On the Town

On The Town 都市掠影
Time Out 改为免费杂志
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Yang Li:
Oh Rosie, I am happy! My favourite magazine Time Out has gone
completely free. 大家好我是杨莉。
Rosie:
It's unbelievable, isn't it? Every day of the week now we are going
to get something for free when we get off the Tube. And by the way
I'm Rosie.
Yang Li:
是的，如今的伦敦的许多地铁站和火车站口总会有人向你传递免费报刊杂志。
Rosie:
There seems to be a mini boom of free newspapers and magazines
in London. Time Out is the latest one to jump on the bandwagon!
Yang Li:
To jump on the bandwagon 意思是跟上潮流。Let's hear from Greg
Miall from Time Out talking about why this big decision was made.
Insert
It's something we've been looking at for a couple of years, actually. London, as
a print market, is now very heavily dominated by free newspapers and
magazines. And really it's about the opportunity for us, the opportunity to
become a really major player again in London.
Rosie:
So they see it as an opportunity to become a major player again in
London.
Yang Li:
机会 opportunity, 主要杂志 a major player.
Rosie:
Time Out is the UK's most famous entertainment listings magazine
and it's very popular.
Yang Li:
是的，这是一份娱乐列表杂志 entertainment listings magazine.
Rosie:
Magazine production is expensive. It was selling about 180,000
copies a week, but now it's free. How are they going to cover the
cost?
On The Town 都市掠影
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2012
Page 1 of 3
bbcukchina.com/learningenglish
Insert
Like any change, it's always nerve-wracking. Actually, in many ways, the free
distribution model is very efficient. You have very little returns, as opposed to a
news stand where over half your copies sometimes aren't sold. Plus the
efficiency of the model in terms of the advertising ratio also increases, so in
many ways it's very efficient.
Rosie:
He used the word 'nerve-wracking' which means frightening or
difficult.
Yang Li:
让人头疼，令人十分紧张。Nerve-wracking.
Rosie:
But they get their money from increased advertising.
Yang Li:
通过广告来挣钱。But how about the quality of the magazine? Will it
remain the same?
Insert
This is one of the key things. And when you look at something like the Evening
Standard and what they've done, it's a tremendous model for us to follow.
They've really done a great job of taking a whole brand and making a
tremendous newspaper. So we're heavily investing in editorial, and we're not
cutting back at all on that side, and actually investing more than ever.
Rosie:
It's good to hear that they are not cutting back on the quality, but
investing more in the editorial side of the magazine.
Yang Li:
They are following the Evening Standard model, which again is part
of the free newspaper boom in London. Competition is very high.
Rosie:
But for Time Out the biggest competitor is their own website! Here
is Greg again.
Insert
Our biggest competitor's our own website, to be honest. It's – the Time Out
website's now something like 5 million unique users. What we find is that, as
time moves on with the internet, that's where listings are going, it's searchable,
it's absolutely fantastic. So the magazine needs to be more about inspiration.
Rosie:
I think he's right in that a lot of people don't bother with papers
any more - they simply look on the internet.
Yang Li:
That's why he said that the magazine needs to be more
inspirational. 更有激励性和鼓舞性的。I agree.
On The Town 都市掠影
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2012
Page 2 of 3
bbcukchina.com/learningenglish
Rosie:
Well, let's see if the free Time Out magazine will be a new source of
inspiration for us to make more On the Town programmes.
Yang Li:
Check out www.bbcukchina.com.
Rosie:
Bye.
Yang Li:
Bye.
On The Town 都市掠影
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2012
Page 3 of 3
bbcukchina.com/learningenglish