英国报纸的变迁

BRITISH newspapers are among the oldest and most famous in the world. But recently big changes have seen these traditional publications try to fit the modern world. After over 200 years， The Times has halved its size to become much smaller. In fact， the paper has cut its size in half from a broadsheet to tabloid.

英国报业历史悠久，世界闻名。近年来，英国一些传统报纸进行了较大改革，以适应不断变化的现代社会。其中，拥有200多年悠久历史的《泰晤士报》把版面缩小了一半，将大报版面转为小报版面。

In Britain the newspaper market is divided between the larger broadsheets and the smaller tabloids. These terms refer to the size of the papers pages but there is also a clear difference in content. Broadsheets such as The Times， the Guardian and Daily Telegraph are serious papers. They cover a broad range of political， economic and international issues. Their stories are also reasonably long and use quite formal language.

在英国，报纸有两种类型：大版面严肃性报纸和小版面小报。这两种类型的报纸不仅版面大小不同，而且内容也大相径庭。《泰晤士报》《卫报》《每日电讯报》等报纸为大版面严肃性报纸，它们报道的内容广泛，涵盖政治、经济、国际事务等方面。文章相对更长，用语正式。

Tabloids have far more stories about less serious issues such as celebrities love lives. Their stories are shorter and use more simple language. Tabloids often have bigger pictures. Britains best-selling newspaper， the Sun， is a tabloid and has a naked girl on page three every day.

而小报的文章数量更多，都是关于一些不太严肃的话题，如名人的恋情等。文章篇幅更短，语言简练，经常选用大幅图片。英国最畅销的《太阳报》就是一份小报。该报每天都会在第三版刊登一张裸体女郎的图片。

By changing to the size of a tabloid， The Times is following in the footsteps of a less famous broadsheet paper the Independent. It changed to tabloid several years ago and saw its sales increase greatly. Although both papers have switched to the smaller size， the content of the papers has remained the same. They are both still serious papers.

《泰晤士报》是继《独立报》之后采用小报版面的。尽管《独立报》的名气没有《泰晤士报》大，但几年前由大报版面改为小报版面使其销量大增。现在这两份报纸都采用小报版面，但内容没有发生变化，仍是严肃性的报纸。

The two papers claim that people find the smaller size easier to handle when they travel to work on the bus or the train in the morning. The Times says its new size is “compact”， not tabloid.

這两份报纸解释说，早上乘巴士或火车去上班时，小版面报纸便于携带。《泰晤士报》称改版后的报纸为“紧凑型”，并没有沦为街头小报。