Chapter six hundred and seventeen what are you selling?
Only now did Li You feel that most of the obstacles on the way forward had been gradually eliminated. Legally, the emperor Jinkou Yuyan said to "try it out and see"; technically, Guide Chitose was entrusted to "borrow" copper movable type from the Imperial Sutra Factory;
In terms of manpower, there is an almost inexhaustible supply of scholars at the Imperial College, and there is no shortage of craftsmen at the emperor's feet.
As for money, the problem is not big. At the end of last year, Li You passed the coal matter and secretly made money from the hands of the fallen father-in-law. Although he gave half of it to Princess Guide, he also lost it.
It's a lot. If you really can't, you can still borrow money from a bank, so you don't have to worry about money for the time being.
Therefore, Mr. Li is full of ambitions, his mood is getting more and more exciting, and he vows to create a trend for a generation! This can be regarded as the first innovative enterprise created out of nothing since time travel.
Thinking of this, I have to thank the big guys in the imperial court for depriving him of the power to run a newspaper in the Imperial College. Otherwise, how could he be so free to express himself under the constraints of the imperial court framework?
In running the newspaper this time, many of Li You's requirements and plans would even shock people at the time. He had several technical indicators in mind, such as the printing density should be published every other day, the distribution deadline should be reached on the same day, and the layout content of each issue should be one
Sixteen thousand words and so on.
In this era where the pace of life is slow, news a month ago is considered news, skilled craftsmen can only engrave two hundred words a day, and a Tao Te Ching is only five thousand words, these indicators proposed by Li You can be regarded as quite
An advanced request. But in Mr. Li's mind, this is the kind of newspaper that is close to the impression he had in his previous life, rather than street leaflets and big-character posters.
In order to achieve the desired effect, Li Youlu successively accumulated a large amount of manpower in a short period of time, just to create what he considered a modern newspaper.
So far, a total of 20 chief editors, 60 chief writers, 50 newspaper workers, 100 newspaper delivery people, and a number of other shopkeepers, clerks, and handymen have been hired. In order to open up a novel column in the future, we have also recruited
We need to hire a number of storytellers. Without the support of all parties, it would be difficult to recruit so many people in a short period of time.
In fact, the labor cost of Guochao is very cheap. It was so cheap that Li You was surprised when he learned more about it. This is why he dared to recruit a large number of people at once. Taking the printing industry he was just familiar with as an example, the reason why it is more advanced
Movable type printing is not as popular as woodblock printing. One of the reasons is that labor costs are low.
A skilled engraver's salary is only a few cents of silver per day, no more than two taels a month. In this way, the bookstore can hire a few cheap engravers to meet the demand for printing books, which is just slower than movable type printing. This is true for skilled craftsmen.
Others are more conceivable.
However, although labor is cheap, the monthly labor salary expenses paid by Li You Newspaper Shop are more than 500 taels, and it is estimated to be around 6,000 taels for the whole year. Of course, newspaper shops and general shops that buy and sell goods
The difference is that the proportion of labor costs is originally high, almost comparable to that of a factory.
In comparison, the cost of paper and ink is very low. A maximum of 20 taels per 10,000 newspapers is issued on a single day. It is less than 300 taels a month and 3,000 taels a year.
Li You is also lucky that he can "borrow" copper movable type, so he does not have to spend a lot of money and time to cast enough movable type. This is the biggest technical threshold that hinders the emergence of competitors. If this cost is also considered
If you go in, it will cost you thousands more taels of silver.
So all in all, excluding the cost of movable type in the first year of running the newspaper, Li You spent about 10,000 taels of silver.
A wealth of ten thousand taels is used to describe a wealthy person. Ten thousand taels is equivalent to one to two ten thousand guans. If you buy farmland in Zhili near the capital, you can buy several thousand acres without any problem. Therefore, ten thousand taels is definitely a large amount of money.
It is enough to make most merchants stunned (Jin Wanwan, who is about to enter Beijing, said that 10,000 taels is only two months of profit, but he did not think of this idea).
Seeing the cost accounting figures, Mr. Li was deeply moved. New media not only requires courage and strength, but also requires burning money. This is true in any era. (Just read the novel.) If running a real daily newspaper just requires a few craftsmen to print it,
A few pieces of paper are so easy. The wisdom of the ancients should have appeared a long time ago. Is it still the turn of time-travelers to invent them one after another?
Outsiders talked about Li You's generous spending, but the family was a little dissatisfied at first. Aunt Guan, the accountant of the third room, strongly opposed the master's behavior of burning money.
Tens of thousands of taels of silver are spent every year, a huge sum that can wipe out the family's capital, but the profit model is very unclear. In Guan Xiuxi's eyes, it can only mean that her husband is so smooth sailing that he is complacent.
This kind of money-burning behavior is foolish and extremely unwise. If you want to become the front wave that is beaten to death by the back wave, you must stop it before it becomes irreversible.
However, Li You is more resolute and insists on high investment. The reason why he is confident mainly comes from what he believes is a gap in the market.
The capital has a population of one million, and there are at least 100,000 literate people, and these 100,000 literate people can influence at least 300,000 to 400,000 people. Moreover, these are 300,000 to 400,000 people densely packed in the capital city, not the 3 or 40,000 people in the backcountry.
