1928: The rise of giant merchants

Newspapers are a very interesting thing.

When facing the strong, it becomes weak; when facing the weak, it becomes strong.

It is defined as the spokesperson of the weak, but in fact it is the mouthpiece of the strong.

During the Republic of China, Shanghai was the city with the most newspapers in the country. It was a well-deserved center for the newspaper industry. There were well-known nationally-selling newspapers such as Shenbao and The News, as well as Xinxin News, Robin Hood, and Gossip tabloids such as "Jing Bao".

There is powerful capital control behind every newspaper, especially those gossip tabloids that specialize in the Lower Third Road. They do everything they can to spread rumors about anyone except politicians.

Historically, the well-known actress Ruan Lingyu was forced to commit suicide by gossip and tabloids making pornographic rumors.

A female author named Ai Xia was driven to death by overwhelming public opinion. Later, Luo Mingyou's Lianhua Film Company adapted the story into a movie to expose the ugly faces of gossip tabloids and reporters. Unexpectedly, it was self-defeating. The woman who starred in the film Star Ruan Lingyu and the production company Lianhua were both boycotted by the Journalists Guild and sued the city government, demanding that they remove the film from the shelves and publicly apologize.

With the abnormal ecological chain and the support of the financial backers behind it, the newspaper has formed a real public opinion offensive, and even many big figures must treat it with caution.

For this reason, Lu Yucai recently wrote an article called "On the Fear of Human Words", specifically pointing out various problems in tabloids and cursing those practitioners who have no professional ethics.

But when faced with a truly strong player, any newspaper will become a weakling and have to bow to the strong.

Looking at the magnificent declaration building in front of him, Ye Luo smiled faintly and walked in with Shi Jianqiao.

In the past few years, the momentum and sales of declarations have continued to rise, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it has made a lot of money every day. Three years ago, the owner of the declaration, Shi Liangcai, bought this prime land and built this building as an office space specifically for the declaration.

Next year, Shi Liangcai, who has strong financial resources, directly invested in the purchase of his archrival "The News", becoming the owner of the two largest newspapers in the country, and can be called the king of the newspaper industry.

However, this move aroused dissatisfaction among senior officials of the National Government. With the intervention of the Ministry of Finance, Song Ziwen joined forces with the original shareholders of the News to put pressure on Shi Liangcai, resulting in him spending a lot of money to only obtain part of the equity.

Office of the Chairman.

"Dr. Shi, the second young master is here for a visit. He has already arrived in the living room." The secretary knocked on the door to remind him.

"The second young master is here? Please ask him to come directly to my office!" Shi Liangcai was startled, put down his pen and shouted to his secretary.

The secretary quickly ran to the living room and led Ye Luo to the chairman's office.

Seeing Ye Luo come in, Shi Liangcai made tea himself and warmly invited him to take a seat.

It was actually the first time that the two met, but Shi Liangcai was already familiar with Ye Luo's name, and he reported that sales had increased recently because he had been reporting on the deeds of this legendary young tycoon.

Ye Luo is his biggest cash cow.

"The second young master is here, and it's so splendid. How come you, a busy man, have time to come to our company today?" Shi Liangcai looked at him with a smile.

In the Chinese business community in Shanghai, Ye Luo also has a nickname - the God of Wealth.

Whenever the second young master comes to your door, he will either accept your wealth or give you wealth. The former is mostly from people who have offended him, which is rare.

Therefore, Ye Luo came to visit, and many people were happy from the bottom of their hearts.

Shi Liangcai was short and thin, with all his hair combed back, revealing his broad forehead.

Although he was the leader of the newspaper industry, he was very upright and patriotic. After the incident, the Left Federation was severely suppressed by the National Government, so he reorganized and applied for the supplement "Free Talk" and invited two well-known Left Federation officials, Lu Yucai and Mao Dun. A writer, he published a large number of progressive articles criticizing current affairs, for which he was repeatedly warned and punished by the Nationalist Government.

Later, he openly opposed the "suppression of bandits", refused to subscribe for huge bonds, and donated money and materials to the troops who persisted in resisting the Japanese invaders, which completely angered the principal.

However, Shi Liangcai's fame and influence were too great. The principal wanted to kill him but did not dare to kill him.

It's a pity that the principal finally couldn't bear it anymore and secretly sent a spy to assassinate him!

"Boss Shi, you know that I am a businessman. I came to visit you just to discuss a business deal with you." Ye Luo looked at him with a smile.

Shi Liangcai immediately became interested: "Oh? Second Young Master, please tell me that you can cooperate with Ye's Investment Company. We would like to apply for it."

"The newspaper industry is so prosperous, and there are many people reading newspapers. There are many advertising pages in the newspaper, and there is a lot of traffic. I would like to rent it for use, will Boss Shi be willing?" Ye Luo said and took out his check book.

He's just so direct in what he does.

Shi Liangcai didn't react for a while, but when he saw his checkbook, he understood and laughed: "The second young master wants to advertise with us, so we welcome him a hundred times."

"I want to rent all the advertising space for one year." Ye Luo added.

This time Shi Liang was stunned.

"I have sent someone to calculate and declare all the advertising space. The total cost for one issue is 1,200 oceans. The January 30th issue is 36,000 oceans. The total advertising expenses for a year are 432,000 oceans." Ye Luocong's shirt Take out the pen from your pocket.

Shi Liangcai nodded and said: "The real advertising cost is not that much, almost 400,000 yuan. The second young master really wants to buy out the advertising space for a year in one go?"

"Yes. In that case, how about a flat price of 400,000 yuan?" Ye Luo opened the pen cap and looked at him with a smile.

Shi Liangcai was a little confused.

Is this the second young master's method of negotiating business?

400,000 yuan will be given to you as soon as you say it?

Although the reported sales volume is large, the monthly fluctuations are quite obvious. Four hundred thousand yuan a year is spent to purchase all advertising space. If something happens, all the money will be lost.

"If the second young master insists on this, of course I can authorize the sale immediately." Shi Liangcai nodded.

Advertising sales are originally a daily task. Because there are so many advertising spaces to apply for, not all of them are sold out in every issue. Most of the time, it is good to sell 80% of the advertising spaces.

If someone is willing to buy it outright for a year, they will naturally be willing to sell it.

Ye Luo quickly wrote down the figure of 400,000 and handed the check to Shi Liangcai: "The specific contract can be drawn up later. I will send someone to take charge of it. In the future, someone will also inform the newspaper about the number of advertisements in each issue." What content is published?”

"That's the best." Shi Liangcai smiled, "I wonder what the second young master wants to do?"

"Haha, boss Shi, look, this is the main advertising content I have planned for the next issue." Ye Luo asked Shi Jianqiao to take out the information and handed it to Shi Liangcai.

"Tadpoles chew wax. Change the name to Coca-Cola? A Chinese and French pharmacy is about to launch a new drug, artificial blood, which can effectively relieve symptoms of fatigue and anemia, and help the people get rid of the "Sick Man of East Asia" hat."

Shi Liangcai was amazed as he looked through it.

No wonder Ye Luo wants to drastically modify the advertising layout himself. The advertising concepts and publicity methods reflected in his materials are much more advanced than those currently reported!