"Your Highness, when the newspaper office closed, there were 1,082 households subscribing to the newspaper for the whole year, and the subscription volume had reached 4,751!"
These are large families who have no worries about food and clothing. On average, each household subscribes to more than four subscriptions, that is, one for the master, one for the wife, one for the elders, and one for the children. If there is a concubine, one must also subscribe.
All customers who are willing to subscribe for an annual subscription are those who are not short of money, and the newspaper office promises to deliver newspapers to their doorsteps regardless of rain, frost, rain or snow, and gives priority to customers who subscribe for annual subscriptions, so the wealthy people donate generously.
To them, it was only a dozen taels of silver, but to Princess Le'an and his wife, they received more than 17,000 taels of silver in one day, which almost scared them out of their wits.
Even when Princess Le'an married Gong Yonggu, the dowry was not so large, and a few newspapers could easily do it.
If a certain prince hadn't let the factory guards capture thousands of various bugs before, the annual subscription volume could have easily doubled, and the total amount would be even more shocking.
At this time, the wealthy customers were delighted to think that they had taken advantage of it. After all, they spent more than a dozen taels of silver to buy a year's worth of "iron coupons" and imperial edicts. This was like gold falling from the sky.
There is no need to spend money on major events and minor affairs that happened in the imperial court and even in the Jifu area. You can learn about them from newspapers while sitting at home or even lying in bed. What service can be more appropriate than this?
"Well, that's good. Once order is restored in the capital, the number of subscriptions will continue to rise!"
The current signed customers are only users in the city. If you include the 250K pure wealthy people with land outside the city, it should not be difficult to double. At most, they will send servants to the city to inquire about information, and they will never dare to easily drag them in and give them money.
Regarding the annual subscription, the servant doesn't care. It's okay to spend ten cents to buy a copy and go back to report the good news. If you directly pay more than ten taels of silver, you will have no money in your pocket, and secondly, you will be afraid of being cheated.
"The gentry and common people regarded this newspaper as a gift from heaven and rushed to buy it. From last night to tonight, Chen's printing house has printed more than 15,000 copies of the newspaper, but the supply on the market is still in short supply."
Gong Yonggu was naturally open to requests from all quarters, but the craftsmen in the printing factory were exhausted both physically and mentally and needed a rest. If they continued like this, everyone would be paralyzed from exhaustion.
The Prince Consort is not a cold-blooded animal. He knew that this was not a long-term solution, so he did not force the craftsmen to continue burning the midnight oil, because the second issue was about to be printed.
"It doesn't matter. I will ask the Inspector of Printing and Shou and the Secretary of General Affairs to help my uncle. My uncle can also take this opportunity to acquire other printing plants in the city. As long as the conditions are suitable, they can be purchased to share the current huge printing volume."
The Seal Supervisor who serves the royal family can print books and newspapers, and the General Administration Department also has its own related workshops. Together, these two places can print thousands of copies in 12 hours. It should not be a big problem.
With money in their pockets, the princess and her wife can also directly launch acquisitions and rapidly expand their production capacity in a short period of time, reaching the standard of printing 20,000 newspapers every day and night.
Even so, it is only a drop in the bucket to meet the demand in the Jifu area. As long as they hear the news, merchants from as far away as Baoding will come to buy newspapers in sacks so that they can be sold back.
A certain prince believed that as the first issue of the world, at least 50,000 copies should be printed. At least the people in Shuntian Mansion and surrounding cities and counties should know that there is such a media that can convey the voice of the prince and the court. .
"Princess, I would like to thank Your Highness for your advice. I will complete it as soon as possible and let the printing volume reach a new high!"
In their family, her wife is the master of the house. In ancient times, the male was the main one and the female was the internal one. However, Gong Yonggu's wife was not an ordinary woman, otherwise he wouldn't be the prince-in-law.
Considering that the aunt's family business might not be very lucrative, a certain prince taught them the technique of advance payment, which was guaranteed to work well and could quickly raise a large amount of funds.
After Gong Yonggu came home, he saw boxes of silver piled up in the yard. He was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth with joy.
As the prince's consort, he would naturally not have trouble with money, but in his heart, as the prince reminded him, he must uphold the concept of a gentleman who loves money and uses it in a proper way.
Making money in such a reasonable and legal way is the right way. He never thought that running a newspaper could really make such a huge sum of money, although the couple could only get 30% of it.
But this is not pure profit. A large part of it must be reinvested in printing newspapers, and it is unknown how much will be left in the end.
However, each newspaper earns four cents, and 20,000 newspapers are equivalent to eighty thousand cents, which is equivalent to no less than eighty taels.
