Chapter 57 Newspaper Revision

"Mr. Whitney, we meet again."

"Yes, Your Highness the Duke, perhaps this is the best outcome."

After the acquisition of the Independent was settled, Barron came to Canary Wharf, the office building where the Independent was located.

The last time I came here to meet with Whitney, the editor-in-chief of The Independent, it was in a coffee shop less than 100 meters away from the building. The reason was that Whitney was introduced to Barron's novel "" Downton Abbey" is interested.

It was also during that meeting that Barron first proposed the idea of ​​acquiring the Independent.

Now, after Barron has just signed an acquisition agreement for the Independent Newspaper Company with representatives of the INM Group, he has also announced that he has achieved his original goal and acquired the Independent Newspaper.

Except for Whitney, the editor-in-chief of The Independent, it can be said that Barron and his team attracted the attention of all the company employees from the moment they entered the building of the Independent Newspaper Company.

From various related reports, everyone is no longer unfamiliar with the young duke who is about to acquire the Independent.

And today, when the other party walks into this office building, it also means that the Independent has changed its status and has become an asset of the Devonshire family. Their future future in the newspaper office is closely related to the other party.

Whether "The Independent" can regain its vitality, or whether it will remain in the doldrums or even become lonely, is something they cannot determine at this time.

At this time, Barron was not prepared to give an inspiring speech in public - a promise that is not based on reality will ultimately be empty.

"Mr. Whitney, I hope to have a good discussion with you and the newspaper manager about future business issues."

"This is what I hope too, Your Highness the Duke."

…

Barron has thought about how the Independent should be run and what changes it should make after buying it.

In fact, the emergence of various new media, especially the Internet and later smartphones, has had a huge impact on traditional paper newspapers.

However, under such impact, some newspaper groups still survived and maintained considerable influence.

Then by reviewing the other party's practices, we can generally find ways to maintain the vitality and rejuvenation of "The Independent" - after all, these methods have been personally verified by those later successful newspapers.

Amid the complicated looks in the eyes of the staff of The Independent, Barron, Amber Sheehan, Wanting Wang, the manager of The Independent, Bob Mansfield, and the editor-in-chief, Whitney, entered the meeting one after another. in the room.

The door of the conference room was closed, blocking the sight of all employees outside. They knew that meetings related to the future of The Independent were about to begin there.

"Mr. Bob, Mr. Whitney, although it may not be necessary, I would like to introduce myself. I, Barron Cavendish, am the new owner of The Independent."

He nodded to the newspaper manager and editor-in-chief who were sitting on the chairs in the conference room, then walked to Amber Sheehan's side and continued to introduce:

"Mr. Amber Sheehan, who previously worked at PwC, is now the manager of the industrial investment department of DS Capital. Well, the independent newspaper company is managed by this department."

"We currently own two newspapers, The Independent and The Sunday Independent, the latter being the weekly edition of The Independent. Is that right? Mr. Bob."

Bob Mansfield, manager of the Independent Newspaper Company, nodded and said:

"Yes, Your Highness the Duke."

"Gentlemen, the first thing I want to say is that I did not buy the Independent to make money. Believe me, I would make more if the same money was invested elsewhere, instead of facing the Independent. Such an unknown risk. I bought this newspaper purely out of my own sense of responsibility. I couldn't just watch a newspaper that was once loved by many readers fall down like this - by the way, I have always been one of these loyal readers. a member of.”

At this time, Barron's expression was extremely sincere:

"Mr. Bob, Mr. Editor-in-Chief, I believe that both of you also hope that The Independent can regain its vitality and develop better and better, right?"

Seeing the two of them nodding at the same time, Barron smiled and said:

"Then it means that we all have the same goal. I hope you understand that everything I do is for this purpose, so I hope we can continue to cooperate well."

There is no need to elaborate on the implication of Barron's words. If the cooperation cannot continue, then the only choice is to replace them.

Having said this, Barron pulled the whiteboard in the corner of the conference room in front of everyone and wrote two words on it - tradition, change.

"After I take over the Independent, I will still maintain the philosophy of this newspaper - to use a neutral stance, strive for the truth, conduct in-depth and detailed investigations and reports on events, and expose social injustice and corruption. Again, the same sentence In other words, my purpose in buying the Independent was to save the newspaper, not to turn it into another "The Sun" for profit. But the philosophy of the newspaper remains unchanged, but the way it operates needs to change..."

Hearing Barron's promise not to change the philosophy of the newspaper, both manager Bob and editor-in-chief Whitney were secretly relieved. The "Sun" mentioned by Barron was exactly what they were worried about, and they had to admit that " The Sun does make money, but they despise the false and vulgar reports in it.

Barron's planned changes to the Independent are, first of all, to add a fiction column and start publishing the "Downton Abbey" novel.

Then it was time to revamp the entire newspaper, adding pictures and printing it in full color to attract more readers.

There is also a change from the original large-page newspaper to a simultaneous publication of large-page and small-page newspapers.

In the original British newspapers, the main difference between the so-called broadsheets and tabloids was based on the size of the newspapers.

However, it turns out that small-format newspapers are easier for readers to read, and because the paper required is smaller, they appear to be more environmentally friendly - no way, today's young people like to flaunt these.

The transformation of traditional British broadsheet newspapers into small-page newspapers is also a subsequent trend.

For example, major newspapers such as The Times and The Guardian also later changed to small-page newspapers.

The time is right for The Independent to undergo such a revamp.

The final change is that with the advent of the Internet, traditional paper media also need to change accordingly - Barron is preparing to open the official website of "The Independent" and then try to issue an electronic version of the newspaper.

Of course, when he first took over the Independent, Barron was not prepared to make all changes at once.

These plans will be implemented step by step.

The first is to add a novel column to publish "Downton Abbey", and then revise the newspaper.

During this period, preparations began for the official website of The Independent and the recruitment of electronic editors.

In response to these revision plans proposed by Barron, newspaper manager Bob and editor-in-chief Whitney mostly expressed their acceptance, but they also put forward their own opinions.

For example, manager Bob proposed:

"Your Highness the Duke, I agree to try to publish small edition newspapers, but as you said, adding pictures and full-page color printing will increase the cost of the newspaper, but we originally had a plan to reduce the price of the newspaper, so... …”

After hearing his words, Barron said without hesitation:

"There is no need to lower the price of our newspapers, just keep the current price. The current selling price of newspapers can be easily afforded by ordinary people. For today's newspapers, price reduction is not a good strategy. We All we need is to insist on the quality of our reporting, and people will be happy to pay for high-quality content."

The data during the new book period is related to subsequent recommendations, so follow-up reading is very important. I beg you not to keep it all the time. If you feel that it is okay, read it every day to help increase follow-up reading. Thank you very much.