Chapter 79 Free Evening News

The "Sunday Independent" is the Sunday edition of the "Independent". It can be said that almost all major national newspapers in Britain at this time had their corresponding Sunday edition newspapers.

The first to do this was The Times.

In the 1980s, the newspaper pioneered a Sunday edition, and other newspapers later followed suit.

But now, these Sunday edition newspapers, in order to cater to different readerships, publish different content sections to catch the attention of children, businessmen and fashion lovers. In the end, the content of the newspapers expands like a hot air balloon and is filled to the brim. Famous special issues and magazines.

At the beginning, readers will feel as if they have picked up something as heavy as a newborn baby from the newspaper office, but more than half of the content is thrown away without reading.

But the idea worked, and soon all weekend newspapers became even more wasteful.

Last year, the Guardian's weekend edition grew by 60%, making it almost as heavy as a monthly magazine.

A well-done special issue can really grab the attention of this group of people. "Observer Food Monthly" and "Observer Sports Monthly" increased sales of weekend newspapers by 6%.

However, some research results of the US newspaper market show that one of the reasons why young readers do not read newspapers is that they are deeply concerned about environmental issues - they believe that such heavy newspapers waste too much paper...

Barron's idea is to suspend the publication of the increasingly large "Sunday Independent" and turn this newspaper into a free evening paper.

"The price of our "The Independent" can be said to be relatively high among newspapers of the same type, but we need to prove that we are worth the price with quality and depth. In contrast, we also need newspapers with sufficient circulation , to ensure that we cover the readership range, so running another free evening newspaper is a good choice.”

Barron's opinion is agreed by others, including Whitney, but there are also difficulties.

Whitney said:

"But Your Highness the Duke, if we run another evening newspaper and distribute it for free, then there will be problems both in terms of editing staff and funding."

"I understand your concerns, Mr. Editor-in-Chief, but this is not without solutions. In terms of personnel, in fact, as a free newspaper, we only need this newspaper to pass the time for readers while waiting in the subway or other places. Therefore, in terms of content, there is no need to be as sophisticated as The Independent. We have rich content from the official website and some novel reports from online editors. These can be directly put into this free evening newspaper. Of course, In order to avoid affecting the image of "The Independent" in the minds of readers, we need to give this evening paper another name, such as "London Evening News"?"

Seeing his suggestion, both Bob and Whitney agreed, and Barron continued:

"As for funding, you can rest assured that in addition to the 5 million pounds that INM Group compensates us, independent newspapers will also receive a considerable amount of funds to improve these plans. It is enough, and once our Once the circulation of the Evening News increases, even if it can reach more than 500,000 copies, the subsequent advertising expenses will be enough for us to make huge profits."

Barron has no doubt that publishing a free evening paper would be profitable.

Because until more than ten years later, when the traditional newspaper market was generally declining, several free newspapers in the UK bucked the trend and became popular and prospered, becoming a highlight.

The most typical one is the London Evening Standard. They were originally the only paid evening newspaper in London. Because they had no competitors, they were doing well before.

But later, United Newspaper Group and News Corporation successively launched two evening newspapers, "London Nut" and "London News", to compete for the evening newspaper market.

Affected by this, the circulation of the "London Evening Standard" continued to decline. By 2009, it only had 250,000 copies. It suffered an annual loss of 10 million pounds and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

United Newspaper Group regarded this as a burden and sold 75.1% of the shares of the Evening Standard to Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire and former KGB member of the Soviet Union, for a symbolic price of 1 pound - well, that's that guy Later, I also bought the Independent newspaper for 1 pound...

After that, Lebedev, the new owner of the London Evening Standard, turned the newspaper into a free newspaper and once again dominated the London Evening Standard market.

After the transformation, the circulation of the "London Evening Standard" continued to grow from the initial 600,000 copies, and later stabilized at around 900,000 copies, and gradually turned a profit.

From January to September 2015, the operating income of the "London Evening Standard" reached 71.3 million pounds, a year-on-year increase of 13%; the pre-tax profit reached 3.4 million pounds, a three-fold increase year-on-year. The annual salary of the newspaper's senior executives, It has also increased from £200,000 to £410,000.

It is precisely because of the huge potential of the free market that later the Financial Times and the Daily Mirror also launched their own free tabloids and distributed them in specific markets.

Why are free newspapers so successful in Britain?

Later media experts believed that the main reasons were as follows: first, there was no mobile signal in the London Underground, and this "vacuum" also left more room for newspapers to survive; second, free is an important factor, and no money is spent. It can be read immediately, which greatly reduces people’s reading costs; third, the positioning is accurate. Both the "Metro" and the "London Evening Standard" position themselves as "fast food" newspapers. Although the two newspapers are free, they are well-designed and have fresh layouts. , rich in content, it can be regarded as a delicious "spiritual fast food" for urban white-collar workers on their way to and from get off work.

Therefore, Barron's decision was also made after considering the future development of the British newspaper industry - he himself was preparing to vigorously develop the official website of "The Independent", but you must know that in this era, the Internet is still PC-based It is the absolute main force and has access to the Internet. Among the general public, there may be only one in ten. Therefore, putting some of the more interesting "novel" content of their online version directly on the free evening newspaper still has a huge impact. audience.

This can be regarded as making the best use of everything.

Moreover, free newspapers really have a huge "money source" and can guarantee huge circulation - the slightly larger free evening newspaper has a circulation of more than 500,000 copies, which is very easy. After all, it is free. Therefore, those messages reach a wider range, and it is easier to ensure Barron's influence.

"The Independent" occupies the elite class, "London Evening News" occupies the mass class, and the Internet occupies the future. This is Barron's plan for independent newspapers in the media industry.

As for what Barron said just now, that the independent newspaper industry will receive a large sum of money, this is what he is going to talk to the two of them next.

This involves Barron's real estate plan in London - in addition to the layout of the renovation of King's Cross, Barron is also preparing to build two towers in London.

One is the Cavendish Hotel, which was originally located in Soho. At the location of that hotel, he planned to knock down the old building and build the first building.

Later, a second building will be built on the site of the independent newspaper building in Canary Wharf.

The specific plan is for DS Asset Management, a subsidiary of DS Capital, to acquire the land of the Cavendish Hotel and then build the Cavendish Tower there.

After the Cavendish Hotel Group obtains funds, it can use it to accelerate development, and then rent some of the floors in the Cavendish Building after it is completed to reopen the Cavendish (Soho) Hotel.

After the Cavendish Building is completed, the Independent Newspapers will temporarily relocate to it.

Then DS Asset Management acquired the Independent Newspaper Building and built a second building on the original site, the Devonshire Media Building.

Independent newspapers can use these funds to develop themselves.

All properties, which are held by DS Asset Management, including Cavendish Hotel Group and Independent Newspapers, have access to capital to develop themselves.

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.