I don't think I have much determination, but if I can earn this amount every day, it's very exciting...
The more printed land, the more land is earned, as if what is being printed is not newspapers but copper coins.
Although the face value is only ten cents, it cannot hold tens of thousands, and the profits will increase accordingly.
What surprised the princess and his wife even more was the advertising fee, so the two tea merchants spent one thousand two hundred taels of silver on a one-month subscription.
If merchants published half-page advertisements from the ninth to the sixteenth pages, they would earn one hundred taels a day.
It seems that there is still money to be made from selling newspapers, which is a huge amount of money that the princess and his wife should not underestimate.
"Uncle, there is no need to be anxious about advertising. Since there are tea merchants who dare to try it, other merchants will definitely flock to it after they see the effect."
Regarding "eating crabs", a certain prince never worried. Those profit-seeking businessmen have not yet realized the benefits of advertising. When they realize it, they will naturally take money out of their pockets willingly.
In ancient times, nothing was more convincing than advertising. Word-of-mouth was only effective for people within the circle. If the scope expanded to ordinary groups, advertising would be the first choice.
It's okay if there is no newspaper. Now that there is the "Jingshi Daily", merchants who don't advertise are fools.
If others take a big step forward and you stay still, it means that others are not moving and you take a big step back.
For those two tea merchants, they only spent twenty taels of silver a day to become household names. Not to mention the capital, even the gentry and common people in Tianjin and Baoding would know of their existence after reading the newspapers.
For people who come to the capital for business and want to buy tea but don't know which tea is better, the first choice is to read the advertisements in the newspapers. Regardless of whether you believe it or not, go and take a look first.
The function of advertising is to lead customers to visit, which is referred to as "drainage". As long as the customers are lured to the door, the role of advertising is achieved.
As for whether it can turn customers into users of its own products, it depends on the merchant's ability...
"His Highness's policy has made me enlightened. It is an extraordinary move!"
At the moment, Gong Yonggu only obeys one person, and that is the person in front of him. He can pocket thousands of taels of silver a year just by touching his words. Those merchants still take the initiative to pay, and they can't accept it.
The cost of advertising is almost negligible, because it only costs a few bucks to have a craftsman carve a wooden board, which can then be printed in large quantities.
However, the benefits are obvious. If it weren't for the limited manpower of the newspaper and the busy work, Gong Yonggu would have wanted to go to those businesses in person to talk about advertising.
"I forgot in the previous chapter that in addition to editors and newsboys, the newspaper office can also add two positions of 'reporter' and 'salesperson'! This 'reporter' is responsible for inquiring about news outside, interviewing businessmen, making notes, and returning the diary. Leave it to the editor to compile, so that the content of the newspaper will be richer. 'Salesmen' are people who go to merchants everywhere to negotiate advertising business. As long as the merchants are willing to spend money to place advertisements in newspapers, the salesmen can get proportional Share. The merchant invests one hundred taels of silver, and the salesperson can get a share of ten taels. If the reporter is really talented and knowledgeable, he can work as an editor concurrently, otherwise he can only get a share and not a basic salary. The salesman only gets a share. Share, no minimum salary required.”
Although my aunt and uncle are still in the early stages of starting their business, they don't need to do everything personally, especially since they are not very skilled in the main business, so they can leave less important tasks to their subordinates.
After adding the post of reporter to the newspaper office, he could not only wait and get the government decrees and news from Shuntian Prefecture in the newspaper office, but also take the initiative to inquire about some anecdotes that were not yet known to the public.
For example, a certain family’s pet dog gave birth to a three-legged baby, a certain valley has beautiful scenery after summer, a certain river bridge collapsed, please avoid it...
There are a lot of news like this. As long as there is dog food to seduce reporters and they can get you a lot of materials in one day, it depends on whether the page can be published.
The salesmen are much better at it. In the early stage, it was just a big scam. The "Jingshi Daily" has such a resounding name. It is the media inherited from the immortal world by the prince, and it is run by the prince's consort. Its integrity overwhelms all rumors.
If you don't rush to spend money and wait for other merchants to follow, let alone place an advertisement directly, you will even have to queue to the back of the queue, and you will definitely regret it later.
A certain prince believed that within five days, the advertising spots on pages nine to sixteen would be sold out. If it really couldn't be sold, he would send someone to remind them so that these stingy people would not do it again.
The pamphlet I wrote before has been a general introduction to the operation methods and main characteristics of newspapers. However, for people in the Great Dynasty, even a smart and studious person like Gong Yonggu is not a third person. It can be mastered completely in five days.
