Chapter 69 Competitive Advantage (Asking for Monthly Votes)

First of all, "Paris Business" has no aristocratic background. (っ◔◡◔)っ

The owner of the newspaper is a businessman from Marseille who inherited the family business and is the only shareholder.

Secondly, the operating situation of this newspaper is not very optimistic. It has applied for tax deferral twice a year, so it should be willing to sell.

Finally, and most importantly, "Paris Business News" has a very large printing workshop, and it seems that it wants to run the business of printing for other newspapers at the same time, but obviously this area does not bring it much profit.

Joseph immediately decided that this was the one.

The most direct way for him to get involved in the publishing industry is to acquire existing newspapers.

Afterwards, he screened several alternatives, and by the time they were all finished, the sun was setting in the west.

Early the next morning, Joseph went straight to the "Paris Business" newspaper office in the North District of Paris to discuss the acquisition. Of course, he also went to personally inspect the situation of the newspaper office.

The neighborhood where "Paris Business" is located is not prosperous, but a very large building facing the river is extremely conspicuous.

A "Paris Business" sign hangs on the front door of the building. From far away, you can hear the noisy and busy sounds in the house. Behind the house, black wastewater continues to be discharged into the river.

Joseph first looked around the newspaper office. The huge building was the printing workshop, with seven printing presses in it.

The craftsmen in the workshop pulled the one-meter-long handle on the printing press and pressed the blank paper against the bottom plate.

When the handle was pulled up again, a newspaper was printed.

Dozens of workers were busy around, adding ink, drying, and transporting the ink. Their movements were quick and precise, and they were all obviously experienced workers who had been doing this for a long time.

After Joseph saw the warehouse and editing room, he had a general understanding of the overall situation of the newspaper and was quite satisfied with it. So, he stopped an editor and said he wanted to find the newspaper owner.

The editor hurriedly took them to an office on the second floor of the newspaper office and pointed to a fat middle-aged man wearing a dark green vest and glasses: "This is Mr. Denico."

When Denico saw someone coming, he immediately stood up and greeted him, smiled and saluted: "Welcome, distinguished sir. Do you want to advertise, or do you want to print something?"

Joseph didn't like to be wordy, so he said straightforwardly after returning the gift: "Mr. Denico, I intend to buy your newspaper."

Denico immediately returned to his chair, waved his hand and shouted: "Please go back, I won't sell it."

Seeing that Joseph didn't move, he raised his voice again: "Let's go, otherwise I will drive them away!"

Joseph glanced at Emang and thought to himself that according to the routine in the movie, shouldn't you stand up and say, "Discourteous! Do you know that the person standing in front of you is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

However, Emang obviously had no intention of interrupting.

Joseph had to pretend not to hear and continued: "Can you tell me why you don't sell it?"

Denico lowered his head and muttered: "I promised my father that I would run this newspaper well."

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief, sat down on the chair opposite him, and said with a smile: "I will buy it for 150,000 livres. And you can still run and manage the newspaper."

He brought his accountant, and he had roughly estimated the price just now. This newspaper is worth about 120,000 to 140,000 livres, mainly the real estate and the printing workshop are valuable.

Denic was stunned. In fact, the newspaper had been losing money for more than a year. He thought it would be good to sell it for more than 100,000, but he didn't expect the young man to ask such a high price.

He began to struggle in his heart, but still shook his head: "No...my father told me before he left..."

Joseph nodded: "160,000 livres."

"But……"

"170,000, last bid."

"Pay in one lump sum?"

"Yes."

"Sir, are you sure...that you want to buy my newspaper for 170,000 livres?"

"Yes." Joseph motioned to the accountant to show the newspaper owner proof of his bank property worth RMB 170,000.

Denico stared into Joseph's eyes to confirm that he was not joking. After struggling for a while, his shoulders suddenly relaxed and he showed a decisive expression: "Oh, okay, this is yours."

He thought to himself: Dear father, you can't blame me, he really gave too much...

Joseph's lawyer immediately took out the contract that had been prepared and gave it to the two of them to sign. Then the accountant and De Nico went to the bank to settle the payment.

The efficiency of banks in this era is not very high. In addition, due to the huge amount, the procedure took more than two hours, and it took three days for all the funds to be settled.

Denico had already found out Joseph's identity from his accountant on the way to the bank, and felt that he was lucky today. Not only did he get a huge sum of money from the sale, but he also got connected with the crown prince.

When he came back, he became extremely respectful and repeatedly told Joseph that he would definitely run the newspaper office for the crown prince.

