《华盛顿邮报》不应盲目讨好年轻人

    与贝佐斯的说法相反，并不是所有企业都非得要“永远追逐年轻人”。当然，它们必须与时俱进，尽量避免疏远年轻人，但所有的生意都需要迎合年老群体的需要（至少需要老少兼顾），媒体也概莫能外。虽然有线新闻并不是报纸的好榜样，但它的受众确实包含对公共事务感兴趣的人，而有线新闻的受众几乎完全是老年人。福克斯新闻(Fox News )观众的平均年龄至少是65岁，甚至更高龄。美国有线新闻网（CNN）和微软全国有线广播电视（MSNBC）观众也不甘落后，它们黄金时段观众的年龄中位数徘徊在60岁左右。全国公共广播电台（NPR）听众的平均年龄为55岁。日益流行的家园频道（HGTV）的观众年龄中位数为53岁，其中超过一半的观众处于25岁至54岁这个备受广告商垂青的年龄段。年轻人也看有线新闻，就如同倘若报纸刊登更多吸引人的内容，年轻人和老年人都会读报纸（在线或离线）一样。

    喜剧中心频道（Comedy Central）观众的年龄中位数是28岁。这些人通常并不是小孩，渴望巨细无遗地掌握拉拉•安东尼的一切信息。他们是成年人——经常是准备建立家庭，购买房产，投资大学基金的大学毕业生。如果把这家有线电视网络的头牌节目——即主要讨论公共事务的《每日秀》（The Daily Show）和《科尔伯特报告》（The Colbert Report）——单列出来，观众的平均年龄就将迅速上升至40岁左右。

    如果报纸要追逐一个特定的人口群，它应该是所有年龄段中那些聪明，而且有一定立场观点的人，喜欢阅读的人。报纸的读者群向来都是随着年龄的增长而上升。此外，在未来几十年，随着婴儿潮一代不断退休，人口总体上将继续老化。这种态势理应会减损为吸引年轻人而不惜放弃其他人这一策略的吸引力。

    贝佐斯援引伍尔沃斯百货公司作为反例的说法也站不住脚。与少数其他企业一样，伍尔沃斯是一个典型的美国成功故事。这家公司延续了近120年，与亚马逊非常相像的是，它发明了一种全新的零售方式：廉价商店。此外，在其公司生命延续的相当长时间内，它都是在创新，而不是“老化”。至1979年，也就是伍尔沃斯成立100年后，它已成为全球最大的杂货连锁店。上世纪60年代初，伍尔沃斯公司创建了单级折扣连锁店——沃柯（Woolco），沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）、凯玛特（Kmart）和塔吉特（Target）当时也在做同样的事情。但依凭“做大”策略，伍尔沃斯走在了时代前列：一些沃柯商店超过10万平方英尺，这么大的经营面积在当时极不寻常。它的旗舰廉价商店不仅在大型购物中心时代来临后幸存了下来，而且还继续蓬勃发展。此外，这家公司还推出了Kinney Shoes和Styleco等新店。这些商店在商场和购物中心大行其道的时代都获得了不错的经营业绩。

    在某种程度上，伍尔沃斯的种种尝试其实是为了实现多元化和追逐潮流，同时也是为了跟上让美国几乎所有零售商（除沃尔玛之外）的日子变得尤为艰难的经济转型大势。伍尔沃斯公司推出了富乐客（Foot Locker），随后又在互联网时代推出了目录/在线运动服饰零售商Eastbay。至1997年，伍尔沃斯基本上消逝了，主要原因在于它的注意力远离了它的核心业务：折扣和百货商店。

    从另一个角度来看，我们可以说伍尔沃斯依然在茁壮成长，而且还在不断创新——富乐客公司是伍尔沃斯的直接继承者，它目前的股价大约是它1997年放弃伍尔沃斯这一名称时的3.5倍。富乐客拥有好几个备受欢迎的品牌，其中包括Champs Sports和CCS。这家公司现已成为滑板和滑雪运动设备的主要供应商。这算不算服务于年轻群体呢？

    贝佐斯的评论只是随口说说，我们不应该过度解读。就整体而言，他恰切地传递出正确的信息，尤其是以下这句话：“头号规则是：不要令人厌烦。”要是更多报纸在几年前接纳了这条建议，它们目前的处境或许会好得多。(财富中文网)

    译者：任文科

    Contrary to Bezos's statement, all businesses do not have to "be young forever." Of course, they must keep up with the times and avoid alienating younger people, but there are all kinds of businesses that cater to an older, or at least mixed, crowd -- including in media. Not that cable news should be considered a good example of what newspapers should do, but their audiences do comprise people who are interested in public affairs, and cable-news audiences are downright geriatric. The average Fox News viewer is at least 65 and probably older. CNN's and MSNBC's audiences aren't far behind, with the median ages of its prime-time viewers hovering at around 60. NPR's average listener is 55. The median for the increasingly popular HGTV is 53, with more than half the audience in the 25-54 demo that advertisers covet. Young people watch it, too, just like young and old alike would read newspapers (online or off) more often if there was something more there to attract them.

    The median age of Comedy Central's audience is 28. These generally aren't kids who want to know everything that La La Anthony is up to. They're grownups -- often college graduates, starting families, buying real estate, and investing in college funds. And if you isolate the network's top shows -- The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which are geared toward public affairs -- the average age quickly rises, to about 40.

    If newspapers are going to chase a particular demographic, it should be that one: smart, engaged people of all ages. People who enjoy reading. Newspaper readership has always risen with age. Further, the population as a whole is going to continue to age for the next couple of decades as the Baby Boomers continue to move into retirement. That should take away some of the appeal of attracting the young at the expense of everyone else.

    Bezos's reference to Woolworth doesn't quite wash, either. Woolworth is an American success story like few others. It lasted for nearly 120 years and -- much like Amazon -- it invented a whole new way of retailing: the five-and-dime store. It also spent much of its corporate life innovating, not "aging." In 1979, 100 years after its founding, it was running the largest chain of variety stores in the world. It started a chain of single-level discount stores -- Woolco -- in the early '60s, just as Wal-Mart (WMT), Kmart, and Target (TGT) were doing the same. But it was more ahead of its time than either by going big: some Woolco stores were more than 100,000 square feet, highly unusual at the time. Even its flagship five-and-dime outlets not only survived the onset of shopping malls, but thrived within them. The company also launched new stores like Kinney Shoes and Styleco that did well during the mall/shopping-center era.

    What did Woolworth in, in fact, was in part an effort to diversify and chase trends, as well as the economic transformations that were making life tough for nearly every American retailer other than Wal-Mart. Woolworth launched Foot Locker and, during the dotcom era, the catalog/online athletic-wear retailer Eastbay. Woolworth was essentially gone by 1997, thanks mostly to the company diverting attention away from its core businesses -- the discount and department stores.

    Viewed from another perspective, it could be said that Woolworth continues to thrive and innovate -- Foot Locker Inc. (FL) is the direct successor of Woolworth, and its shares are worth about 3.5 times what they were when the company dropped the Woolworth name in 1997. It owns several popular brands, including Champs Sports and CCS -- a huge supplier of equipment for skateboarders and snowboarders. How's that for staying young?

    Bezos's comments were offhand, and we shouldn't read too much into them. On the whole, he delivered exactly the right message, especially when he said, "The number one rule has to be: Don't be boring." If more newspapers had taken that advice years ago, they would probably have found themselves in a much better position now.