????對于一位財經作家而言，最糟糕的或許是，依格雷西亞斯完全搞錯了新聞經濟學的定義。他把新聞比作農業(yè)：“就像少數農民現在生產的農產品之豐沛足以讓我們的祖輩嘖嘖稱奇一樣，如今的讀者能夠接觸到他們根本沒時間讀完的高品質報道?！彼f，由于網絡新聞相對無阻力的生產方式，記者變得更有效率，對記者的需求量也隨之減少。但新聞采訪并不是種莊稼。報道州議會并不會因為隨后產生的新聞可以更便捷地發(fā)布在互聯網上而變得更容易些。此外，無論是在互聯網出現之前還是之后，記者都需要投入大量時間，才能收獲一定的“產出”。當然，所謂的“產量”是以記者對州議會審查的數量（這才是真正重要的東西）來衡量的。

????此外，依格雷西亞斯的整體論點建立在一個錯誤的假設之上，即新聞就是新聞，除了寫作質量以外，新聞本身并沒有什么區(qū)別，無論它是來自倫敦金融城（City of London），還是來自市政廳?！皢枂柲阕约?，”他命令道?！澳憬裉炷軌蜃x到的好東西比起13年前是多了還是少了？”沒錯，就總體而言，顯然是更多了，這很好。但就如全美各地的社區(qū)一樣，在我所居住的加利福尼亞州奧克蘭，本地和州一級的新聞較13年前少了很多，而且這類新聞報道的質量也大不如前。

????依格雷西亞斯僅僅在一句話中非常簡短地提了一下本地新聞：“傳統的報紙過去常常跟單一的跨城對手進行競爭?！痹诎@句話的段落中，他介紹了網絡競爭的方式，“網上的競爭非常激烈，供人們閱讀的內容非常多?！比绻绕鹱约核谏鐓^(qū)的犯罪情況，大家更關注塞浦路斯銀行危機的話，那他說的沒錯。 （財富中文網）

????譯者：任文科

????Perhaps worst of all for an economics writer, Yglesias utterly mischaraterizes the economics of journalism. He compares journalism to agriculture: "Just as a tiny number of farmers now produce an agricultural bounty that would have amazed our ancestors, today's readers have access to far more high-quality coverage than they have time to read." Thanks to the relatively frictionless production of news on the Web, he says, journalists are more productive, and so fewer of them are needed. But newsgathering isn't farming. Covering a statehouse isn't made any easier by the fact that the resulting news stories can be published quickly and easily online. Just as many reporter-hours are needed to achieve a given level of production as were needed before the Web (that is, if "production" is measured by the amount of journalistic scrutiny given to the statehouse, which is what's really important.)

????Further, Yglesias's whole argument rests on the erroneous presumption that news is news and there's no differentiation to the news product other than the quality of the writing, whether it emanates from the City of London or from the city hall. "Just ask yourself," he commands. "Is there more or less good material for you to read today than there was 13 years ago?" Well, in total, there's more, obviously, and that's great. But here in Oakland, Calif., just as in communities across the land, there's a lot less local and state news than there was 13 years ago, and what news there is isn't nearly as well-reported.

????The one very brief nod Yglesias gives to local and regional news is in this single sentence: "A traditional newspaper used to compete with a single cross-town rival." This sentence was contained in a passage where he describes how competition works online, where there's "lots of competition and lots of stuff to read." And he's right, as long as you care more about the banks in Cyprus than you do about crime in your neighborhood.