Luo Weiming continued: "These mini TV magazines are also called TV books, 'mini' means smaller than ordinary magazines, and 'book' refers to the magazine textualizing TV episodes, and reading magazines is like reading novels. The TV books are all weekly, about 5 or 60 pages, with color pages in between. In the past, the price was 1 Hong Kong dollar, but now the price has basically been raised. "Hong Kong TV", "TV Weekly", "Yulang TV", "Big TV" are 2 Hong Kong dollars per copy, "Golden TV" is 1 yuan per copy, and "Silver TV" and "Popular TV" are slightly higher, 2.5 yuan per copy"

Among these TV magazines, "Yulang TV" is known as "the most comprehensive surname TV magazine with the most abundant content", and "New TV" is marked as "authoritative TV entertainment weekly", which is the same as "Hong Kong TV" and "TV Weekly", which is classified as a category with better sales.

In fact, this was a common problem with magazines in the 70s, and most entertainment magazines were named "TV". In other words, in the craziest years of TV, everyone was full of "TV books", and when the craze subsided, they all went back to their jobs - reporting on the entertainment industry and picking up the gossip of celebrities.

Listening to Luo Weiming's eloquent words, Zhang Shaoping finally understood these various "TV" magazines.

Entertainment magazines in Hong Kong are broadly divided into two categories: gossip magazines and film and television magazines.

Before that, the main role of the weekly magazine was to publish novels, but all magazines and weeklies that did not publish novels fell into the streets, such as "New Youth", "Weekly Weekly", "Weekly Pictorial" and so on. At that time, all the newspapers had a large entertainment page, which was huge in length and could be illustrated with pictures and texts, while the entertainment page of "Ming Pao" was not mentioned in length, and the pictures were not flattered, which has always been criticized. As an editor, Lei Pi has risen to prominence, specializing in writing insider articles to expose the "details" of film and television celebrities.

At that time, the whole circle was dumbfounded, and the newspaper culture circle was also dumbfounded, because the entertainment section of the newspaper only published positive reports and pictures, and every film and television star was flawless. was stabbed by Lei Pi like this, and everyone found out that the private life of celebrities is so erosive, as long as you can imagine it, it must have happened when Shenma is a junior, worshipping money, playing *, unspoken rules, dinners, and mixing roads.

This is also normal, readers who like to watch the entertainment version have seen too many positive news reports, which obviously fails to satisfy their gossip psychology. In fact, not only ordinary readers, but also people in the film and drama circles are also vying for rumors.

"Ming Pao Weekly" started this way, and there was naturally no shortage of followers, so "Hong Kong Weekly", "Fresh Weekly", "Oriental Xindi", and "Xinzhi Weekly" came into being one after another to join the money-grabbing army. In particular, "Xinzhi Weekly", known as "the inside story of the news, knows everything", and really dares to say anything, in addition to the nude photos, the editor-in-chief Li Fushi even dares to expose the inside story of the lame hao, which can be called the king of gossip.

It would be hard for anyone to imagine that in the late '60s and early '70s, New Knowledge Weekly sold more than 100,000 copies per issue. You know, businessmen at that time didn't like to advertise in magazines, so the magazine's profit depended on sales. And the most speechless thing is that the audience at that time liked to watch Western films, and even thought that people who watched Hong Kong films were second-class audiences, on the contrary, Hong Kong films were very popular in Southeast Asia, and most of the sales of magazines were in Southeast Asia.

Before the rise of gossip magazines, film and television magazines were all affiliated with the names of film and television companies, and existed as corporate propaganda magazines, losing money and making money. For example, "Hong Kong TV" and "Li's TV" are all founded by TV stations to promote their own programs and boast about their artists, and the themes are very positive.

There is too much positive touting, and there is a lack of fair criticism of the show, which is naturally unpleasant. Global Publishing House, which founded "New Knowledge Weekly", immediately launched "New TV", and used the original set of insider stories again, and broke the gossip news of the artists, so that the readers of TV Weekly were addicted.

In addition, "New TV" not only publishes the TV programs of the two stations, but also reports on the dynamics of the artists, and most importantly, makes a fair evaluation of the programs of the two stations. As a result, readers who bought "New TV" can see the news of the two stations, and they can also see reasonable criticism of the program.

After "New TV" opened up a new path, various publishing houses were happy to follow suit. It just so happened that at that time, TV was popular, everyone watched TV, and with the opening of Jiayi TV, there were more places to break the news. As a result, Ming Pao Group fired the first shot and published "Golden TV", followed by "Yulang TV" and "Popular TV".

