Chapter 744 "Today's News" in the fifth volume, flourishing

"As you said, it's not appropriate to increase the number of "Today's News" too quickly right now?" Sitting in a separate room at the back of the newspaper office, Feng Ziying watched with interest as the two men in front of her almost lost weight. Wang Wenyan and Cao Yu came down.

"News Today" has been published for its seventh issue. If this momentum continues, it is not a problem to break through 2,000 copies, and it may even reach 3,000 copies next year.

"Well, our consideration is to have the support of the advertiser Haitong Yinzhuang. In fact, we have no pressure to lose money in the short term, so the main focus at the moment is to maintain the existing group of people who are willing to buy newspapers and periodicals, so that they can form a habit , one thousand copies is a hurdle, we plan to maintain this number for a period of time, strive to increase it to 1,500 copies in March, and then reach 2,000 copies by the middle of the year, and then determine the next development based on the situation. "

 The answer was Cao Yu.

According to the current structure, Wang Wenyan's status is equivalent to that of the president, and Wang Wenyan is temporarily responsible for coordinating various daily administrative affairs with the outside world. Of course, Feng Ziying will be responsible for handling some affairs with the imperial court, Shuntian Prefecture, and the county offices of Wanping and Daxing counties. Some affairs, including the Five Cities Military and Horse Division, are also managed and coordinated by Feng Ziying.

Cao Yu is equivalent to the chief editor. He is responsible for planning the entire content editing and section layout of "Today's News". Of course, given that this is a new thing, Feng Ziying must have protected Cao Yu initially.

However, with the smooth publication of the fourth and fifth issues, the sensational effect of "Today's News" spread rapidly, and Cao Yu's operation became more comfortable. Feng Ziying was also ready to gradually let go and only take charge of the general direction.

"Well, you mean that the main focus is on how to make this newspaper more attractive? What do you think, Ziyi?" Feng Ziying is also very satisfied with Cao Yu's increasing maturity.

I originally thought that Cao Yu was the least valuable among the five-person team of Wang Wenyan, Wu Yaoqing, Gu Dengfeng, Qian Guisheng and Cao Yu. However, I also considered Lin Ruhai's recommendation at the beginning, and I really needed someone who was good at planning copywriting. manpower, so they were all admitted.

But now it seems that Cao Yu's development momentum has even surpassed that of several others. Cao Yu has contributed a lot to the success of "Today's News" alone.

Especially in terms of the thought he put into collecting and editing the content, it can be said that Cao Yu worked extremely hard and made the most of his contribution.

"Well, I have some ideas. According to your reminder, we did a simple survey on the readers who have been buying our newspapers and conducted a rough statistics. We found that the sales volume of the fifth and sixth issues Of the 800 copies sold, 50 were given as gifts. Among the 750 copies sold, merchants, including some shop owners and business owners in the capital city, accounted for about 30%, and officials accounted for about 30%. About 25%, some students from well-connected families, such as Imperial College students and some academy students, accounted for about 15%. The other gentry accounted for about 20%, and the other 10% were various people, including foreign enemies who came to the capital city. Temporary residents,…”

Feng Ziying's eyes lit up. This statistic was actually produced. It seemed that Cao Yu had trained these newsboys very well.

 A rough calculation showed that it was roughly in line with my estimate. Gentlemen, officials, merchants, and students basically accounted for 90% of the total.

But if you do the math, even the largest group of merchants, even if it is a thousand copies, is only about 300 copies, and there are no less than 10,000 merchants of all levels in the entire capital city, even if they are literate and of a certain scale, there are no less than 1,000 merchants. , if you count their shopkeepers and housekeepers who can read roughly, there are more.

Similarly, the number of literate people among the gentry, officials and students is still very large. However, a newspaper may not only be read by one person, but may even be read by five or ten people. Therefore, this method is used to calculate the future sales of newspapers and periodicals. The growth space is definitely not suitable and needs to be discounted.

“How about a survey on the interests and preferences of these readership groups?” Feng Ziying was more interested in this question.

In his opinion, as the influence of "Daily News" expands and is understood by more and more people, it is only natural that its sales continue to grow. In the future, it can reach 3,000 or even 5,000 copies. The expectations are limited to the proportion and absolute number of literate people in this era. It will be difficult to achieve a greater improvement unless there is a breakthrough in education issues, but this is obviously unrealistic.

"Well, this is also the focus of our investigation, and it takes a lot of our efforts. According to the investigation, among the several major sections we have set up, among the businessmen group, news about trade and material prices is naturally the most popular. Basically On the Internet, they will first read this section, and then the market gossip section, because this section covers a wide range of topics, such as the Eternal Fragrance section, which is the most popular among students and scholars. It is also popular among gentry and students, and merchants are also interested in it. The history is deep, this area is very popular among gentry and students, and the officials are very enthusiastic about this area..."

