Zhao Shouzhong's subsidiary of Chenji Group, a subsidiary of Chenji Group---- established with the support of Li Ji, secretly acquired more than 40 papermaking workshops and engraving and printing workshops in one go in the second quarter of the third year of Yuanyou. After a year of operation and transformation, it has been able to produce high-grade paper such as snow-white copy paper and coated paper, and the printing equipment has also been upgraded to a production line for ink and lead movable type printing. Not only has the production capacity increased dozens of times, but the output value has increased hundreds of times.

Writers and wholesale businessmen who place orders every day and publish books at their own expense are almost about to break the threshold of the paper company and printing company under the Chenji Media Culture Group.

In addition to the tasks of 30 class hours per month, Zhao Shouzhong also has to take into account the regular decision-making of several companies. If it weren't for the efforts of the subordinate general managers and managers of various departments, they would have died of exhaustion.

Among the dozens of companies under Chenji Media Culture Group, the most important ones are the branches of paper, printing, newspaper, publishing, stationery and bookstore. As for the secondary packaging industry, handicraft industry, theaters, museums and other industries are still in trial operation and preparation.

The most valued by the public is the paper industry that is said to be making money and the newspaper industry that is making money at a loss. In order to reduce costs, Zhao Shouzhong grinded Zhou Lijian of the chemical group for several days and nights to get the quota of dozens of chemical agents necessary for the modern paper industry. The increase in toilet paper orders due to the popularity of flush toilets alone led the paper mills affiliated with the paper company to arrange production until five years later.

After the internal settlement of the digested raw material costs, the cost of the paper company is only labor and tax. With a gross profit margin of 400% of the financial statements, the company regretted that they had used too much paper before the crossing and had made such a big contribution to the paper company.

As for the loss-making newspaper industry, it is the only industry that tolerates losses, and in order to quickly occupy the position of public opinion, it costs money to spread out its stalls. Before sales could keep up, all state offices had to build newspaper buildings and sales outlets. Just buying land and shops has spent almost the whole year of the profits of dozens of profitable companies of the Chenji Media and Culture Group, and in addition, hundreds of thousands of yuan of surplus have to be transferred from the profiteering chemical group to fill the exaggerated loan gap and reduce the asset-liability ratio to below 70%.

The only task assigned to the newspaper in the four years of Yuanyou was to hire enough readers and original reporters such as Bao to enrich the human capital and prepare the foundation for a future turnaround.

Many poor children who are still in the childhood stage have no hope of gaining fame and fame, and they can only read and write, and are not considered illiterate. But the emergence of this new industry that could accommodate their employment greatly stimulated countless lower-class intellectuals.

In the past, scholars without fame could only teach, write letters, act as commercial brokers, keep accounts, sell calligraphy and paintings, and at most become a master or something, and the narrow employment scope was unimaginable. This new industry offers a new option for these pretentious intellectual workers. Of course, it is also the best choice.

The income is high, only dealing with the pen, the job is stable, and it is very decent, and you can get shares and promotions if you do well. The reason why candidates are most attracted to the newspaper is that the content of the newspaper may reach the heavens, and naturally this kind of channel of competing for jobs and character with high-ranking officials who can write books is the main reason for the madness of the far-sighted and untalented people.

There has been an unprecedented situation in which hundreds of people are vying for a position in various state capitals for such positions as editors, reporters, typesetting planners, advertising designers, artists, printers, and agents of newspaper wholesale outlets. In order to get a certain position, some people even did not hesitate to bribe the Chenji employees who presided over the recruitment.

A better excuse is that there was a collection of people in ancient times, and many old scholars believe that although the newspapers are stinky, they have played a good role in gathering public opinion and guiding public opinion. The benefits of extensive collection of information and news are gradually being discovered. Businessmen can advertise to find business opportunities, scholars can publish articles and poems to make a name for themselves, moral Confucians can set up serial forums, and many intermediaries register in newspapers in order to increase customers. In the Great Song Empire, there were many people who relied on newspapers to eat, and the intelligence work and network operation of the Chenji Group in various parts of the country once again rose to a higher level.

At the very beginning, the implementation of the low-price strategy almost blocked all attempts to copycat. Without the financial resources that can compete with the Chenji Group, even the worst lace tabloids printed on toilet paper cannot be sold for only 1 penny.

Without the large-scale production technology of Chenji Group, it is impossible to fight a price war with the newspapers under Chenji when the straw paper and ink printed by the local method. How much printing is definitely a loss, and it is not the first time that this kind of technological monopoly has brought advantages to Chenji Group. All the book-printing workshops are slag in the face of lead movable type printing and modern cheap wood pulp and papermaking technology, and there is no advantage in the price war, and there is only one way to go.

The engraving printing industry in the Song Dynasty was more developed than in the Tang Dynasty, and after the invention of movable type printing, it became easier to print books, which gave piracy more profit margins, and the wind of piracy began to blow, but authors and publishers had nowhere to defend their rights.

Against this backdrop, legislation prohibiting piracy and protecting copyright has finally emerged. Almost every emperor of the Song Dynasty issued an edict "prohibiting unauthorized engraving", that is, prohibiting unauthorized reprinting of books. For example, in the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to protect the blueprint of the "Nine Classics", the imperial court had ordered to prohibit the random printing and publication of this book. In addition, there are special censorship and anti-piracy agencies at all levels. At that time, copyright protection was to empower copyright owners to report and complain to the government if their rights were infringed, and the government would arrest the pirates and destroy the pirated books. Such protection measures are very close to modern practices.

As for how pirates should be punished, the law does not stipulate it, which cannot but be said to be a deficiency in copyright legislation. This situation is not a matter of public consideration, but in order to prepare for the diffusion of technology, it is still necessary to raise the cost of piracy.

In order to close this gap, Li Ji sent Zhao Shouzhong to personally lobby the Zaifu and the Empress Dowager to legislate a punishment for pirates ranging from 10 years to the flow of Hoh Xil according to the number of pirated prints. The fine is always set at 10 times the profit from piracy.

He also planned the Great Song Dynasty to establish a censorship system before the printing and publication of books, which played a certain role in eliminating plagiarism and preventing piracy. At the same time, it can also achieve a win-win situation for all parties.

The situation in which pirated and illegally quoted articles were cracked down on by the market and the law appeared in the 11th century in China, a situation that greatly surprised the public. Li Ji did not know the strength of the Song Dynasty's crackdown on piracy before he opened a printing workshop. After understanding this benefit, the confidence in making money from the newspaper industry and public opinion has become stronger.

Only monopoly is the only purpose of building a media empire, and in order to achieve this goal, any "legal" means and methods can be used. Zhao Shouzhong had seen enough dark insiders of the media industry as early as when he graduated, if it weren't for the scandal of the **** newspaper, he would not have been lucky to come to this era where he could show his strength.