每日英語跟讀 Ep.K348: It’s Sitting Pretty in Ink

To be a magazine reader these days is to lament — unless you are reading The World of Interiors, published since 1982 by Condé Nast Britain but widely available on American newsstands, where it sells for $9.99 per issue.

在這個時代身為雜誌讀者，如今就是在哀歎——除非你正在閱讀《室內設計世界》（The World of Interiors），該書自1982年以來由康泰納仕英國公司（Condé Nast Britain）出版，但在美國報攤上隨處可見，每期售價9.99美元。

The World of Interiors is essentially a decorating magazine, but this is like saying Vogue concerns itself with sewing. It showcases seemingly every facet of the decorative arts and crafts over centuries, from pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s Manhattan studio to an antique dealer’s 16th-century Shropshire pile to a shepherd’s hut, while reviewing books like “The People’s Galleries: Art Museums and Exhibitions in Britain 1800-1914.” It’s intelligent, witty and wide-ranging in its curiosity: a bible.

《室內世界》本質上是一本裝飾雜誌，但這就像說《Vogue》是關注縫紉一樣。幾個世紀以來，它似乎展示了裝飾藝術和手工藝品的方方面面，從波普藝術家羅伊·利希滕斯坦（Roy Lichtenstein）的曼哈頓工作室到古董商的16世紀什羅普郡（Shropshire）堆垛，再到牧羊人的小屋，同時評論了“人民畫廊：英國藝術博物館和展覽1800-1914”等書籍。這本雜誌聰明、機智，好奇心廣泛：如同一本聖經。

And a rarity.

而且是罕見的。

Two decades after the internet changed everything, magazines mostly have yet to figure out how to thrive in a digital world. Details and Domino folded. Glamour, Seventeen, Vibe, Self and Playboy have either retreated from print altogether or appear on newsstands infrequently. Titles once so culturally influential they created mythologies around them — Time, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone — have been supplanted by social media and blog.

在網際網路改變一切的20年後，雜誌大多還沒有弄清楚如何在數位世界中茁壯成長。細節和多米諾骨牌摺疊。《魅力》、《十七歲》、《Vibe》、《Self》和《花花公子》要麼完全退出印刷品，要麼很少出現在報攤上。曾經在文化上如此有影響力的標題，以至於圍繞它們創造了神話 - 時代，體育畫報，滾石 - 已經被社交媒體和部落格所取代

Nicholas Coleridge, the outgoing chairman of Condé Nast Britain, recently published a memoir about the 30-year golden period for magazines, beginning in the 1980s, when ad revenue and circulation climbed year after year and editors brimmed with creative gusto. He titled it “The Glossy Years.” In 2017, the U.S. arm of Condé Nast lost more than $120 million and, to stem the bleeding, the publisher has closed or sold off several titles and subleased floors in its Lower Manhattan headquarters. Rivals Hearst and Meredith face similar challenges.

即將離任的康泰納仕英國公司（Condé Nast Britain）主席尼古拉斯·柯勒律治（Nicholas Coleridge）最近出版了一本回憶錄，講述了雜誌從1980年代開始的30年黃金時期，當時廣告收入和發行量逐年攀升，編輯們充滿了創造性的熱情。他將其命名為「光輝歲月」。2017年，康泰納仕（Condé Nast）的美國分公司損失了超過1.2億美元，為了阻止流血，該出版商已經關閉或出售了其曼哈頓下城總部的幾本書和轉租樓層。競爭對手赫斯特和梅雷迪思也面臨著類似的挑戰。

If one could even sell a magazine memoir of today, it might be called “The Getting-By Years”: slashed budgets, reduced staffs, a noticeable diminishing of not just financial resources but ambition and copy-editing.

如果有人現在能為雜誌出本回憶錄，書名可能會是「湊合著過的歲月」：預算大減，人員縮編，財源、企圖心和審稿人力明顯減少。

Except at The World of Interiors, which has lost none of its gloss and seems utterly unaffected by modern media trends. Other than a cursory if reasonably popular Instagram presence and website of inspirational indices, it’s not really on the internet, or trying limply to be “of” the internet as so many other legacy titles are.

除了《室內設計世界》，它沒有失去任何光輝，似乎完全不受現代媒體趨勢的影響。粗略經營就是說該雜誌的Instagram和指數網站，它並沒有真正在網路上，或者像許多其他傳統標題一樣跛腳地試圖成為互聯網的“人”。

“It enjoys a semi-indie status among our titles,” said Albert Read, the managing director of Condé Nast Britain. The people who produce it, he said, “are all artistic bohemian types. It’s the antithesis to the data-driven digital attitude that we have to embrace in other part of our business.”

英國康泰納仕總經理李德說：「室內世界在我們旗下雜誌裡，享有半獨立地位。」他說，製作這本刊物的「都是很有藝術造詣又豪放不羈的文化人，態度與我們處理其他業務必須有的『看數據說話』完全相反」。

Sitting in his wood-paneled office inside Vogue House, the publisher’s London headquarters, Read held up the October issue of The World of Interiors. It was thick as a phone book with ads and printed on heavy 100-gram wood-free coated paper, the most luscious, most expensive paper of any Condé title. The cover was a simple, enticing photo of the shaded veranda of a house in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwest Africa, with barely any typeface to muck it up.

李德坐在出版商倫敦總部Vogue House的木板辦公室里，舉起了十月刊《室內設計世界》。它厚厚如一本帶有廣告的電話簿，印在厚重的100克無木銅版紙上，這是所有康得書目中最甜美，最昂貴的紙張。封面是一張簡單而誘人的照片，描繪了加那利群島（加那利群島）一所房子的陰涼陽臺，加那利群島是非洲西北部海岸附近的一個西班牙群島，幾乎沒有任何字體來掩蓋它。

The magazine’s readership is small, with a circulation of 55,000, but influential. It’s beloved by those in the creative and visual arts especially.

這本雜誌發行5萬5000本，讀者群很小，但很有影響力，尤其受到創意及視覺藝術工作者喜愛。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/4255134