"Every word of what His Highness said is precious and priceless. I will obey everything and never forget it!"
If the prince didn't add anything, Gong Yonggu would have wanted to act as a salesman himself. He didn't want to give more of the money in his pocket to the salesmen. He had no choice but to be busy with affairs and had no time to take care of him, so he could only recruit a few more articulate people. Take charge.
"Uncle, reporters can actually serve as salesmen. In the early days of the establishment of a newspaper, the division of labor among editors, reporters, and salesmen did not need to be too clear. As long as they were really talented, they could do both. For example, advertising, in fact, advertising can be divided into Hard advertisements and soft advertisements. Hard advertisements are advertisements like this in the first issue. They use concise and concise words to allow readers to understand in the shortest possible time the purpose, address and characteristics of the products to be sold by the merchant. Soft advertisements are based on the content of the article. In the form of recording or dialogue, the efficacy and function of the merchant's products are explained. The reporter can also compile the history of the merchant into a story for people to read. Compared with hard advertisements that pursue quick solutions, soft advertisements are more readable. The content is also richer and the charge can be doubled.”
Having said so much, the focus of a certain prince is the last sentence.
As the saying goes: Advertisements that are not aimed at making money are just hooligans!
Those merchants are the newspaper's ATM, and the advertisements are the bank cards.
After withdrawing money from the debit card, I will use the credit card to withdraw...
After Yaoji finished speaking, he took out a soft-text advertisement he had written. The content was that a tea merchant with a century-old history had picked a batch of top-quality new tea from Zhejiang this spring. The tea leaves were fresh and tender, the smell was ethereal, and the entrance was quiet. It was incredible. What a treat.
All the young leaves were picked in the morning dew by a girl who was less than fourteen years old. With a flick of her jade finger, she picked up the orchid buds, which are only for those who are destined to enjoy them. In short, the whole article is full of hundreds of words, and the core is deception. Let you drink tea and be able to respond...
Gong Yonggu briefly browsed through one. After reading it, he wanted to spend money to buy tea. This kind of tea is simply the best among teas, and the prince's article shows that his talent and learning are truly outstanding, and he can be called the leader of the Ming Dynasty. .
"Another one is that after the newspaper gets on the right track, it can expand its layout from the current sixteenth page to twenty-fourth and even thirty-two pages. In this way, there will be more pages and more advertising positions. .”
The paper rules used by "Jingshi Daily" are almost the same as those of later generations. The difference is actually the font size. Since it is printed with movable type, the font cannot be too large. The smallest character is as big as four characters of later generations, so it cannot be printed on one page. How much content.
If you want to publish more information and make more money, the only feasible way is to increase the page space and use quantity to compensate for quality.
After it becomes the thirty-second edition, it should not be too different from what was published in the sixteenth edition in later generations.
The pressure on newspaper editors is actually not too great, because the imperial court and Shuntian Prefecture provide a large amount of content to newspapers every day.
All they have to do is make a selection, prioritize the prince and the main decrees, and all other information will be pleasing to the eye.
For example, potatoes and sweet potatoes, which are about to be widely promoted in the north, will be slowly published in the next few days.
The pressure at the moment is all on the printing plant. Once printing starts in multiple places at the same time, the pressure will be relieved.
The printing target of 50,000 copies per day is not expected to be achieved until half a month. For now, printing 30,000 copies every day and night is acceptable.
"...Your Highness is wise!"
Because he was writing so fast, the words Gong Yonggu wrote on the paper turned into cursive script, and he had to sort them out when he got home.
Prince Edward, he suddenly understood that newspapers could still do this. If he wanted to make more money, he could just increase the number of pages.
If there are forty-eight pages in one issue, doesn’t it mean that one issue can pocket three hundred taels in advertising fees alone?
Over the whole year, the advertising fees amounted to one hundred thousand taels, and he and the princess could share thirty thousand taels~!
Even just thinking about this shocking amount would shock him.
"I heard that some people regard newspapers as 'imperial edicts' or even 'iron documents'?"
These people are really afraid of death. Who has ever heard of the "iron coupons for alchemy books" worth ten cents each?
"I also heard about it, and I immediately asked the newspaper to issue a statement..."
Gong Yonggu didn't want his fortune to come to a halt. Whenever the prince was angry, he would find ways to calm him down.
"It's okay! Uncle, just keep everything as usual. Some things tend to get darker and darker!"
Don’t you want to hoard?
Easy to handle!
I will publish the contents of the imperial edict on the front page every day from now on!
Look how much money you have in your pocket, you can stock up like this!