Since the positioning of "Today's News" is not to intervene in the current affairs section for the time being, so as not to arouse the dissatisfaction and attention of the court, several sections, such as Shi Hai Gou Shen and Eternal Liu Fang, are obviously designed to satisfy the three important groups of officials, gentry and students. , the business information and comments published in the Shanghai Treasure Hunting section are very popular among the large group of merchants, while the market gossip and legendary stories are widely welcomed by various groups. They are the most popular sections of "Today's News" and are also the most needed. A section to consolidate and improve.

"Well, that should be the case, but Ziyi, how are you going to stabilize these groups and steadily attract more people to become readers of "Today's News"?" Feng Ziying wanted to see what Cao Yu's plans were.

"Sir, I have thought about it a lot, but I think it is very difficult. We need more people to do many things, such as searching for treasures in the business world. This involves a lot of business information. We lack more knowledge. We have many people to collect and organize it. For example, we go to major conference halls and business gangs to learn about it, and we ask among merchants. Most of what we can learn is some superficial information. Even so, it takes a lot of effort, and then collects it back. Organizing also requires simple analysis and evaluation. In this regard, we invited several people who have some knowledge of this aspect, but they can only give oral descriptions, and we need to refine and process them..."

"Also, the gossip section is the most popular, but it also requires a lot of manpower to help us collect it. Fortunately, Mr. Ni helped us a lot. He has many people of all kinds under his command. Basically, these issues It was through his people who helped us understand the collection..."

"The Shi Hai Gou Shen and Eternal Liu Fang sections are relatively simple. In the former, we have made some efforts in the Hanlin Academy and the Imperial College, and many teaching students are willing to publish some of their research views and opinions. As for the latter, it is even more There are too many people who want to make a name for themselves. There are as many people as crucian carp crossing the river. We have to carefully screen them. Of course, we also need someone who can control the scene to comment. For the time being, we have hired some temporary people to help. The methods of evaluation include Mr. Gu Bingqian from the Ministry of Rites, Mr. Tang Bin Yin Tanggong who lives in the capital city, Mr. Wang Shui of Beijing, and Mr. Wang Xiangchun, a Jinshi of Shanghai University who is famous for his poetic talent..."

Feng Ziying did not expect that Cao Yu would actually invite Wang Xiangchun to comment on these new poems, which surprised him. However, Wang Xiangchun was indeed famous for his poetic talent among the Jinshi in the fifth year of Yonglong. Of course, he would not interfere in these matters. As long as Cao Yu can think of a way that is conducive to the development of "Daily News", he will support it.

In a word, the "Daily News", a new thing, has just broken out of the ground. It seems that the future is extremely bright and beautiful, but in fact it is also facing various problems and difficulties.

Even if profit is not considered, because the people in the capital city do not understand this new thing, and there is an extreme lack of talents who can participate in this new thing, even though Cao Yu has tried his best, he is still faced with the problem. All kinds of difficult problems.

"I roughly understand the difficulties you mentioned, Ziyi, but this is also good. At least we know where we have difficulties and how to overcome them. It is nothing more than a problem of money and people. We don't need to think about money for the time being. Aren’t Haitong Bank, including big merchants such as Daguanlou, Yanzilou, Raoliangge, Fengrunxiang, Haidong Leather Shop, and Jiangnan Buzhuang, all interested in expanding their influence through "Today's News"? So the issue of profitability is not actually a problem. Big, the key lies in how to achieve a positive improvement in the content of this newspaper, which requires a large number of people who can write and do..."

Feng Ziying has actually been considering this issue. Although Qingtan Academy's results in Qiuwei and Spring are very good, it has to be said that even in Qingtan Academy, the majority of students who were eliminated in Qiuwei still account for the majority, let alone Chunwei. explain.

Of course, it is impossible for scholars who have passed the Juren Pass to worry about livelihood issues, but there are countless students who have failed in autumn after studying hard for three years, or even failed in several subjects. In the end, they had to return to their hometowns sadly to find a livelihood such as teachers, staff, and diners. More and more people returned to their hometowns to teach ethnic studies and private schools.

Many people are actually not willing to leave the capital city where they have lived here for many years, but it is not easy to live in the capital city, especially when they have to support a family, so if they can do it for these repeated failures, they have lost their fighting spirit. It is undoubtedly very popular to provide a livelihood for the students, and it can also make the academy breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, it is impossible for those scholars who have failed the exams for many years and are very old to stay in the academy all the time, but they are not willing to return to their hometowns. Giving them such a way out can be regarded as the academy doing its utmost benevolence.

 (End of this chapter)