不受社群青睞 媒體轉往WhatsApp追尋讀者

Many digital news publishers have been desperately searching for a life raft. Traffic to news sites has fallen sharply, along with the ad revenue those clicks generate, partly because Google and Facebook decided to make news less prominent on their platforms.

許多數位新聞出版商一直在拚命尋找救生艇。新聞網站流量已大幅下滑，連同這些點擊帶來的廣告收入，部分原因是谷歌與臉書決定，讓新聞在他們的平台上不那麼顯眼。

Now, some publications have found a glimmer of hope elsewhere: WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app.

現在一些出版商已在別處找到一線希望：WhatsApp，全世界最受歡迎的即時通訊應用程式。

Late last year, the app introduced WhatsApp Channels, a kind of one-way broadcasting system that allows publishers to send links and headlines directly to followers. Numerous outlets are using it as a way to draw in readers and build direct relationships with an audience that is largely outside the United States.

去年下半年，這款應用程式推出了WhatsApp頻道，這是一種單向廣播系統，允許出版商直接向跟隨者推送連結與標題。許多媒體正在使用這個功能，作為一種吸引讀者的方式，並且跟主要是在美國以外的受眾建立直接關係。

“It has become a huge source of traffic actually, larger than X,” said Marta Planells, senior director of digital news at Noticias Telemundo, the news arm of Telemundo.

Telemundo新聞部門、Noticias Telemundo的數位新聞資深主管瑪塔．普拉內爾斯說，「它實際上已成為一個巨大的流量來源，比X更大」。

The Noticias Telemundo channel on WhatsApp gained more than 30,000 followers in just the first two weeks and now has more than 820,000 followers, Planells said.

普拉內爾斯說，Noticias Telemundo在WhatsApp的頻道推出前兩周，就得到超過3萬名跟隨者，目前擁有超過82萬名跟隨者。

The traffic created by WhatsApp still pales in comparison with what Google and Facebook send to publications. And some publishers are cautious about getting too enamored by Channels.

跟谷歌和臉書送至出版商的流量相比，WhatsApp產生的流量仍相形見絀。有些出版商對過度迷戀WhatsApp頻道抱持謹慎態度。

But Channels is one of the few sources of traffic trending upward, and is part of a push by many publishers to develop direct relationships with audiences and, potentially, drive them back to outlets’ home pages or apps, rather than rely on the social media platforms.

但頻道是少數流量呈上升趨勢的來源之一，也是許多出版商努力跟受眾建立直接關係的一部分，而且，有可能推動他們回到媒體的首頁或應用程式，而不是依靠社群媒體平台。

Numerous media outlets have signed up for WhatsApp Channels and already drawn millions of followers, including CNN (14.5 million followers), The New York Times (14 million), BBC News (9.3 million), The New York Post (8.1 million), The Wall Street Journal (4.7 million) and The Washington Post (3.8 million).

許多媒體機構已加入WhatsApp頻道，並且吸引數以百萬計跟隨者，包括CNN（1450萬跟隨者）、紐約時報（1400萬）、BBC新聞（930萬）、紐約郵報（810萬）、華爾街日報（470萬）與華盛頓郵報（380萬）。

The Atlantic is viewing its WhatsApp Channel, which has 2.8 million followers, as a place of experimentation rather than a major source of traffic, said Adrienne LaFrance, the publication’s executive editor.

「大西洋月刊」總編輯艾德麗安．拉法蘭斯表示，該刊將擁有280萬跟隨者的旗下WhatsApp頻道視為一個實驗地點，而不是主要流量來源。

“The social web is undergoing this dramatic change, and that can be unnerving, but it also, even more than that, means huge opportunities for journalists to connect to audiences in new ways,” she said.

