Chapter 34: The Media Empire (Part II)

One-third of the GDP of Bianjing, a deformed and prosperous metropolis with countless wealth, comes from the consumption of military and officials, one-third from the consumption of wealthy industrial and commercial owners in the market, and one-third from the consumption of foreign business travelers. In other words, it is the world's largest pure consumption city. There was no large-scale industry and production industry, and almost all consumer goods were transported from other state capitals to Kaifeng City. And the purchasing power of all these materials basically comes from the financial expenditure of the Great Song Empire.

In other words, Kaifeng's prosperity was built on the basis of being the capital. It is not a megacity formed by relying on traditional factors such as convenient transportation, mineral resources, military importance, and developed agriculture to attract a large number of people. As a result, the city's prosperity is extremely fragile, and whenever the administrative center moves out of Kaifeng, there will be a large-scale population loss, which has been the practice of wealth distribution in China for thousands of years.

The army, officials, and their families, relatives and friends, who are the main force and root cause of consumption, account for more than half of Kaifeng's permanent population. There are as many as 800,000 forbidden troops alone, and even if half of the empty salary is reached, there are 400,000, plus thousands of officials and their families and servants, at least 800,000. At its peak, Kaifeng had a population of 1.5 million to 1.7 million, plus satellite villages and towns outside the city and a floating population of at least 2 million. There are 200,000 people with a literacy rate of 10 per cent, let alone a capital with a literacy rate of at least 80 per cent. Even if only 10 per cent of this literate population buys newspapers, 160,000 copies are sold in a single day. Therefore, the three mainstream newspapers controlled by Chenji Group, namely Bianliang Minbao, Tokyo Weekly, and Kaifeng Fu Times, which cost only 3 cents, can cover at least half of the population of 2 million. Other periodicals and magazines are all monthly magazines with a strong division of labor that are highly specialized and dependent on newspaper distribution, such as "Famous Products" magazine edited by Gao Jing, a luxury advertising collection, "Gewu" journal edited by Qian Jin, and "Dianjin" journal edited by Zhou Lijian. These fine coated paper printed high-end goods are generally accepted orders, and as soon as they leave the factory, they will be delivered to the customer's home or designated place. These high-end goods can generate more than 100,000 yuan of revenue every year.

All newspapers are directly copied from modern layouts and styles, and the middle seams are small advertisements, what missing person notices, panaceas, promotions, opening bonuses, you name it. 16 editions of standard typography of one water. One, two, three, and four are all current political news, five or six are all commentaries, and the other pages reflect the characteristics of each newspaper, with different proportions in the economy, culture, society, military, politics, advertising, athletics, and so on.

It is also possible for large merchants who can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan to buy a version for advertising, but Yuan You has not had one in four years. The reason is that the wealthy Chenji Group does not need to boast and waste the layout for advertising, and the rich and powerful old merchants do not need advertising, and the newly opened and small and medium-sized merchants that need to expand and upgrade are reluctant to pay this huge amount of money.

In desperation, Zhao Shouzhong's advertising director of Bianliang Minbao signed a contract with a familiar butcher shop, and he paid 50 yuan for the entire page of advertising on his behalf, and if the shop's turnover did not increase by 500 yuan within 30 days after the advertisement, the advertisement was considered free of money, and if it exceeded 500 yuan, he would have to pay 50 yuan. If it exceeds 800 times, it is consistently divided into 30 for a period of one year.

As a result, the shop was an instant hit, and the next day the whole of Kyoto knew about it, and the customers who came to buy meat lined up for three streets. Cao Kee's cooked meat shop, which was poorly prepared that day, was sold out within half an hour of opening, and the stock for four days was forced to close. The power of this kind of standard king has spread and become widely known. Zhao Shouzhong, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately raised the price, and the full-page advertising cost that originally asked for 50 yuan was increased to 150 yuan, which was a full three times the price increase, and it was stipulated that only a full-page advertisement could be published once in ten days.

The thing that made the three aunts and six mothers-in-law on the streets and alleys resentful the most was that the newspaper robbed them of their jobs. The reason is that the cultural page breaks down superstitions and exposes the content of deception, so that many women who make a living by deception can't get along. Due to the increase in customer flow, the fees charged by the regularized advertising intermediaries have also begun to decline, and the tooth wives and matchmakers who cannot afford to advertise have either changed careers or been incorporated into the intermediary agencies that have a professional division of labor. As for Yao Po and Wen Po, they also lost most of their customers because of the emergence of the health care column, and it was difficult to continue, so they could only be absorbed by the hospital opened by Gao Jing.

The traversing public agreed that Zhao Shouzhong would publish the immortal "Zhao Shouzhong's Poetry Collection", "Zhao Shouzhong's Dictionary Collection", "Zhao Shouzhong's Selected Works", "Journey to the West Long Serial", "Eternal Life Hall Serial", "West Chamber Serial", "Liao Zhai Yizhi Serial", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "New Kingdoms", "Analects and Evidence", "Fireside Night Talk", and "Caigen Tan", "The Story of the Small Window" and other later masterpieces to expand the popularity of the people and establish a prestige system. It is always difficult to integrate into the background of the times that are basically science and engineering men, and only by immersing themselves in scientific research and teaching can they live a peaceful life. Otherwise, exposing your shortcomings is not only not conducive to establishing an image, but also an embarrassing situation.

As long as a few people take on the burden of cultural and Chinese culture masters, others are also happy. Talents like Zhao Shouzhong are wasted if they are not used to the fullest. If others plagiarize the masterpieces of later generations, they may be in front of the students, but Zhao Shouzhong's skills and level can at least cope with it.

In addition to plagiarism, another major means of making a name for yourself is to compile dictionaries. As early as the time when the academy was established, the preparations had already been completed, and the reason why it had not been published was simply because the time had not yet come. When the stall of the media group was laid out, and enough normal students learned the 'Chinese' pinyin method of Kaifeng dialect, after the communication with Su Shi Fan Chunren and other literary giants and Zaifu was unified, it was uniformly distributed nationwide. The thickness of the "Huaxia Dictionary" given by Su Shi is about the same as that of the later "Xinhua Dictionary", but it is three times larger. When Zhao Shouzhong's name was embedded in history through this dictionary like Su Shi, Zhao Shouzhong confessed in the secret room for a day and a night. Li Ji also teased him, saying that he thought that Zhao Shouzhong would recover from plagiarism and plagiarism guilt in an hour at most, but he didn't expect him to be a real man with moderation.