新闻集团网络投资血本无归

    接下来一年中，米勒仍将为默多克提供建议，但我们尚不清楚他离开之后谁将充当新闻集团的数码“梦想家”。就算新闻集团不再启动或收购新的数码媒体资产，它仍然得面对现实，那就是：越来越多传统媒体内容正在走上网络，只不过这种迁徙缺乏清晰可行的商业模式，无法保证能够获得利润。要想发现此种商业模式，必须要有敏锐而精巧的商业头脑。

    那么，新闻集团的数码业务领导者究竟会是谁呢？很有可能是默多克本人——而他从未表现出对数码媒体盈利方式的任何理解，他对用户原创内容的理解更是不堪想象，就连怎么使用Twitter这种简单的技巧他都无法掌握，结果把自己的Twitter账号变成了高管失语症的典型案例。过去几天里，默多克继续用Twitter大发议论，抨击“免费、开放、无序的”互联网扼杀了报纸，批评硅谷“没有多少震撼人心的新发明”，并为Facebook“盈利困难，配不上这么高市值”而窃笑。可是，这么多年来的大力投资中，难道默多克自己拿出过什么让人大开眼界的新发明吗？他通过互联网盈利的计划又在哪儿呢？换个角度说，他知道如何拯救自己旗下的报纸吗？分拆报纸业务似乎更像是向他自己痛恨的互联网低头认输。

    就在他自己的“首席数码官”离职的同一周，默多克竟然还在嘲笑数码媒体，这实在颇具讽刺意味。换句话说，这反映了很多问题。如今这个时代，互联网越来越强大，对媒体发行越来越重要，鲁伯特•默多克也比以往更加缺乏明晰的方向。

    译者:小宇

    Miller will continue to advise Murdoch for another year, but without his leadership, it's not clear who the digital visionary at News Corp. might be. Even if the company backs away from launching or buying new digital-media properties, it must still confront the reality that more of what we once called old media content is going online. Only it's migrating there without a clear, workable business model that can guarantee profits. And it will take a keen and cunning mind to find that business model.

    So who will News Corp.'s digital visionary be? Most likely, Murdoch himself -- a man who has never demonstrated any understanding of how to monetize digital media and whose idea of user-generated content is a dogged campaign to degrade the simple art of tweeting into an exercise inexecutive logorrhea. In the past few days on Twitter, Murdoch's rants have blamed the "free, open uncontrollable" Internet for killing newspapers, blasted Silicon Valley for "few new mind-blowing (sic) innovations" and tittered at Facebook for its "difficulty monetizing to justify (sic) market cap." But after years of heavy investments, which of Murdoch's innovations have blown our minds? Where are his plans to monetize online content? Or, for that matter, his plan to save his own newspapers? Spinning them off seems an admission of defeat to the Internet he loathes.

    It's ironic that Murdoch is sneering at digital media during the very week when his "chief digital officer" is stepping down. Or rather, it's telling. In an era when the Internet is becoming more and more powerful in distributing media, Rupert Murdoch's direction is more unclear than ever.