Chapter 58 Novel Serialization

The current price of each copy of The Independent is 65 pence (£0.65), which is actually acceptable for low-income people.

The price of "The Independent" is currently the highest among the British national newspapers.

By comparison, The Times costs just 30p - they dropped the price from 45p in 1993 to 30p now.

At that time, their price reduction was said to be the most successful in the modern British newspaper industry, doubling its circulation.

It seems that the price reduction of newspapers is indeed effective.

But these measures proposed by Barron this time are not just empty words without basis. In addition to referring to the experience of the development of the newspaper industry in his previous life, he also hired a professional data survey agency and obtained many British reports. Data on various measures of newspapers.

In 2001, last year, the competition between the "Daily Express", "Daily Mirror" and "The Sun" triggered the biggest price-cutting war in the British newspaper industry in recent years.

At that time, the effect of their price cuts was immediate, but the duration was very short.

After the initial price reduction, each newspaper gained a large number of new readers, but now, less than a year later, the circulation of the "Daily Mirror" has dropped by 3.4% compared with before the price reduction, and Its other two competitors were not spared, and sales fell sharply again.

Therefore, Barron believes that by now, the newspaper industry's price war is no longer effective.

"Consumers will definitely be willing to pay for a good product. Compared with lowering the price of our newspapers, improving the quality of the newspapers and making The Independent more quality and style is the best strategy. If people are willing to pay for a cup of coffee Paying £2.50, they won't mind paying less than a third of the price to read an excellent newspaper."

Barron concluded.

In the end, he convinced the newspaper manager Bob and the editor-in-chief Whitney - or in other words, they chose to temporarily try the new boss's "inspiration" measures.

Of course, the initial implementation was a "novel column" that did not require much investment or change. To achieve this, it only needed to leave a place in the layout of the newspaper.

What's more, Whitney himself has read the first novel of "Downton Abbey" and is fascinated by it. Naturally, he supports this matter with both hands and feet, if his slightly bloated figure can do this.

"When will we start publishing Downton Abbey? Your Highness."

Seeing Whitney's impatient expression, Barron smiled and said:

"Your Excellency, Editor-in-Chief, I think you can do it at any time, but beforehand, it is a better strategy to carry out some publicity. I don't mind if you use any way to make this novel famous, including my name."

"If that's the case, Your Highness the Duke, I think I may have some ideas."

…

Just as Barron announced in the conference room of the "Independent" newspaper at the beginning, Amber Sheehan, who originally worked at PwC, was the one who helped Barron complete the acquisition of "The Independent" this time. After some consideration, this senior manager accepted Barron's recruitment and became the manager of the industrial investment department of DS Capital.

His decision, in addition to Barron increasing his annual salary from 150,000 pounds to 250,000 pounds, is also because Barron gave him the opportunity to run a department alone, which is difficult to get in the short term at PwC.

After Amber Sheehan joins, DS Capital will make more full use of their office area and divide it into the securities investment department with Daisy as the manager, and the industrial investment department with Amber Sheehan as the manager.

The independent newspaper company that was just acquired by Barron's is managed by DS Capital's industrial investment department.

Of course, professional matters are left to professionals. Currently, the day-to-day operations of the independent newspaper company are still in charge of its manager Bob and editor-in-chief Whitney. Amber Sheehan mainly only performs some financial control.

In addition, Amber's other recent job is to register a subsidiary called DS Asset Management Company under the industrial investment department. After that, the land in King's Cross and the mansion in Chelsea will be These real estate properties will be managed uniformly by DS Asset Management Company.

…

After it was revealed that the youngest Duke in England at this time, the Duke of Devonshire, Barron Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, whose family was once in financial crisis, purchased the Independent newspaper for a symbolic price of 1 pound, Related reports also poured in.

"The new owner of The Independent, Duke Devonshire, said in an interview not long ago that after the acquisition, the Independent will continue to maintain its philosophy of 'taking a neutral position and pursuing the truth' and will not deviate from the newspaper. The original intention of its creation..."

"After acquiring the "Independent", which suffered serious losses, the 22-year-old Duke of Devonshire became the youngest newspaper owner in England. Where will he take this once-splendid but now mired newspaper? Woolen cloth?"

It can be said that there are such reports with various views, but most of the reports are not optimistic about the future of the newspaper after Barron takes charge of the newspaper. It is no wonder that on the one hand, Barron is really He is too young and has no previous experience in newspaper business; and the heir to the Duke of Devonshire's family's previous reputation - if his romantic nature can be considered a reputation - does not seem to be too reliable. The spectrum looks like.

These reports have also made readers of The Independent a little uncertain about whether this newspaper they often read will continue to exist in the future.

However, they discovered that in the latest issue of "The Independent", there was an extra novel column, and in the column, a novel called "Downton Abbey" began to be serialized.

The content of the novel is still at the beginning and the plot has not yet unfolded, so it is not clear yet. However, some good people have discovered the author of this novel, and there are two names listed side by side: Barron Cavendish, and Bonnie Stewart…

These two names seem familiar, right?

So someone quickly pointed out that the author of this novel called "Downton Abbey", which was serialized in The Independent, was the owner of the newspaper and the youngest Duke in England at the time - Barron Cavendish.

The other one was Bonnie Stuart, a very well-known beauty host on Sky TV at this time.

And the key is that the two have been photographed together in private many times, behaving intimately, and are suspected of being lovers.

This is very interesting. The gossip of celebrities, especially nobles and public figures like Barron and Bonnie, always attracts public attention.

And "Downton Abbey" is precisely a novel that describes the life of aristocrats in the old era nearly a hundred years ago. The author is first of all a real aristocrat, and he is also the highest-ranking duke among non-royal aristocrats. This makes many people think about the novel. This novel generated immense curiosity.

After reading it like this, the extremely high quality of "Downton Abbey" immediately attracted countless fans and highly praised it.

There are even reports that even Her Majesty the Queen likes this novel very much. She will set aside time every morning to ask her maid to read the newspaper for her. Every time, she deliberately leaves the last one to read, which is serialized in The Independent. "Downton Abbey".

While listening to this serialized novel, the Queen would always make someone make a cup of black tea, enjoying this leisurely time very much.

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.