"日经"力求向全球数字新闻品牌转型 Tough journey from print to global digital journalism

For the top executives of Nikkei, Japan’s biggest media company, buying the Financial Times was a deal they had been chasing for years in a bid to turn a heavily domestic name into a global brand and survive the shift to digital journalism.

对日本最大媒体公司日经新闻(Nikkei)的顶级高管来说，收购英国《金融时报》(Financial Times, FT)是他们多年来追求的一笔交易，这种追求的目的是把一个本土色彩浓厚的品牌转变为一个全球品牌，在朝向数字新闻的转型过程中生存下来。

Founded in 1876, Nikkei has 3.12m subscribers, and has built itself into the most widely read financial publication for the country’s chief executives and salarymen.

成立于1876年的日经新闻拥有312万订户，已成为日本首席执行官和上班族读得最多的财经出版物。

The 844m deal came just four months after the Nikkei publication appointed a new chief executive, Naotoshi Okada. He has continued the strategy set by his predecessor Tsuneo Kita, who sought to strengthen Nikkei’s digital content with the launch of an online version of the paper in 2010 and investments in Monocle, the lifestyle magazine, and Evernote, a digital note-taking service based in Silicon Valley. Mr Kita remains chairman and chief executive of the larger Nikkei group.

就在达成这笔8.44亿英镑交易的四个月前，日经新闻任命冈田直敏(Naotoshi Okada)出任社长。冈田延续了前任喜多恒雄(Tsuneo Kita)制定的战略，后者寻求加强日经新闻的数字内容，在2010年推出《日本经济新闻》网络版，并投资于生活方式杂志《Monocle》和总部位于硅谷的数字笔记服务印象笔记(Evernote)。喜多恒雄仍是日经集团的董事长和首席执行官。

The company has struggled to build its name overseas, grappling with the burden faced by other Japanese companies: a shrinking and ageing home market. Fewer than 30 per cent of Japanese people own shares, resulting in a smaller pie of readers for the Nikkei. The total circulation of Japanese newspapers as of March was 39.7m, down 15 per cent over the past 13 years, according to the Japan Newspaper Publisher & Editors Association. Nikkei suffered a 11 per cent decline over the same period. As of June, Nikkei had circulation of 2.73m with 430,000 digital subscribers.

该公司在海外打造品牌的努力一直举步维艰，同时艰难应对着日本企业普遍面对的负担：不断萎缩且老龄化的国内市场。只有不到30%的日本人拥有股票，导致日经新闻的读者群较小。根据日本新闻协会(Japan Newspaper Publisher & Editors Association)的数据，日本各家报纸今年3月的总发行量为3970万份，在过去13年里下降了15%。同期日经新闻遭遇了11%的下降。今年6月，日经新闻的发行量达到273万份，其中43万为数字订户。

It launched an English language publication called Nikkei Asian Review in 2013 to build its profile outside of the country, but the publication has struggled to build an audience.

该报在2013年推出英文版的《Nikkei Asian Review》，以求提高海外知名度，但这份刊物一直难以构建读者群。

At the time of the launch, the company’s management said Nikkei was going to become “an Asian paper that was completely distinct from the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal”, according to a person familiar with the matter. “Buying the FT is opposite from what we’ve always been told,” the person said.

据知情人士透露，创办这份英文刊物时，该公司管理层曾表示，日经将成为“一份亚洲报纸，与英国《金融时报》和《华尔街日报》(Wall Street Journal)完全不同”。此人说，“买下英国《金融时报》与我们一向被告知的理念背道而驰。”

Nikkei’s attraction as a source of information on Japanese shares has been resurgent since Shinzo Abe became prime minister and the Tokyo stock market began a bull run that has drawn record volumes of foreign investment into Japanese equities.

自安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)出任日本首相以来，东京股市出现牛市，吸引创纪录数量的外资投入日本股票，这意味着作为有关日本股票的信息来源，日经新闻的吸引力再度上升。

As analysts regularly point out, Japanese bull runs have historically tended to evolve from a “buy the market” strategy to a more selective stockpickers’ market. It is at that point, say fund managers with long track records in Japan, that the Nikkei and its reporting of planned corporate announcements becomes invaluable.

正如分析师们所经常指出的，从历史上看，日本的牛市倾向于从“买什么都行”的战略渐渐演变到更具选择性的“炒股高手市场”。长期活跃于日本的基金经理们表示，正是在那个时间点上，日经新闻及其对策划中的企业公告的报道变得非常宝贵。

But as 844m sale of the FT Group by Pearson became public yesterday, some people inside the Nikkei expressed concerns over the price tag.

但在昨日培生集团(Pearson)以8.44亿英镑出售英国《金融时报》集团(FT Group)的消息传出之际，日经内部的一些人士表达了对收购价格的担忧。

The Y160bn (deal price will weigh on Nikkei’s balance sheet, which had Y103bn in cash and cash equivalents as of the end of December. In 2014, group sales increased 4.4 per cent to Y300bn ($2.4bn) while net profit declined 10 per cent to Y10.26bn.

1600亿日元的交易价格将拖累日经的资产负债表；截至去年12月底，其资产负债表上有1030亿日元现金及现金等价物。2014年集团销售额增长4.4%，至3000亿日元（合24亿美元），净利润同比下降10%，至102.6亿日元。