(I can't add it tonight, I work overtime again, and I am forced to move bricks and dogs, begging for a wave of subscription and comfort!) ）

At 11 a.m., Li Yaoyang arrived at Robert's office as the editor-in-chief and senior vice president of the editorial department on the third floor, according to Rosenthal's arrangement.

The editorial office on the third floor is actually a wide "corridor", which is now mainly the offices of the supplement department and the library department.

Looking down from this "corridor", you can see the editorial office on the first and second floors, which is a huge space with many columns, densely packed with countless desks, and from top to bottom, it is full of people.

Everyone is working hard to write, walking in a hurry, talking one after another, and the working atmosphere is quite strong.

If it weren't for the signs with the names of each department hanging vertically next to the pillars, it would have been impossible to identify the exact location of each department.

This is the most spectacular editorial office that Li Yaoyang has seen so far.

Rosenthal said that the editorial hall was originally a printing house, but later the printing plant was moved underground due to pollution problems, so the first and second floors were opened up and converted into the office of the editorial department, so it looks very large.

As for the original office, it was vacated for the newly added magazine department.

The editor-in-chief's office was within the wall of the corridor on the third floor, and while Rosenthal accompanied Li Yaoyang to arrive, Robert was talking to others outside the door, nodding his head and going in first.

The room is very interesting, with old photos and maps hanging on the wall, a small table and gift shelves with bison heads and some exotic cultural relics that I don't know where to go, and some rare plants, giving people a vibrant but retro literary feeling.

As soon as he sat down, Robert came in with a newspaper in his hand, apologized and shook hands.

The man had a fair face, a cleanly shaved beard, glasses for deep myopia, a gray long-sleeved shirt and gray pants, a dark black and white tie, and the cuffs of the shirt were tightly buttoned.

From the outside, this person should be a relatively old-fashioned and conservative person, which is very much in line with Li Yaoyang's imagination of traditional newspaper editors.

And this image is very close to the image of the early newspaper man of the ugly country that appeared in many Hollywood movies in the future.

This costume of the same texture and color seems to be a suit, at least it shows that the old editor-in-chief usually dresses more elegantly.

Old-fashioned style doesn't mean it's not valuable.

But after the conversation, Li Yaoyang found that this man was actually quite cheerful, and seeing that he was interested in the furnishings in the house, he talked about his experience as a journalist in the west for several years, and this bison head was the trophy he personally hunted.

I didn't expect to be a hunter, which was really unexpected by Li Yaoyang.

Rosenthal temporarily said goodbye and left, leaving space for the two to talk, and Li Yaoyang asked:

"I just had a long conversation in your vice president's office, and he told me a lot about the newspaper, including sales and distribution, but didn't mention the real reason for the decline in sales."

Robert nodded:

"After all, he is not in charge of this, so I'll answer that question.

I'm sure I must have learned a lot about the Philadelphia Inquirer this morning, including the fact that it is now one of the largest newspapers in the country.

In addition, we have a large market, Philadelphia and the surrounding counties within a 30-mile radius, with a population of about six or seven million.

With a population of over 2 million people in downtown Philadelphia alone, it's a huge market! ”

After a pause to give Li Yaoyang time to react, he continued:

"The population of the Philadelphia metropolitan area has been increasing, and it probably won't take a few years to break through 3 million, of course, this was the unanimous view of everyone before, and now..."

Li Yaoyang answered:

"The population is actually lost, right?"

"You're right, Philadelphia is a huge industrial city, and a large population works and lives in the downtown area.

Therefore, the urban area has always been the main sales market of the "Inquiry Daily", which can reach almost 70% or even 80%.

However, the urban area is too narrow and the large number of factories causes serious environmental pollution, and the city hall is currently working on the development of suburban housing areas.

In fact, you should be able to notice that many residents have gradually moved to the suburbs, and the population of the urban area has decreased significantly.

So we've been decreasing the circulation of our newspapers for the past few years.

Residents who moved to the outskirts of the counties began to subscribe to more local newspapers.

So, our newspaper's main competitor is not the New York Times, nor the Wall Street Journal, but the local newspapers.

All eight counties around Philadelphia have their own daily newspapers, and some counties have two or three daily newspapers.

So, we survive in the cracks of a lot of newspapers. ”

Li Yaoyang mentioned the opponent mentioned by the vice president - the Baltimore Sun

"Yes, The Sun is indeed our biggest competitor at this stage, but it is not the only one, and we should pay more attention to those potential opponents!"

"I agree, continue..."Li Yaoyang gestured.

"In general, we have two major regions: one in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey.

