The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 91 Free Newspaper
In 1974, due to the stock market crash last year and the oil crisis at the beginning of this year, Hong Kong's economy fell into recession.

Countless people declared bankruptcy, factories shut down, people lost their jobs, prices rose, and all industries withered.

As a result, newspapers in Hong Kong lacked advertising revenue, and a large number of them closed down. Up to now, only more than 20 newspapers are still barely operating.

Among them, "Oriental Daily", "Sing Tao Daily" and "Ming Pao" sold the most, with sales of more than [-] copies.

At that time, due to the increase in oil prices and rising prices, newspapers rose from 2 cents to 3 cents per copy.

The newspaper that Xu Guanwu wants to buy is called "Daily Daily". It was founded by the Webster family of Hong Kong Ertian Pharmaceutical Company in the 60s. It is the first color-printed newspaper in Hong Kong. Ranked among the best-selling newspapers in Hong Kong.

However, the cost of color printing is high, and advertising revenue is unsustainable. Coupled with last year's stock market crash and the oil crisis at the beginning of this year, "Daily Daily" suffered substantial losses.

The Ertiantang Pharmaceutical Factory, where the Webster family is based, is in financial difficulties again, so it is eager to cash out the "Daily Daily".

After Xu Guanwu heard the news, he immediately arranged for people to negotiate with the Wei family, and finally successfully purchased "Daily Daily" at a price of 200 million.

But at this time, "Tian Tian Daily" was attacked by newspapers such as "Oriental Daily", "Sing Tao Daily" and "Ming Pao", and its sales volume had already dropped to [-].

With such a small sales volume of "Daily Daily", Xu Guanwu couldn't compete with Shaw Brothers at all. This public opinion war had already lost at the starting line before it even started.

"How can the sales volume of the newspaper be increased?" Xu Guanwu thought hard, and finally came up with a wonderful plot, which is——

"It's free?! You're right?! If it's released for free, wouldn't it make you no money?" Zheng Shi'an, the editor-in-chief of "Daily Daily", said with wide-eyed surprise.

At that time, there was no concept of free newspapers in Hong Kong, and the earliest free newspapers would not appear until the 80s.

"Although newspapers are free, advertisements are not free. We can make money by selling advertisement pages." Xu Guanwu explained with a smile.

In the previous life, free newspapers almost became the mainstream, and most of them published a large number of real estate advertisements and recruitment information to meet the needs of the grassroots.

Xu Guanwu has a college classmate who makes this kind of free newspaper. According to him, the advertising revenue of each issue is 50 million yuan, and the printing cost is only tens of thousands of yuan.

Of course, the "Daily Daily" that Xu Guanwu wants to publish will not be all advertisements and recruitment information. Half of the pages are entertainment news that readers love, and the other half of the pages are all advertisements for recruitment information and commercials.

Xu Guanwu discussed with Zheng Shian what he knew about the layout design and distribution strategy of free newspapers.As a professional media person, Zheng Shi'an also became interested in this novel free newspaper after listening to Xu Guanwu's explanation.

"Mr. Xu, in this way, we will need to recruit a large number of people and set up bases in Hong Kong and Kowloon to collect recruitment information and distribute our newspapers." Zheng Shi'an gave his suggestion.

Xu Guanwu nodded, which coincided with his thoughts.

Those free newspapers in the previous life also set up bases in prosperous areas of the city to register recruitment information and distribute newspapers.

"Editor Zheng, I will leave it to you to recruit people." Xu Guanwu said, "The distribution network of "Daily Daily" must be established as soon as possible. I will declare war on Shaw Brothers within a week."

"Boss, Shaw Brothers is a giant in the film industry, and those newspapers are giving him face. This battle is not easy to fight." Zheng Shi'an wiped his sweat.

"It's not easy to fight, but it doesn't mean you can't fight. The Shao family has passed its peak now, and now it's just a centipede who is dead but not stiff." Xu Guanwu said coldly.

"But we lack contributions from famous authors, so we are no match for the group of literati surrounding Shao." Zheng Shi'an frowned.

Although he is a senior media person, he dare not compare with such famous figures as Jin Yong and Ni Yuan.

"I wrote it myself when no one contributed. I read the first edition and wrote about how Shaw Brothers treats employees harshly." Xu Guanwu couldn't help saying a little displeased seeing Zheng Shian push back and forth.

"I will arrange a few people from Shaw to be interviewed by you. I think readers also want to see how Sir Shao is stingy and lonely." Xu Guanwu nodded.

Seeing that the boss was angry, Zheng Shi'an didn't dare to push back, and quickly agreed with a smile.

"This newspaper will become the voice of our Xu Brothers Company and the front line of counterattacking Shaw Brothers Company. You must not disappoint me." Xu Guanwu said coldly.

"Of course, I will do my best." Zheng Shi'an said loudly.

"If you can win this public opinion war, I will naturally not treat you badly. In the future, every issue of "Daily Daily" will have 5.00% of your income." After Xu Guanwu hit the stick, he immediately gave another A sweet date.

"Really?! Then I will work hard!" Zheng Shi'an said excitedly.

When "Daily Daily" was the best seller, a single issue of the newspaper could earn tens of thousands of dollars. A 5% return was several hundred yuan, and tens of thousands of yuan a month, which was already a considerable amount of money at the time.

Under the so-called heavy reward, there must be a brave man.

Inspired by the bonus promised by Xu Guanwu, Zheng Shi'an immediately broke out with unprecedented energy. In just three days, he recruited a team of nearly a hundred people.

The team of nearly [-] people was dismantled by him, and they were distributed in various prosperous places on the main island of Hong Kong and Kowloon. They were responsible for registering recruitment information and attracting potential advertisers.

For distribution and delivery work, Zheng Shi'an hired many part-time students and elderly people with low salaries, and asked them to deliver to pedestrians in the bustling downtown areas at major intersections.

Three days after the "Daily Daily" was suspended, the first issue of the newspaper was distributed for free, creating a precedent for free newspapers in Hong Kong, and the delivery volume of the day was also very gratifying, with a total of more than 20 newspapers distributed.

It is almost equivalent to the combined sales volume of the two newspapers "Oriental Daily" and "Sing Tao Daily".

However, "Daily Daily" presents people with a brand-new page, with more pictures and less text, and handsome men and beautiful women occupy the page, attracting readers' attention.The supplementary part meets the needs of the current unemployed population with a large number of high-density recruitment information.

Therefore, the first batch of [-] copies of "Daily Daily" was delivered within half a day, and the editor-in-chief Zheng Shi'an was pleasantly surprised and ordered another [-] copies to be printed.

The first issue of "Daily Daily" was an instant hit, shocking the publishing industry in Hong Kong.

Newspapers have been charged since the day they were born, and people have formed a fixed mindset in the long run.

However, the emergence of "Daily Daily" has brought new ideas to Hong Kong media professionals.

However, although "Daily Daily" sent out 20 copies in the first issue, because many of the advertisements in the first issue were half-buy, half-free, Xu Guanwu did not earn much advertising fees.

And because Zheng Shi'an's expanded team is too large, he can hardly earn back even the labor.

However, Xu Guanwu was very satisfied with "Daily Daily", because it slapped Shaw Brothers severely, and fired the first shot in the public opinion counterattack.

(End of this chapter)