A The old-media world of
newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television networks has a daunting
task ahead of it. New-media upstarts like Internet TV, social networking,
mash-ups, web stores and online gaming—with their ability to stream content
direct to smart phones, tablets, e-readers, laptops and game consoles—have begun
to eat the green-eyeshade brigade's breakfast, lunch and tea. At last week's
Digital Hollywood meeting in Santa Monica, California, the question on a lot of
people's lips was how to fight back. B A recurring theme
was 'beyond content'. By that, the gathering of film, broadcasting and
entertainment executives meant how to turn the current threat to their
livelihoods into a solution for at least survival, if not runaway success. All
agreed that, apart from getting their content online in the best shape possible,
they needed to move much further downstream in marketing terms. In short, they
should start offering services—beyond content—that add to their audience's
experience and satisfaction. C The problem is rapidly
becoming too big to ignore. In a recent survey of some 10,000 consumers, IBM
found that the use of mobile music and video increased five-fold between 2007
and 2009, while readership of online newspapers more than tripled. Over half the
respondents used social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Two out of
five regularly read newspapers online rather than in print. 'In terms of digital
content consumption,' the researchers concluded, 'consumers have clearly moved
beyond the trial stage.' D It is not just gadget freaks
and early adopters who are making this happen. Sure, the young and the
technically nimble were among the first to abandon print and airwaves for online
content capable of being accessed anywhere, anytime. But the middle-aged have
now also joined the fray. Indeed, Facebook recently had to pull the plug on
chatting housewives because they were hogging large chunks of the social
network's bandwidth for hours on end. Even 55-year-olds and up—long the bulwark
of print and broadcast media—are nowadays getting much of their news, gossip and
amusement online. E This migration from old to new media
is causing the industry to fragment, as publishers, record companies, film
studios, television networks and other content creators butt heads with device
makers such as Apple and Sony as well as online distributors and content
aggregators like Amazon, Google, Yahoo! and YouTube. In the process, established
ways of doing business are being overturned, calling into question how
traditional content—whether print, graphics, audio or video—is produced and
delivered. F The change is actually twofold, and much of
the problem has stemmed from a failure to understand this. For one, not only is
content going digital but, in the process, it is also becoming connected. This
change from linear type and airwaves to interactive bits and bytes has caused
the balance of power to shift to those who aggregate and distribute digital
content online. Take the way consumers are swapping from printed books,
magazines and newspapers to digital versions that can be downloaded to
e-readers, tablets, laptops or even smart phones. It is not only bookshops and
newsstands that lose from this process. Publishers, too, are suffering as
advertisers abandon printed pages and television slots for the online
world. G It is not as though publishers can make up the
difference by taking their wares online. A reader of a printed publication
typically brings in 18 times the value of an online reader. In part, that is
because newspapers and magazines are experts at selling their demographics to
advertisers, while websites serving up information and entertainment rely more
on generic services like Google's advertising network. Also, there are simply
far more outlets on the web than on newsstands for advertisers to choose
from. H Television is not much better off. The difference
in value between a broadcast viewer and an online equivalent is around three to
one. But that discrepancy is expected to widen as traditional television sets
are replaced with TVs that can download video direct from the Internet, and more
entertainment websites spring up to cater for this burgeoning 'over-the-top'
demand. Already viewers have started cancelling their $70 cable or satellite
subscriptions, and downloading their favourite television shows from online
sites like Hulu or YouTube for nothing or, at most, a small pay-as-you- go fee.
Likewise, sales of DVDs are being clobbered, as Netflix and others allow
customers to stream unlimited movies direct to their television sets for $9 a
month. I The same disintermediation has long been
happening to music, as consumers download single tracks direct from iTunes,
Apple's online store, for 99 cents a pop, rather than buy whole CD albums from
record shops for $10 or more. In the process, Apple has flipped the
'razor-and-blades' model of doing business on its head. Instead of subsidising
the cost of media players like the iPod and iPad (the razor in the metaphor) and
making tons of money out of downloads from iTunes (the blades), it has done the
reverse. Thus, the device makers are joining online aggregators and distributors
to capture an increasing share of the disposable income consumers spend on
information and entertainment—all at old media's expense.
J The second change, in the way marketers are connected to consumers, is
more subtle. New media make life easier, richer and more satisfying for the
consumer. To do so, they exploit far more of the marketing opportunities that
exist between the content and the consumer. Old-media companies have
traditionally left that to others, pleased to collect just advertising and
subscription revenues. Now they must learn to do the same.
K Easier means things like having a single subscription to a publication
or pay TV channel that applies across a variety of platforms—from television
sets and computers to tablets, e-readers and mobile phones. To make life easier
still, each platform needs the same interface, the same set of navigational
tools and the same quality of experience. Television sets—with remote
controllers capable of moving on-screen cursors only up, down and across, and
then just one step at a time—are leagues behind the swiping gestures pioneered
by the iPhone. New-media innovators are bent on making the television set as
easy to navigate as an iPad. Old-media laggards will need to do the
same.
—Economist
填空题
Reading Passage 3 has eleven paragraphs, A-K. Choose
the correct heading for paragraphs A-E and Paragraph G from the list of headings
below. Write the correct number, Ⅰ-Ⅸ, in boxes on your answer
sheet. List of Headings
Ⅰ 'Beyond content' of traditional media to survive
Ⅱ The readers' value difference between traditional and new
media Ⅲ Data showing that more people choose new
media Ⅳ The two sides of this change
Ⅴ Users' different experiences and satisfactions Ⅵ
The impact of new media on traditional one Ⅶ New media's
practice in the change of business Ⅷ Amazon, Google and
Yahoo—the specific examples of new media Ⅸ Older people's
use of new media
Paragraph A
填空题
Paragraph B
填空题
Paragraph C
填空题
Paragraph D
填空题
Paragraph E
填空题
Paragraph G
填空题
Complete the summary below using the list of words, A-M, below.
Write the correct letter, A-M, in boxes on your answer sheet.
The emergence of new media leads to a fact that the value of audiences who watch television are {{U}} {{U}} 33 {{/U}} {{/U}}as much as that of those who choose web browsing, and this distance may be {{U}} {{U}} 34 {{/U}} {{/U}}in future. New TVs can be not only downloaded from the network, but also replaced by {{U}} {{U}} 35 {{/U}} {{/U}}Therefore, many visitors cancel the original {{U}} {{U}} 36 {{/U}} {{/U}}and turn to new media.
The impact on music should never be ignored either. Apple applies {{U}} {{U}} 37 {{/U}} {{/U}}business model to the sale of their products. It may seem that the products like iPad and iPod become cheaper, but the {{U}} {{U}} 38 {{/U}} {{/U}}along with them make a lot of money. Thus, device makers' share of {{U}} {{U}} 39 {{/U}} {{/U}}is increasing, which is harmful to {{U}} {{U}} 40 {{/U}} {{/U}}.
A satellite subscriptions B expanding C disposable income
D three fold E contracting F razor-and-blades
G entertainment websites H aggregators I new media
J subsidies K additional products L four times
M old media