质混合物块做成。混合物通常是泡沫、粉煤灰和其他废弃材料做成，这样使他既轻便又便宜。楼里没有电梯，每层只有一个楼梯。所以这些意味着这样的房屋能很快建好，并且不需要技术性很高的工人。

The developers say the potential for very cheap housing in India is huge. Many of those living in slums today are employed as drivers, factory workers or tailors, with incomes of around 90,000 rupees a year—easily enough to afford a flat which costs 200,000-400,000 rupees. According to Ashish Karamchandani of Monitor Group, another consulting firm, India has 23m urban families with incomes of 60,000-130,000 rupees a year. Including rural areas, Tata Housing sees an even larger market of 180m households earning between 90,000 and 200,000 rupees.

发展商门说印度廉价房租的潜在市场是很大的。很多住在贫民窟的人们现在都被雇佣做司机，工厂工人或者裁缝，人均收入大约90000卢比，足可以支付一个价格在200,000-400,000卢比的公寓。另一个咨询公司监测组的Ashish Karamchandani说，印度有2300万城市居民年收入达到60,000-130,000卢比。算上农村地区，Tata Housing已经看到了一个拥有18000万个收入在90,000-200,000卢比的家庭的更庞大的市场。

Until very recently one of the biggest hurdles was finance. Banks were unwilling to lend money to people without credit histories or proof of permanent residence. But two government-owned banks—the National Housing Bank and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development—have agreed to provide funds to finance companies so that they can offer mortgages to such buyers. To reduce risk, buyers must put down at least a quarter of the purchase price and employers must confirm their income. Borrowers are then charged little more interest than those with an established credit history.

直到最近，出现的最大的困难是财政。银行不想把钱借给那些没有信用记录或者没有长期居住证明的人。但是两家国有银行—国家住房银行和国家农业发展银行，已经同意给这些财政公司提供资金，这样他们就能给这样购房者提供贷款。为了降低风险，购房者至少必须支付公寓全款1/4，并且需要雇主为他们的收入提供证明。贷款者会只需要比那些已经建立信用记录的人多交一些利息。

Lenders and developers are convinced that they have struck gold. Who would have guessed that the combination of subprime loans and a building boom would have become attractive again so soon?

贷款方和开发商都确信他们挖到了金矿。谁能想到抵押贷款和建筑热潮的结合这么快又能变得如此有吸引力呢？

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