The 8 counties we strive to cover span both states.

As a result, we publish two different editions each day to meet the needs of both states, as well as a version dedicated to Philadelphia.

This means that we publish at least 3 different editions of content every day to suit the needs of readers in all three regions.

Due to the wide distribution of counties, we have published more editions in the past in order to compete for readers who have moved from cities to suburban counties.

For example, before March of this year, we had a total of 5 editions to cover certain large counties with large populations.

But this year, the economy began to slump, and in order to save money, the newspaper cut two editions, leaving only the current three. Eight Chinese Net

Obviously, this didn't help us get through this. Robert said helplessly.

"I don't think migration is one aspect, right?" Li Yaoyang believes that the decline in issuance cannot be attributed entirely to the active loss of the market.

Rob nodded:

"Yes, it really can't all be attributed to migration, the advent of radio broadcasting is another thing, which has led to a decline in newspaper circulation.

In fact, not only us, but all major city newspapers are seeing their circulation fall, including those in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles.

In fact, according to our estimates, the circulation of our newspaper is far from the peak, and it is only a trough at the moment. ”

Li Yaoyang asked with a smile:

"Then what do you think is the peak circulation?"

"I think there should be at least 500,000 copies on weekdays and 1 million on Sundays."

Li Yaoyang wants to say, be content, in a few decades, with the outflow of population and the emergence of a large number of new media, such as TV news, cable TV network news, Internet news, etc., the end of newspapers will eventually come.

And the situation of readers has also changed greatly, they are different from generation to generation, and a large number of new immigrants are affected by the language barrier, and they may not read English newspapers, but prefer to read newspapers in their own Chinese language.

So, he could only be noncommittal about Robert's statement that their newspaper circulation was not yet at its peak.

Television is just that, and the emergence of the Internet is the killer feature that really destroys traditional print media.

Forget it, let's not talk about things that far away, let's talk about the present.

"Now that the economy is sluggish, the cost of covering local news is huge, so our agency has been cut a lot.

We had to choose between being more local or having more coverage.

Before March of this year, we had a special edition in a Chester county.

I don't know if you've heard of it, it's a county 50 miles southwest of Philadelphia, but it was axed before you came, and I made the decision myself.

Now we have only three reporters in Washington, D.C., only one station in the field, and three bureaus overseas.

Then we have 3 stations each in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

It is paradoxical that in order to expand distribution in counties, it is necessary to invest in covering local news, and now it is necessary to save money. ”

Robert's remarks made it clear the reason for the decline of the "Inquirer".

Over the past 10 years, although the total circulation of newspapers in the United States has not changed much, the circulation of major newspapers in major cities has indeed declined, and the declining number of copies has mainly gone to new newspapers in the suburbs.

Newspapers with a high circulation of such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and New York's Daily News all sold between 40,000 and more than 400,000 fewer copies than they did before the early 20th century.

The New York Times saw a modest drop of about 40,000 copies, while the Wall Street Journal saw a 150,000 drop and the Los Angeles Times 260,000 copies.

Li Yaoyang provided an idea:

"Haven't you thought about expanding the coverage of the newspaper again?"

If we can make the "Inquiry Daily" more special, not to a certain big city as the object of concentrated sales, but to spread all over the country, the east does not shine brightly in the west, if we encounter a similar market again, it should not be affected too much.

"This—" Robert hesitated.

"Of course, this is just a casual suggestion from me, and I know that it will take a lot of argumentation to achieve it, so I will not mention it for now, you can continue."

Robert sighed deeply:

"In fact, if I can, I also want to make changes, and even want to make some efforts for my own selfishness."

"Selfishness?"

"yes, did you talk upstairs about the personnel structure before?"

Li Yaoyang was just about to say yes, but the other party had already asked and answered himself:

"We have about 80 people working in the editorial department, including the editorial page.

But a little over a year ago, we had more people, more than 120 people.

Since the second half of last year, the economic situation has been bad, and it was quickly reflected in the newspaper industry, and every major newspaper went downhill, so we started laying off people.

We don't fire employees, we just adopt what we call buyouts, and to put it bluntly, we give money to let them go.

Those who are bought out receive a one-time salary for one year, plus a $20,000 settlement fee, plus health insurance.

Some of these employees are 60 years old, and some are about 40 years old.

They use the money to find other jobs, which will not be a burden to us and will not affect their short-term lives. ”

Li Yaoyang agreed, in such an environment, layoffs are a last resort, if it were not for this, just upstairs, the vice president would not complain about the lack of manpower.

"Our press and editorial are not completely separated, both the press and editorial departments report to me.

