这位绿色能源领域的企业家、同时也是工党的重要捐赠者戴尔·文斯（Dale Vince）计划在全伦敦范围内开展新闻业务，旨在“拯救”当地最受尊敬的报纸之一。
The green energy entrepreneur and Labour donor Dale Vince is planning to launch a London-wide news operation, as part of a “rescue” of one of the capital’s most highly regarded local newspapers.
文斯表示，他决心纠正英国媒体中存在的右翼偏见，并承诺会“不惜一切代价”来支持那些经营亏损的媒体机构——这些机构旗下拥有《Camden New Journal》（CNJ）、《Islington Tribune》和《Westminster Extra》等报纸。
Vince, who has vowed to take on what he sees as rightwing bias in the UK media, said he would invest “whatever it takes” to support the loss-making group behind the Camden New Journal (CNJ), Islington Tribune and Westminster Extra.
他告诉《卫报》，自己正在考虑扩大《Westminster Extra》的发行范围，使其能够报道整个伦敦地区的新闻，以服务于这个在过去20年里经历了多家新闻机构关闭或大幅缩减的城市。
He told the Guardian he was already looking at expanding the Westminster edition to cover London-wide issues, in an attempt to serve a city in which a series of major newsrooms have closed or drastically shrunk over the past 20 years.
“我们将共同努力，让《Camden New Journal》摆脱财务困境，并实现数字化转型，真正实现数字化运营，”他说。“同时，我们也会进一步发展《Westminster Extra》，使其成为覆盖整个伦敦地区的新闻媒体。”
“We’re going to go forward together to put the CNJ on a better financial footing and take it digital – properly digital,” he said. “At the same time, [we will] get behind the Westminster edition and make that an edition for the wider London area.
“我认为伦敦现在确实缺少一份本地报纸；此前已经有几家报纸停刊了。将《Westminster Extra》发展成覆盖整个伦敦地区的媒体，确实是一个大胆的计划。”
“I think London is missing a local paper now, with the demise of a couple that have gone before. It’s quite a bold plan, that we might morph the Westminster edition.
文斯提出的这一救助方案尚未正式确定，但它是目前为振兴伦敦本地新闻业而做出的多项尝试之一。尽管伦敦拥有900万人口，但当地的媒体机构一直难以维持正常的运营。
“We might call it the north, south, east and Westminster edition, in a kind of nod to our intended larger audience.”Vince’s rescue package for the titles, which has not been formally finalised, is one of several attempts being made to revitalise local journalism in London. Despite its 9m population, media outlets have struggled to support large London-focused newsrooms.
已经发行了近200年的《Evening Standard》于2024年停止了其日报业务，取而代之的是一份专注于艺术和文化的周刊《London Standard》。
The Evening Standard, which has been published for almost 200 years, shut down its daily newspaper in 2024. It was replaced with a weekly edition renamed the London Standard, with a greater focus on arts and culture.
其他尝试运营每日免费报纸的努力均以失败告终。由鲁珀特·默多克的新闻国际公司（现为英国新闻集团）创办的《伦敦报》（The London Paper）在仅仅运营三年后，于2009年停刊。其竞争对手、由《每日邮报》所有者出版的《伦敦精简报》（London Lite）也在同年晚些时候停刊。与此同时，在包括伦敦在内的英国各大城市发行的全国性免费报纸《都市报》（Metro）正在进行重大的结构性调整，以使其处于“可持续发展的基础”之上。
Other attempts to run daily freesheets failed. The London Paper, launched by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, now News UK, closed in 2009 after just three years. Its rival, London Lite, published by the owner of the Daily Mail, closed later that year Meanwhile, Metro, a national freesheet distributed in UK cities including London, is undergoing major structural changes to put it on a “sustainable footing”.
然而，近年来，随着小型订阅制媒体的出现，专注于伦敦的新闻报道得到了提振。
However, journalism focused on London has been boosted in recent years by the arrival of small, subscription-based operations.
曾任《卫报》记者、现创办了一家拥有超过5000名付费订阅用户的伦敦中心新闻网站的吉姆·沃特森表示，文斯选择帮助一个抵制了“2010年代为了追求点击量而不惜牺牲质量的灾难性选择”的本地媒体团体。
Jim Waterson, a former Guardian journalist who founded the London Centric news site that now has more than 5,000 payingrs, said Vince had chosen to help a local group that had resisted “the disastrous choice in the 2010s to abandon quality for chasing clicks at all costs”.
不过，他也表示，他自己这家“回归本源的本地新闻”媒体的成功，目前“仅能维持一个小规模机构的运营，而且还是在餐桌上办公”。
However, he said the success of his own “back-to-basics local journalism” outlet was still “only enough money to support a tiny operation that’s still run from a kitchen table”.
“文斯也意识到，伦敦是英国本地新闻最匮乏的地区之一，”沃特森说。“我们所有人面临的挑战是，如何在不陷入财务不可持续的情况下获得资金来扩大受众。”根据最近的财务记录，尽管规模不大，但《卡姆登新杂志》（Camden New Journal）集团仍雇佣了18名员工。去年，该集团消耗了其现金储备中的很大一部分。
“Vince has also realised that London is also one of the UK’s worst local news deserts,” Waterson said. “The challenge that we all face is how to get the funding to grow our audience without becoming financially unsustainable.”While not large, the Camden New Journal group still employs 18 people, according to recent financial records. It spent a chunk of its cash reserves in the last year.
文斯表示，他支持《卡姆登新杂志》及其相关刊物并非“出于商业原因”。
Vince said he was not supporting the Camden New Journal and its related titles “for business reasons”.
“我受到本地新闻影响力的驱动，”他说。“我受到我国媒体更广泛偏见——即右翼偏见——的驱动，并试图为此做点什么。”文斯已经创办了一家名为“巴别鱼”（Babelfish）的在线出版物。他表示，会考虑为这些伦敦刊物撰写评论文章，但总体上将是一位“不干预”的投资者。
“I’m motivated by the impact of local journalism,” he said. “I’m motivated by the bias of media in our country more broadly – the rightwing bias – and trying to do something about that.”Vince has already launched an online publication, Babelfish. He said he would consider writing comment pieces for the London titles, but would generally be a “hands-off” investor.
“从宏观角度来看，我对这个世界有着自己的看法，也明白事物应该怎样发展；而卡姆登的居民们其实已经符合我的这些理念了，”他说。“这里不存在任何文化冲突，而且我本来就为各种读者群体撰写社论。我当然愿意为《卡姆登新报》撰写社论，但这并不是我的义务或必须做的事情。”
“Big picture-wise, I’ve got a view of the world and how things should be, and the Camden people already fit within that,” he said. “There’s no kind of culture clash and I write op-eds for all kinds of people already. I would absolutely write op-eds for the Camden [New Journal], but it wouldn’t be a requirement.”