Joseph encouraged him and asked, "How was the newspaper's profit before?"

Denic hesitated and said: "You know, people nowadays like to read that kind of gossip news. It is difficult for a newspaper like ours that focuses on freedom and ideal content... Well, we lost 1,200 livres this year, but I still made hundreds of dollars in the first half of last year.”

He was afraid that the crown prince would regret it, so he quickly added: "Actually, when the business was still good a few years ago, I could make thousands of livres every year."

Joseph nodded: "Then I will give you a salary of 1,000 livres per year, plus a bonus of 5% of the newspaper's total profit."

He bought the newspaper entirely to win the war of public opinion, and Paris Business Daily will be his important base of operations, so it is very necessary to stimulate the enthusiasm of the management as much as possible and tie their interests to the newspaper.

De Niko couldn't believe his ears. After selling the newspaper, he no longer had to worry about the problem of losses. He didn't expect that there would be such a high salary!

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was simply sent by God to save him!

He was so excited that he even expressed his loyalty and kept swearing that he would do his best to satisfy the Crown Prince and make the newspaper profitable and grow as soon as possible!

Then he heard Joseph say that he would increase the salary of the newspaper's management and core technical craftsmen by 20%. He quickly dissuaded: "Your Highness, the newspaper is still losing money now, and it is not appropriate to increase expenditures so much."

Joseph smiled. This man was conscientious and immediately knew that he had to save money for himself.

"It's okay, the business will get better soon. Just do as I say."

Joseph didn't dwell on the issue of salary, and then got down to business:

"Mr. Denico, how many skilled plate makers are there in the printing workshop now?"

The current newspaper printing technology is still relatively primitive, and the text part uses lead block movable type, which is relatively cheap.

All the pictures need to use copper plate concave printing technology, where the craftsman carves the copper base plate bit by bit, and then puts it in the movable type block, or prints it separately. Since engraving is extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming, this is also the most expensive part of the entire printing process.

Denico said without hesitation: "Your Highness, the workshop now has five engraving craftsmen, three of whom have more than ten years of experience and are also somewhat famous in the Coppersmith Guild."

Joseph nodded: "Please prepare some chalk slabs, with fine texture, cut into the size of drawing boards, and polish one side smooth. About 40 pieces are needed. Let the three craftsmen bring them to the Palace of Versailles. I have something to give them."

Chalk is a kind of limestone, which can be found everywhere as a building material and is cheap.

Denico was surprised: "Chalk? Are you going to repair the floor?"

Joseph smiled slightly and shook his head: "For flat printing."

Denico widened his eyes: "You mean, printing with stone slabs?"

"That's right."

Joseph knew very well that if he wanted to crush the existing publishing industry, it was not enough to rely on high-quality content alone. It must start from multiple aspects such as cost and distribution channels, leaving no chance for other publications to fight back.

My newspaper content is wonderful, and it only sells for 1 sou, or even 8 deniers. And your newspaper content is ordinary, and the price is 4 sou. What can you use to compete with me?

In terms of cost control, lithography, or flat printing, is a powerful tool.

Due to the cheap raw materials and the simple and quick plate making, the cost of lithography is only one-fifth or even one-tenth of the current copperplate printing!

Another powerful tool to reduce costs is cheap papermaking - using wood as raw material to make paper. If it can be mass-produced, it will reduce the cost of paper by 70%. Historically, this papermaking technique even triggered a newspaper revolution in Britain.

With these two technologies, Joseph has full confidence in reducing the price of newspapers to less than one-fifth of the current price, and at the same time he can make a profit.

Of course, the technical requirements of cheap papermaking are relatively high, and he is not completely sure, but lithography is not complicated, and experienced plate-making craftsmen should be able to master it quickly.

Then, Joseph asked De Niko some recent matters to be done, such as increasing the staff of the newspaper, increasing the inventory of ink and paper, and designing a new newspaper layout called "News and Pictures".

After arranging the newspaper's affairs, it was almost dusk. Before leaving the newspaper, Joseph asked Denico casually: "Excuse me, is there a relatively large papermaking workshop near Paris?"

Denico immediately pointed to the northeast: "There is one in the town of Saint Antoine. Your Highness, half of the paper used in Paris is produced there."

Thanks: This is not good. The big brother generously rewarded this book with 5,000 starting coins! Tian Haishan is very grateful!

Because I am a little stuck today, the update is late, I am afraid it will be too late to add more for you. I already owe you two more chapters, I remember them! When I am in a better state in two days, I will definitely add these two chapters!