In 1974, last year's stock market crash and the oil crisis at the beginning of this year plunged Hong Kong's economy into recession.

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

As a result, Hong Kong's newspapers lacked advertising revenue, and a large number of them closed down, and now only more than 20 newspapers are still barely supporting their business.

Among them, "Oriental Daily", "Sing Tao Daily" and "Ming Pao" sold the most, all selling more than 100,000 copies.

At that time, due to the impact of the increase in the price of oil and the rise in prices, the newspaper rose from 2 cents to 3 cents per copy.

Founded in the 60s by the Webster family of Hong Kong's Er Heaven Pharmaceutical Company, Hui Guanwu wanted to buy the newspaper "Tian Tian Daily", which was the first color printed newspaper in Hong Kong, and naturally attracted attention, with daily sales exceeding 100,000 copies, making it one of the best-selling newspapers in Hong Kong.

However, the high cost of color printing and the fact that it could not sustain itself on advertising revenue, coupled with last year's stock market crash and the oil crisis at the beginning of this year, caused the newspaper to lose a lot of money.

The Ertian Pharmaceutical Factory, where the Webriam family is based, is in financial difficulties, so it is eager to take off the "Daily Daily".

After Xu Guanwu learned of this news, he immediately arranged for someone to negotiate with the Wei family, and finally successfully purchased "Tiantian Daily" at a price of two million.

However, at this time, because of the attack of "Oriental Daily", "Sing Tao Daily", "Ming Pao" and other newspapers, the sales volume has long fallen to 50,000 sales.

With such a small sales volume of "Tiantian Daily", Xu Guanwu could not compete with Shaw Brothers at all, and this public opinion war had already lost at the starting line before it started.

"How do you get a surge in newspaper sales?" Xu Guanwu pondered for a long time, and finally came up with a peerless good bridge, that is-

"Free?! Make no mistake?! If it's released for free, wouldn't it be unprofitable? Zheng Shi'an, editor-in-chief of "Tiantian Daily", said with wide eyes and surprise.

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

"Newspapers are free, but advertising is not, and we can make money by selling advertising space." 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, meeting the needs of the grassroots people.

Xu Guanwu has a college classmate who makes this kind of free newspaper, and according to him, the advertising income of each issue is 450,000 yuan, and the printing cost is only a few tens of thousands of yuan.

Of course, the "Daily Daily" that Xu Guanwu wants to publish will not all be advertisements and recruitment information, half of which is entertainment news that readers like to see, and the other half of the page is full of recruitment information, commercial advertisements, and so on.

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

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

Xu Guanwu nodded, which coincided with his thoughts.

In the past, those free newspapers also set up bases in the prosperous areas of the city to register job information and distribute newspapers.

"Editor-in-Chief Zheng, I will leave the recruitment of manpower to you." Xu Guanwu said, "The distribution network of the Daily Daily must be established as soon as possible, and I will declare war on the Shaw Brothers within a week." ”

"Boss, Shaw Brothers is a giant in the film industry, and those newspaper impurities give him face, this battle is not easy to fight." Zheng Shi'an wiped his sweat and said.

"Just because it's hard to fight doesn't mean you can't fight, the Shaw Brothers are now past their peak, and now it's just a hundred-legged insect that dies but doesn't stiffen." Xu Guanwu said coldly.

"But we lack the contributions of famous scholars, and we can't compete with the group of literati around the Shaw Brothers." Zheng Shi'an said with a frown.

Although he is a senior media person, he does not dare to compare with famous artists such as Jin Yong and Ni Jing.

"I wrote it myself without anyone contributing to it, and I read the first edition and wrote about how Shaw Brothers mistreated employees." Xu Guanwu saw Zheng Shi'an pushing left and right, and couldn't help but be a little displeased.

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

Zheng Shi'an saw that the boss was angry, so he didn't dare to push back, and hurriedly agreed with a smile.

"This newspaper is going to be the sounding board of our Hsu Brothers Company, and the front line of counterattacking Shaw Brothers Company, you must not disappoint me." Xu Guanwu said coldly.

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

"If you can win this battle of public opinion, I will naturally not treat you badly. In the future, you will have 5% of the proceeds of each issue of the Daily Daily. After Xu Guanwu hit a stick, he immediately gave a sweet date.

"Really?! Then I will do my best! Zheng Shi'an hurriedly said excitedly.

When "Tiantian Daily" is the best-seller, a newspaper can earn tens of thousands of yuan. A 5% income is hundreds of yuan, and tens of thousands of yuan a month, which is already quite a lot of money at that time.

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

Zheng Shi'an was inspired by Xu Guanwu's promised bonus, and immediately burst out with unprecedented enthusiasm, and in just three days, he recruited a team of nearly 100 people.

He dismantled the team of nearly 100 people, distributed in the main city of Hong Kong and Kowloon, and was responsible for registering job postings and recruiting potential advertisers.

As for the distribution and delivery work, Zheng Sai On hired a lot of part-time students and the elderly at low salaries, so that they could send them to pedestrians in the bustling downtown areas of major intersections.

Three days after the closure of Tian Tian Daily, the first issue of the newspaper was distributed free of charge, setting a precedent for free newspapers in Hong Kong, and the number of deliveries on that day was also very gratifying, with a total of more than 200,000 newspapers dispatched.

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

And "Tiantian Daily" shows people with a new layout, with more pictures and less text, handsome guys and beauties occupy the page, attracting the attention of readers. The supplement part meets the needs of the current unemployed with a large number of high-density recruitment information.

Therefore, the first batch of 100,000 copies of "Tiantian Daily" was delivered within half a day, which surprised the editor-in-chief Zheng Shi'an and hurriedly ordered the printing of 100,000 copies.

The first issue of Tian Tian Ribao was an instant hit, shocking the Hong Kong publishing industry.

Newspapers have been charging since the day they were born, and in the long run, a mindset has been formed in people's minds.

However, the birth of "Tian Tian Daily" has brought new ideas to Hong Kong media people.

However, although "Tiantian Daily" sent out 200,000 copies in the first issue, because many of the advertisements in the first issue were half-bought and half-given, Xu Guanwu did not earn much advertising money.

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

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