บท 79: Chapter 79 Free Evening News
The Independent on Sunday is the Sunday edition of The Independent. It can be said that almost all major national newspapers in Britain have their corresponding Sunday editions at this time.
The first newspaper to do so was The Times.
In the 1980s, this newspaper was the first to launch a Sunday edition, and other newspapers later followed suit.
But now, these Sunday editions of newspapers publish different content sections to cater to different readerships, from children, businessmen to fashion lovers. In the end, the content of the newspapers has expanded like a hot air balloon, filled with special editions and magazines.
At first, readers will feel as if they have brought something as heavy as a newborn baby from the newspaper office, but more than half of the content is thrown away without being read.
But the idea worked, and soon all weekend papers became more wasteful.
Last year, the Guardian's weekend edition grew by 60% and is now almost as thick as a monthly edition.
Special issues that are precisely designed can indeed capture the attention of this group of people. Observer Food Monthly and Observer Sports Monthly increased weekend newspaper sales by 6%.
However, some research results on the US newspaper market show that one of the reasons why young readers do not read newspapers is their deep concern about environmental issues - they believe that such thick newspapers waste too much paper...
Barron's idea was to suspend the publication of the increasingly large Sunday Independent and turn the newspaper into a free evening paper.
"The price of The Independent is relatively high among similar newspapers, but we need to prove that we are worth the price with our quality and depth. On the other hand, we also need newspapers with sufficient circulation to ensure that we cover a wide range of readers, so running a free evening paper is a good choice."
Everyone, including Whitney, agrees with Barron's opinion, but there are difficulties in it.
Whitney said,
"But Your Highness, if we publish another evening newspaper and distribute it for free, then both the editorial staff and the funding will be a problem."
"I understand your concerns, Mr. Editor-in-Chief, but this is not without a solution. In terms of personnel, as a free newspaper, we only need this newspaper to help readers kill time while waiting on the subway or other places. Therefore, in terms of content, it does not have to be as good as the Independent. We have rich content on the official website and some novel reports from online editors, which can all be put directly into this free evening paper. 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. For example, how about The London Evening News?"
Seeing his suggestion, Bob and Whitney both agreed. Barron continued,
"As for the funding, you can rest assured. In addition to the 5 million pounds compensated to us by the INM Group, the Independent Newspaper will also receive a considerable amount of funds to improve these plans. It is enough. Once the circulation of our evening paper increases, even if it can reach more than 500,000 copies, the subsequent advertising fees will be enough for us to make a huge profit."
Barron had no doubt that issuing a free evening paper would be profitable.
Because more than ten years later, when the traditional newspaper market was generally declining, several free newspapers in the UK bucked the trend and flourished, becoming a highlight.
The most typical example is the London Evening Standard, which was originally the only paid evening newspaper in London. Because it had no competitors, its business was in good condition.
However, later, United Newspapers Group and News Corporation successively launched two evening newspapers, "London Nate" and "London Gazette", to compete for the evening newspaper market.
Affected by this, the circulation of the London Evening Standard continued to decline, and by 2009 it was only 250,000 copies, with an annual loss of 10 million pounds and on the verge of bankruptcy.
The United Newspaper Group regarded it as a burden and sold 75.1% of the Evening Standard to Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire who was a member of the Soviet KGB, for a symbolic price of 1 pound. Well, that was the guy who later bought The Independent for 1 pound...
Later, the new owner of the London Evening Standard, Lebedev, turned the newspaper into a free newspaper and once again dominated the London evening newspaper 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, gradually turning losses into profits.
From January to September 2015, the London Evening Standard's operating income reached 71.3 million pounds, a year-on-year increase of 13%; pre-tax profit reached 3.4 million pounds, a three-fold increase year-on-year - the annual salary of the newspaper's senior executives also increased from 200,000 pounds to 410,000 pounds.
Precisely because of the huge potential of the free market, the Financial Times, the Daily Mirror and other newspapers later launched their own free tabloids and distributed them in specific markets.
Why are free newspapers 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 was an important factor, and people could read it without paying, which greatly reduced people's reading costs; third, the positioning was accurate. Both the Metro and the London Evening Standard positioned themselves as "fast food" newspapers. Although free, the two newspapers were well-designed, with fresh layouts and rich content. They were a delicious "spiritual fast food" for urban white-collar workers on their way to and from get off work.
Therefore, Barron made this decision after considering the subsequent development of the British newspaper industry. He was planning to vigorously develop the official website of The Independent, but you have to know that in this era, the PC side is still the absolute mainstay of the Internet, and only one in ten people can access the Internet. Therefore, putting some of the more interesting and "novel" content of their online version directly on the free evening paper still has a huge audience.
This can be considered as making the best use of resources.
Moreover, free newspapers do have great "money prospects" and can guarantee huge circulations - a free evening paper of a certain size can easily have a circulation of over 500,000 copies. After all, it is free, so the news can reach a wider range and it is easier to ensure Barron's influence.
The Independent occupies the elite, the Evening Standard occupies the masses, and the Internet occupies the future. This is Barron's plan for the Independent Newspaper in the media industry.
As for what Barron had just said, that the Independent Press would receive a considerable sum of funding, that was what he was going to discuss with the two of them next.
This involves Barron's real estate plans in London - in addition to his plans for the transformation of King's Cross, Barron is also planning to build two buildings in London.
One of them was the Cavendish Hotel originally located in Soho. At the location of that hotel, he planned to demolish the old building and build the first building.
Later, a second tower will be built on the site of the Independent Newspaper Building in Canary Wharf.
The specific plan is for DS Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of DS Capital, to acquire the land of the Cavendish Hotel and then build the Cavendish Building there.
After receiving the funds, the Cavendish Hotel Group can use them to accelerate its development. Then, after the Cavendish Building is completed, it can rent some of the floors and reopen the Cavendish (Soho) Hotel.
After the Cavendish Building is completed, the Independent Newspapers will temporarily move into it.
DS Asset Management then 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 the properties, which are held by DS Asset Management, and which include the Cavendish Hotels Group and Independent Newspapers, will be able to access funding to develop their businesses.
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