Gossip magazines are different from film and television magazines, the former's inside information is mostly gossip, tracking and shooting, insiders breaking the news, malicious slander, etc., which is relatively bad; The latter is just the opposite, the inside information is mostly for the film stars themselves to confide in their hearts, pour out the past, and reveal the inside information, and the magazine and the star are in a cooperative relationship.

Luo Weiming took a sip of tea and said, "Everyone, you should be very familiar with these magazines, and you have not dealt with them before. In the market, the magazines that can sell well are either entertainment magazines or fashion magazines. And the magazine that can stand out from the crowd must have its own unique highlights, and have a large and stable readership. We should take advantage of them and grow the readable and watchable surnames of our magazines. If 10 years ago, Hong Kong Weekly could have sold 150,000 copies, there is no reason for us to stop at 100,000 copies! ”

"Bang Bang!"

Zhang Shaoping applauded Luo Weiming from the bottom of his heart and praised: "Well said, well analyzed!" Mr. Luo and the colleagues in the market research department did not disappoint us, they have done a lot of work on the magazine market in Hong Kong, and the information and analysis summarized can give us a more intuitive understanding of the current situation and selling points of each magazine! ”

"New TV" sold more than 150,000 copies in Hong Kong at one time, what is this concept? Even the No. 1 selling "Oriental Daily" can't compare to it.

Today, although "Hong Kong TV" has also regained the first place in sales because of the rise of TVB, "New TV" and "Yulang TV", as third-party TV magazines, still firmly occupy the second and third positions with their unique perspectives, biting behind "Hong Kong TV".

Cen Jianxun said: "Our magazine is relatively strong in terms of entertainment surnames, interactive surnames, and readable surnames, but it is not enough gossip, such as lack of insider revelations, etc., which cannot attract people's attention." ”

Chen Baisheng frowned and said, "I think the price factor will affect people's purchases." When "Hong Kong TV" was popular, it sold 100,000 copies, while "New TV" only had 30,000 copies, and "Li's TV" had 20,000 copies. However, "Hong Kong TV" thought that it was making less money, so it raised the price of 5 cents to 1 yuan, and "New TV" still sold 5 cents, snatching half of the readers of "Hong Kong TV" at once, and the sales have been rising since then, exceeding 150,000 copies. It can be seen how big the impact on the price side will be. ”

"But our TV Times is a semi-monthly magazine, and these TV magazines are all weekly, 2 Hong Kong dollars a copy, and after two weeks, there are 4 yuan. Our magazine, on the other hand, is large-format, high-grade paper, and full-color printing, selling for 5.5 Hong Kong dollars per copy, excluding printing fees, authors' editing fees, and touch-up fees. Deng Xiaoyu said.

"Since we're all profiting from advertising dollars, why not expand ad inserts?"

Liu Tianlan suddenly took over the conversation, attracting everyone's attention, she smiled: "When I was in Vancouver, I didn't read a lot of foreign magazines, such as Fortune magazine, which was not less than 40 pages every time it added an advertisement, and sometimes even more than 60 pages. This is entirely based on advertising expenses to make a profit, subsidizing the cost of magazines. ”

Chen Yumei also said: "I agree with Lan Lan's statement that none of the current magazines make money from the sales of the magazines themselves, but are interdependent with advertising companies. When I was an editor at Sister magazine, I used to place advertisements for cosmetics, beauty lotions, and clothing. ”

"Sisters" claims to be a "fashion, beauty, housekeeping, novel, film and drama, singing comprehensive surname publication", accounting for a large market share, and companies that want to advertise are lining up, all of them sharpen their heads and squeeze in.

Fashion magazines are generally divided into two categories: magazines with female surnames and magazines with male surnames. The magazine with the female surname is famous, in addition to "Sisters", there is also a "Women", and the magazine with the male surname is funny, it is directly Chengren Magazine. There are currently no more successful fashion magazines in Hong Kong that have a male surname.

It is said that the best-selling Chengren magazine "***" is following the trick of "Xinzhi Weekly". These two axes of society directly create miracles.

Chen Guanzhong also nodded: "It is true that more attention should be paid to advertising revenue." ”

"Okay, I'll vote yes too." Cen Jianxun followed the crowd without restraint.

