Chapter 1096 - Repositioned To Produce Adult Magazines

It was getting late at night.

In Rodu, a certain famous gourmet magazine press—Hall Magazine Press—was still brightly lit.

Under the Hall Magazine Press’s umbrella, there were many best-selling magazines like “Food Forest”, “Meatatarianism”, ” Vegetarianism”… It was known as the top magazine press in the gastronomic reviews genre.

The editor-in-chief, Geno, was pacing back and forth in his office. The sales volume results for the current magazines’ editions were going to be released soon. That was going to decide the fate of the Hall Magazine Press.

Even with the many accolades, only Geno and a few editors at Hall knew the press was facing the situation of imminent retrenchment of staff and closing down with the decline in sales volume of the few leading magazines.

Even though their people lived to eat, Rodu’s gourmet foods had all been described in the magazines.

Rodu was known as a gourmet paradise. However, no matter how beautiful the paradise was, they could get sick of it one day too.

When the few beloved food critics began to rehash, and could no longer discover new delicacies from the streets, Hall Magazine Press inevitably went into a decline.

As the editor-in-chief, Geno had come up with many ideas before. He even requested that culinary reviewers had to submit new ideas before he would publish their articles in the magazines.

But those articles that were scraped together—or even worse, made up—didn’t increase the sales. Instead, they damaged the magazine press’s decades-old hard-earned reputation.

The entire industry was facing a harsh winter, and Hall Magazine Press was feeling the extreme coldness.

“Chief! Chief!” A young man pushed open the office’s door and rushed in.

Geno wasn’t affronted by the young man’s brashness. He quickly strode forward, and nervously asked the young man, “How is it? What are the sales volume for ‘Food Forest’ and ‘Meatatarianism’?”

These two magazines were the leading magazines of Hall Magazine Press. If these two magazines’s latest issues didn’t reach the sales target set by the conglomerate, which was 50,000 copies in total sales in the Rodu market, Hall Magazine Press would be repositioned to produce adult magazines.

He had been an editor with Hall for 30 years, from an intern editor all the way till Hall became the most influential gourmet magazine press. How could he allow something like that to happen?

If this month’s issues couldn’t achieve the sale targets, and he couldn’t change the decision of the conglomerate behind the magazine press, then it was time for him to leave.

“The sales of ‘Food Forest’ is 12,000 copies, the sales of ‘Meatatarianism’ is 18,000…” the young man said as he panted.

“30,000 copies… We still didn’t reach the target…” Geno stumbled two steps backward with a distraught expression. Even though the sales had increased quite a bit as compared to the previous month, 30,000 copies was still quite far from the target of 50,000 copies agreed upon.

When the magazine press was at its peak, just the sales volume of “Meatatarianism” alone could reach 50,000 copies, which was the best in the industry.

But a single issue’s sales volume could never exceed 50,000 copies now.

He knew people still loved the good food. It was because it had been a long time since the appearance of good foods and words that could surprise the people.

Geno’s gaze dimmed as he reached out to pat the young man who’d just entered the industry with his foodie’s dream. He didn’t know how to console him—from today onward, he would be doing erotic magazines.

That young man finally exhaled, and agitatedly said, “Chief, we have reprinted the current issue of ‘Vegetarianism’ for 10 times. Just the sales volume in Rodu alone has exceeded 100,000 copies and the distributors are still asking for more reprints! We… We have surpassed the target!”

Geno, who still tried to console him, didn’t even get the chance to speak when the words of the young editor shocked him.

Geno grabbed hold of that young editor’s shoulder and disbelievingly asked, “What… What did you say?!”

Even though “Vegetarianism” was one of Hall’s famous magazines, due to its small target audience, its sales volume at its peak was only 10,000 copies, and now it was being propped up by its main vegetarian food reviewer, Derrick. The sales for each monthly issue was at a stable 5000 copies. How did the sales volume suddenly increase to 100,000 copies?

That young editor repeated, “The sales of the latest issue of ‘Vegetarianism’ have exploded. Just the sales volume in the Rodu market alone has exceeded 100,000 copies, and the distributors are asking for reprints. The estimated total sales could reach 150,000 copies! Maybe… even more!”

“150,000 copies…” Geno murmured as he plopped onto the sofa behind him with a dumbfounded look.

During Hall’s peak period, the monthly sales of “Meatatarianism” in Rodu’s market had reached 72,000 copies, and it left an interesting mark in the history of culinary magazines. It was almost deemed as the peak that could never be surpassed.

But now, the niche “Vegetarianism” had reached 100,000 copies, and it was still going strong. It could even reach a horrifying 150,000 copies.

“Are we going crazy?” Geno mumbled to himself. Nobody would dare to cheat on such issues. The data had to be correct.

The top sales for this month had to be “Vegetarianism”, and it would be a peak that the entire industry looked up to.

“Yes, it’s crazy!” That young editor was also very excited. His reaction wasn’t any better than his chief’s when he first received the report. “The printing plant is still reprinting non-stop, and yet it still can’t meet the demand. There are even readers saying that we should just print out Derrick’s food review. Chief, what do we do now?”

“Derrick!” Geno’s eyes lit up as he immediately got up to rummage through the pile of manuscripts on his table. He took out a sample manuscript which was signed by Derrick from the very bottom.

As he was trying his best to boost the sales volume, he had focused all his energy on the top two magazines. The other magazines were finalized by the other deputy editors. Although the sample manuscript of “Vegetarianism” was sent to his table, he overlooked it altogether.

“The best vegetarian dish of the year, a redefinition of life’s, world’s, and values’ outlook!”

“An unexpected windfall from chaos city: eggplant with garlic sauce!”

Geno read the main title and subheading softly with surprise in his eyes.

Derrick and him were already old friends. He knew Derrick was a low-profile person, and his writing style was rigorous and simple. He hadn’t expected him to use titles that were so different from his usual style.

“There are delicacies in Chaos City too?” Geno said to himself before continuing to read.

“Under the invitation of the President of Chaos City’s Food Association, I went to Chaos City…”

As he proceeded to read the familiar simple words, Geno’s expressions began to brighten slowly. The words seemed to have a magical power as the delicious eggplant with garlic sauce seemed to really appear in front of him and follow Derrick as he put one piece of eggplant into his mouth…