她說，「社群網路正經歷這個戲劇性變化，可能令人不安，但不止如此，也意味記者以新方式連接受眾的巨大機會」。

烏克蘭在頓巴斯採拖字訣 讓俄軍傷亡最大化

Throughout the year, Ukraine has lost a series of cities, towns and villages in its eastern Donbas region to Russia, typically withdrawing its troops after hard-fought battles that sometimes lasted for months.

這一年來，烏克蘭在東部頓巴斯地區失去一連串城市、城鎮和村莊，通常在歷經艱苦戰鬥後撤軍，這些戰鬥有時持續數月。

Marinka was the first to fall, a sign in January that Russia had regained momentum on the battlefield. Then came Avdiivka, an industrial city where Ukrainian soldiers had hunkered down in a dense maze of trenches and bunkers. Finally, this past week, Ukraine retreated from Vuhledar, a mining town perched on high ground that was a linchpin of Ukrainian defenses in the southeast.

馬林卡率先淪陷，這是俄軍1月在戰場上重獲動力的跡象。接著是工業城市阿瓦迪夫卡，烏軍曾堅守在當地密集如迷宮的壕溝和掩體中。最後，在過去一周，烏軍撤離位於一處高地的礦業城鎮胡歷達爾，此地是烏克蘭東南部防衛關鍵。

To outside observers, Ukraine’s slow but steady retreat from the Donbas region, the main theater of the war today, may seem to signal the beginning of the endgame, with Russia firmly gaining the upper hand on the battlefield, leveraging its overwhelming advantage in manpower and firepower.

對於外部觀察家而言，烏克蘭緩慢但持續撤離當前主戰場頓巴斯地區，似乎顯示終局的開始；俄軍利用其兵力和火力的壓倒性優勢，在戰場上穩定占上風。

But Ukrainian commanders and military experts dispute that, saying that a more crucial fight is unfolding in the region that goes beyond simple territorial gains and losses. It is now a war of attrition, they say, with each side trying to exhaust the other by inflicting maximum losses, hoping to break the enemy’s capacity and will to continue the war.

但烏克蘭指揮官和軍事專家對此不贊同，稱該地區正展開更關鍵的戰鬥，超越單純的領土得失。他們表示，這是場消耗戰，雙方試圖透過造成最大損失拖垮對方，希望能破壞敵人繼續作戰的能力和意願。

Ukraine, a country that is a fraction of the size of Russia and with about a third of the population, is at an inherent disadvantage. It has fewer men to send to the front and despite an influx of Western military aid remains largely outgunned on the battlefield. That has left Ukraine with little choice but to retreat from towns under attack after exacting the highest price it can on manpower and materiel.

烏克蘭國土面積僅是俄羅斯面積的一小部分，人口則是俄羅斯的三分之一，處於先天劣勢。烏克蘭能派去戰場的人數較少，而且儘管西方軍事援助湧入，他們的火力多半仍落後。這使烏克蘭幾乎別無選擇，只能在人力物力付出最大代價後，從受到攻擊的城鎮撤退。

With Russia so far proving capable of absorbing its losses by recruiting more soldiers and ramping up arms production, it remains unclear how much territory Ukraine will have to give up before the Russian army runs out of steam — if it ever does.

到目前為止，俄軍已證明他們能透過招募更多官兵和增產武器吸收損失，尚不清楚烏克蘭要放棄多少領土才能讓俄軍精疲力竭，如果俄軍真有那麼一天的話。

Ukraine ultimately hopes that Russia’s mounting losses will make the war unsustainable for the Kremlin before it becomes so for Ukraine.

烏克蘭最終希望俄羅斯損失增加，會讓克里姆林宮覺得戰爭無法再打下去，而且要在烏克蘭無以為繼之前。

But how realistic is this strategy? President Vladimir Putin of Russia has put his country’s economy on war footing and has shown no sign that he is prepared to quit the fight.

但這個策略有多務實？俄羅斯總統普亭已讓國家經濟處於戰備狀態，也沒有任何跡象顯示他準備結束戰鬥。