Zhang Shaoping asked: "What about the price of the magazine, it won't be ready to be lowered, right?" ”

Luo Weiming shook his head and said, "There's no need." ”

"Last year's new "K-100 Pictorial", its price is 5 yuan per copy, and our Times magazine is only 5 cents, except for the paper is similar to ours, it is also full color printing, the content and design are not comparable at all. It can be sold for 5 yuan, and it is not expensive for us to sell it for 5.5 yuan. ”

Luo Weiming's "K-100 Pictorial", once launched, sales have been rising, and the cover is directly printed with words such as "all color fine printing, the latest TV pictorial".

Chen Guanzhong said with a smile: "Manager Luo is right, we don't need to lower the price at all, we just need to increase the content of the magazine." Other TV magazines are weekly, and the advertising is only 7 days, but ours is 15 days. We can increase the amount of advertising while increasing the advertising fee, for example, if the advertisement of 50,000 yuan in "New TV" is 50,000 yuan, we will call it 75,000 or 80,000 yuan. I think advertisers will make the right choice between 100,000 14 days of advertising time and 80,000 15 days of continuous advertising time. ”

Everyone laughed when they heard it, but no, if you choose the former, the advertising effect is interrupted, while the latter is continuous. Because, readers who buy one issue of the magazine may not buy the second issue of the magazine, and the role of advertising is naturally not obvious. Of course, there will also be a situation where anyone who buys a magazine, whether they buy one, two or more issues, will be moved by the advertisement.

But is this possible?

It is important to know that advertising needs to be continuously delivered in order to have an effect.

Selling commercials on TV is just a matter of moments, and it's hard to explain the merits of the product as much as possible. The magazine just makes up for this shortcoming, and its fine printing is not found in newspapers, and it can completely ignore the brightness and eye-catching of advertising.

Qiu Shiwen laughed, and suddenly reminded: "But our "Film Times" is a weekly magazine, although the price of 5.5 yuan is lower than other film magazines, but it is published too often, which is beyond the psychological capacity of most readers. If they want to buy every issue of the magazine, they will have to spend several times more money than "Chinese and Foreign Pictures and Pictures", "Silver World", etc., and in the long run, they will feel that they have spent money in vain. However, if we don't buy every issue, it means that we don't have a stable and loyal readership, and sales are not guaranteed. ”

Zhang Shaoping rubbed his face and said, "As soon as you say that, I just found out that the trouble is big, and I didn't think about it before!" ”

Chen Baisheng proposed: "Why don't we reduce the price?" For example, down to 4.5 yuan? ”

Luo Weiming said: "It can't be lowered, once it is lowered, a precedent is set, and it will be difficult to improve!" The only way to do this is to change the publication cycle, which, like "TV Times", is a semi-monthly magazine. Actually, I think that if our magazines want to go abroad, it is better not to publish too frequently. Slow work produces high-quality products, this is certain, if in order to rush the publication, shoddy production, it is more than worth the loss. ”

Chen Guanzhong thought for a while and said, "Let's take a look first, wait until the mainland, Taiwan. The information feedback from Bay, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other places has come back, and we will make adjustments according to the actual situation. ”

"Yes." Zhang Shaoping nodded and said, "What to do, you are experts, just grasp the idea and make the decision yourself." ”

Cen Jianxun said: "After the price and publication cycle are over, I'll go back to the topic just now." Our magazines are really not enough to gossip, not to mention compared with "Ming Pao Weekly" and "Oriental Xindi", at least we have to keep up with "New TV", right? ”

"Gossip is a double-edged knife, it will not only cut yourself, but also hurt others, be cautious! After all, we are just making magazines, not asking for human lives, if it is too much, our reputation in the circle will be bad, and the gains outweigh the losses. Liu Tianlan said.

Deng Xiaoyu said: "Tianlan is right, we don't need to do it!" In this way, learn from "New TV" and "Yulang TV", talk to artists, and if you want to say something, we will open a column and make a special feature. ”

When Zhang Shaoping heard this, he patted his forehead and said, "If you don't say it, I almost forgot!" When we make a magazine, we must have more contact with readers, ask them what they think, and let them give their opinions. By the way, starting from the next issue, we will open a section directly in the 'Reader Interaction' column, asking readers to say what they are not satisfied with the magazine and what needs to be improved. For example, we should do more color pages, more inserts, more celebrity photos, columns, special features, etc., if needed. ”

"Prize-winning activities should also be added, which can arouse everyone's purchase**." Qiu Shiwen mentioned a point.

"Well, you can add it to the 'Reader Interaction' section. Prizes can be celebrity artists' belongings, signed photos, or award movie tickets. Chen Guanzhong said with a smile.

Everyone has provided ideas.