With a population of 100,000, both the official culture of the upper class and the market culture of the lower class are very developed, and their consumption power and leisure pursuits are among the best in the world today. In theory, they can afford to support a newspaper. Places with such conditions,
Apart from the capital, there is only Jiangnan.
If newspapers can become popular, they will gain unparalleled influence and penetration in this world without radio, television, or the Internet. If the influence can be further transformed smoothly, the benefits will be extremely considerable.
Moreover, this is still an exclusive business that can barely be called an exclusive business. It is an exclusive business with almost no semicolons. It is easy to obtain a monopoly position. As for the Imperial College Official Newspaper, Li You does not think that those CEOs and officials can be as knowledgeable and courageous as himself.
Such large-scale layout and money-splitting. It can be seen from Shijiujiu’s idea of layoffs that it is still the same Dibao-style idea of building a car behind closed doors.
Guan Xiuruo questioned: "Husband, if you don't give it to me for free, it would be easier. I only know that my husband's biggest concern in running a newspaper is not to make money, but you can't just lose money. The annual expenses are
Wanliang, can you recover your capital just by relying on the advertising benefits you mentioned?"
"You still need to improve your knowledge!" Li You shook his head and sighed.
Guan Xiuxiu was not convinced and calculated with her husband: "Even if you can recruit a hundred big businessmen with financial resources from all walks of life, each businessman will pay thirty taels of silver every month, which is more than three thousand taels per year."
, Where can you get back the other six thousand taels? There are only a handful of such large merchants. As for other small and fragmented merchants, they can't afford much money at all. Three melons and two dates are just a drop in the bucket."
"Hey, husband, how many times have I told you, don't always talk about business, you have to broaden your horizons. Trading is not just about buying and selling goods, there are too many things that can be traded in the world, you just
Unexpectedly? To make money in the eyeball economy, it doesn’t necessarily have to be based on physical objects!”
Aunt Guan curled her lips and signaled to her husband with her eyes, "You continue to make up."
"There are often political disputes in the imperial court. If someone wants to create influence and spread his views to thousands of households and officials in all yamen overnight, what should he do? Just come and publish it in the newspaper, and accept him in a policy review
Twenty taels is not much, do the officials care about this money?"
"Don't worry that no one will think of this. As a husband, I will let them think of this. If there is one thing, there will be two, and if there are two, there will be three. If a political opponent is in the newspaper, can the other party show weakness? Ren Ye
No one can give up public opinion easily, so you have to publish your opinions in newspapers, but you also have to pay money."
"Don't ignore the local officials. The local officials are richer than the officials in the capital! Our newspaper is run at the feet of the emperor. All the top dignitaries in the world read it. Maybe the emperor will also pay attention. If any of the local officials want to get ahead,
If you spend a hundred and eighty taels to get your name in the newspaper, wouldn't it be the best of both worlds? Otherwise, why would the imperial court know all the more than a thousand counties, hundreds of state capitals, and hundreds of Taoist temples in the world?"
"It costs money if you want to be in the newspaper, and you also have to spend money if you don't want to be in the newspaper. For example, if someone's family has some scandal, if you can pay some money to cover it up, it's not non-negotiable."
"Also, how do literati and celebrities want to go to the capital to make a name for themselves in the world? Is there a faster way than a newspaper? If he publishes a poem, he will be charged a few taels of silver based on the number of words. Isn't this profitable? For such a person
Generally speaking, it costs less than going to a brothel to show off your talents."
"Common people also have needs. If an outsider comes to the capital to file a complaint, how will the hype be known to both the government and the public? Just publish it in the newspaper, and the charge for a complaint is not more than ten taels. Anyone from outside the country can come to the capital.
I'm not a poor man, and I'm involved in a lawsuit. I can afford it with ten taels of silver."
"Do the math for yourself. This is just what I can think of at the moment. I didn't expect how much more there is to be discovered! As long as the influence is exerted, there will be several articles like this in each of the 180 issues of the newspaper every year.
, earning six thousand taels of silver a year is really easy, so what are you worried about?"
Guan Xiuxiu was gradually dumbfounded as she listened to her husband calculating the accounts with his fingers. She opened her mouth slightly and forgot to close it for a while. She discovered that her husband was not ignorant of business, but could be called the most evil businessman. What he was buying and selling was not goods.
, is human nature, is the rein of fame and power.
After counting various ways to get money, Li You continued to talk about another reason for burning money: "High investment is also to set up a high threshold. It is easy to run a low-cost tabloid, but it is also easy to be imitated. If you run a
Even if a newspaper that only costs a few hundred taels of silver a year, such as the Jingshi Daily, can make a few days of small money, there will definitely be Kyoto Daily, Imperial Daily, Jingcheng Daily, Jiumen Daily, etc. after a while. This industry is bad.
Already.
Therefore, as the first company, it invests heavily in order to set extremely high standards in terms of timeliness, content, and circulation, standards that will daunt latecomers. This will prevent potential rivals from entering this industry, at least prevent the vast majority of them.
Potential competitors. As long as we are the only one in the industry, we can make as much money as we want!"
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