There is 1 executive editor-in-chief under me, who is the number two person in the editorial department, and everyone in the editorial department reports to him, and then he reports to me.

Below him, there are 2 deputy executive editors..."

At this time, people began to come in and ask Robert for work or for him to sign.

Robert pointed to the man who had just come in and said:

"He is one of our deputy editors-in-chief, responsible for urban news, local news, economic news, international news, domestic news and sports news, reporting to the executive editor-in-chief."

Li Yaoyang nodded and smiled at the other party, which was regarded as a greeting.

"As for the other deputy executive editor-in-chief who is in charge of the press and publishing, including news portfolio editing, copy editing, layout design and everything, and finally the work on the newspaper layout and coordination with the printing side, he often works night shifts and his hair is gray."

This is a joke, Li Yaoyang smiled:

"Actually, white is a very pure color, and I want to have it."

"Ha, then you'll have to wait until I'm my age to look forward to it."

An ugly joke that is not very funny, Li Yaoyang pinched his nose and took it.

To continue:

"We also have five or six assistant executive editors-in-chief, who are in charge of personnel, editorial management, and coordination of various departments.

Then there are the heads of various departments, such as the editor-in-chief of the international news department, the editor-in-chief of the domestic news department, the editor-in-chief of the economic news department, the editor-in-chief of the supplement, the editor-in-chief of the metropolitan news department, the editor-in-chief of the Pennsylvania news section, the editor-in-chief of the New Jersey news section, the sports editor-in-chief, etc.

We also have a large department called the Special Publications Department, which is divided into several groups, such as the Science Group, the Environment Group, the Health Group, the Population Group, etc., which are responsible for editing and publishing a weekly special edition, and each group has a head, called an 'expert'.

We also have a department that manages all the text editing, called the copy editing department, and the combined editing department, which is responsible for the layout and layout arrangement.

Employees of both departments do not start work until 4 p.m., and they each have an editor-in-chief until late at night.

As for the deadline, we also have different times.

For two-state newspapers, they may be distributed 60, 70, 80 or 100 miles away, which we call 'state editions' and require printing at 9 p.m. The second cut-off version is our so-called 'C version', which is sent to nearby areas and requires printing at 12:10.

The final cut-off version, which we call the 'Sports Final Edition', requires printing from 1:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

This edition is the latest, because we have to wait for the last news, photos and comments of the evening game.

Of course, this edition has a print run of about 350,000 copies, which is not much. ”

Li Yaoyang once again offered the trick of 'Philadelphia' to get close, but unfortunately he miscalculated, this old-fashioned old man is not keen on baseball.

It was boring to beg, and Li Yaoyang asked about his selfishness for a while.

I'm curious, what selfish motives this editor-in-chief will have!

"Brother Shen!"

"Hmm!"

Shen Changqing walked on the road, and when he met someone he knew well, he would say hello to each other or nod his head.

But it doesn't matter who it is.

There was no superfluous expression on everyone's face, as if they were very indifferent to everything.

on this.

Shen Changqing is used to it.

Because this is the Demon Suppression Division, it is an institution that maintains the stability of Great Qin, and its main responsibility is to kill demons and monsters, and of course there are some other side jobs.

Arguably.

In the Demon Suppression Division, everyone has a lot of blood on their hands.

When a person is accustomed to seeing life and death, then he will become indifferent to many things.

When he first came to this world, Shen Changqing was a little uncomfortable, but over time he got used to it.

The Demon Suppression Division is huge.

The people who can stay in the Demon Suppression Division are all powerful masters, or people who have the potential to become masters.

Shen Changqing belongs to the latter.

Among them, the Demon Suppression Division is divided into two professions, one is the town guard and the other is the demon exterminator.

Anyone who enters the Demon Suppression Division starts with the lowest level of demon slayer.

Then step by step, he is expected to become a town guard.

Shen Changqing's predecessor was a trainee demon slayer in the Demon Suppression Division, and he was also the lowest level of the demon slayer envoys.

Have memories of the predecessor.

He is also very familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Division.

It didn't take long for Shen Changqing to stop in front of an attic.

Unlike other places full of slaughter, the attic here seems to stand out from the crowd, and in the bloody Demon Suppression Division, it presents a different tranquility.

At this time, the attic door is open, and there are occasional people entering and exiting.

Shen Changqing only hesitated for a moment, and then stepped in.

Access to the attic.

The environment has changed in vain.

A burst of ink fragrance mixed with the faint smell of blood came to his face, making his brow furrow instinctively, but quickly stretched.

The smell of blood on everyone's body in the Demon Suppression Division is almost impossible to clean.