Message of hope （双语）

MOTHER’S DAY, which this year falls on May 9th in many countries, is a time to give thanks and count blessings—not least for greeting-card companies. Americans alone will spend $671m on cards for this Sunday, according to the National Retail Federation. John Beeder of American Greetings, a card company, claims that his industry is “somewhat recession-proof”. The thinking is that people spend more on cards when they don’t have much cash to splash on gifts.

许多国家，今年5月9号是母亲节。在这一天，大家都会互相祝福，对于贺卡公司也尤为特别。据美国零售业联盟统计，仅美国人这个周末在贺卡上的消费将会达到$671m。贺卡公司American Greetings的John Beeder称贺卡行业已现“一些衰退的迹象”。这种想法认为只有人们在没有钱购买礼物时才会发送贺卡。

Maybe. Card companies have fared better than some other makers of consumer products in the downturn, but they have not been unscathed. American Greetings’ revenue fell by 3% in the year to February, to $1.6 billion. Hallmark, America’s largest greeting-card company, saw sales tumble by 8% last year, to $4 billion. Crane & Co, a privately held firm that sells classy stationery, suffered a double-digit decline in sales in the recession. Its second-bestselling item in 2009 (after notecards) was, unusually, high-quality paper for résumés.

也许如此。和其它消费品企业相比，贺卡公司在经济下滑中的表现要更好一些，但并未独善其身。美贺(American Greeting)从去年到今年2月份的收益为16亿美元，下降了3%。美国最大的贺卡公司贺曼(Hallmark)去年销售额达到40亿美元，暴降8%。销售时尚信纸的私营公司Crane & Co，在这次衰退中销量减少了两位数。不同寻常的是，它在2009年销量第二高(仅次于留言卡)的是用于简历的高档纸。

The ailing economy has not been the cardmakers’ only problem. People can send greetings by e-mail or via online social networks speedily without buying a stamp. If they want something fancy, they can send “e-cards”, jazzed up with animations and songs, through free websites such as 123greetings.com.

贺卡公司的问题不仅仅是糟糕的经济形势。人们无需邮票就可以通过电子邮件或在线社区网络快速发送祝福。他们如果想来点创意，就可以通过123greeting.com这样的免费网站发送”电子贺卡”，随着动画和歌声，搞活气氛。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

Card companies insist that e-cards do not pose a grave threat, because people use them as a supplement to physical cards or for less important dates (eg, Groundhog Day) when they would not bother putting a card in the post. Americans buy 7 billion physical cards but send only 500m e-cards a year, according to the Greeting Card Association, a trade group. Even so, Hallmark, American Greetings and others are trying to deal with the threat of e-cards by offering their own. They allow people to send free e-cards from their websites, but encourage them to buy annual subscriptions for access to the most elaborate designs.

贺卡公司坚持认为”电子贺卡”的威胁不算严重，理由是人们在不想麻烦邮局的时候，将电子贺卡作为纸质贺卡的补充或是在不重要的节日(土拨鼠日)里使用它。根据贺卡行业协会统计，美国人在一年间购买了70亿纸质贺卡，却只发送了5亿张电子贺卡。即便如此，贺曼、美贺和其它的贺卡公司都尝试提供自己的电子贺卡来应对这种威胁。他们允许从他们的网站发送免费的贺卡，却鼓励他们每年支付一定的费用，这样就可以得到设计更加精美的产品。

The cardmakers hope that novelty will not only keep people buying physical cards but also entice them to pay higher prices. Musical cards, which play a tune when opened, have become popular. Some cards allow the sender to record a message that is played on opening. A new Hallmark card, when held up to a web-camera, shows a 3-D cartoon character that speaks a greeting.

贺卡公司希望此举不仅使人们依然购买纸质贺卡，而且诱惑他们花更多的钱。打开就会播放乐曲的音乐贺卡已流行起来。还有些贺卡可以录下发卡人的问候，并在一打开的时候就播放。贺曼的贺卡在对着网络视频时，会出现送祝福的立体卡通形象。

Some ideas are intended to turn a card into a gift in itself. One card from American Greetings, on sale for around $20, has an LCD screen and can store 50 photos, which it plays as a slideshow, with music. But George van Horn of IbisWorld, a research group, warns that although such features may boost sales, they will cut into margins because they are expensive to make. He adds that rivals can copy them pretty quickly. That’s not a message any cardmaker will want to receive.

还有将贺卡本身作为礼品的想法。美贺出品售价20美元的贺卡，附带LCD还能储存50张照片，可以伴随着音乐以幻灯片方式播放。但研究机构IbisWorld的George van Horn提醒：尽管这些特色可能会推动销售额，但由于造价昂贵削减了利润，而且竞争对手可以很快的模仿他们。任何贺卡公司都不愿意听到这样的消息。