The Shadow of Great Britain

268: Chapter 179: Promotional Techniques in the News Industry 268: Chapter 179: Promotional Techniques in the News Industry In the evening, at Arthur’s residence.

Shareholders and writers of “The British” magazine had gathered, with Disraeli carefully reviewing each manuscript in hand.

After a long while, he placed the thick stack of manuscripts on the table with a smile, heaving a sigh, “To be honest, I really can’t think of a reason why this magazine would fail.

Every novel on here is a masterpiece, even if they were sold individually, they could attract hordes of loyal readers.

And now, they’re all bound together.

In my opinion, the current price of eight pennies an issue is too cheap.

Perhaps, we could set the price even higher?

After all, our magazine’s content is almost as substantial as three issues of The Times.”

Disraeli was already considering raising the prices before the magazine was published, which Arthur obviously had different thoughts on.

For him, making money from the newspaper business was secondary, establishing a platform for public opinion and continually amplifying its influence through “The British” was his top priority.

Moreover, having just secured financing of two thousand pounds from the Rothschild Family, he was not at all concerned about taking a big loss in the early stages of the magazine’s operation.

But to persuade Disraeli and the other partners, he clearly needed to present a more convincing plan to allay their fears of losing money.

Arthur didn’t reveal his intentions right away but instead subtly threw out a peculiar theory, “Whether newspapers and magazines make money doesn’t actually depend on the revenue from sales.

From my time as a frontline patrol officer at Scotland Yard, my impression is that many newspapers with large circulation don’t actually do very well.

Sometimes, the larger the circulation, the more money the newspapers lose.”

“Oh?

How so?”

Although Disraeli had previously been involved in the newspaper business, he was a hands-off owner, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been swindled to the point of losing over seven thousand pounds.

Now that Arthur had put forth such a novel theory, it naturally also caught the attention of this young man eager to prove himself.

The others were also interested in Arthur’s statement.

Great Dumas directly asked, “If newspapers don’t make money from sales, what else could they possibly make money from?

Don’t tell me that running a newspaper can also involve theft and fraud?”

Arthur, hearing this, did not reply directly but turned to Dickens, who had long been a news reporter.

“Charles, you’ve been a journalist in several news agencies, so you should know that after deducting printing and distribution costs, the profit made on each newspaper is usually minuscule.

However, the larger the newspaper, the larger the group of journalists it needs to maintain, or the high fees it has to pay for well-known professional writers.

Only then can they obtain faster first-hand news and high-quality article submissions than other newspapers.

These actions will also lead to their expenses in personnel and content constantly increasing until they can no longer maintain a balance of income and expenditure and are forced into bankruptcy.

Therefore, to fill this gap, large literary magazines and newspapers would introduce the concept of advertising spaces.”

“For those truly large-scale news media, just breaking even on magazine sales is considered good; their main profits come from advertising revenue.

I’m correct in saying this, am I not?”

Dickens, surprised, widened his eyes at Arthur and exclaimed with astonishment, “Arthur, I thought you were just an outstanding officer.

I didn’t expect you to have such an in-depth understanding of the news magazine industry as well.”

Arthur smiled helplessly, “Actually, it’s not that I understand it, but Mr.

Hetherington, who founded ‘Poor Man’s Guardian,’ does.

I just had a conversation with him a few days ago, and he told me all this.

He also said that ‘Poor Man’s Guardian’ is unable to profit because it firmly refuses to take any advertisements, even if it sells tens of thousands of copies each day.”

“Hetherington?” Eld’s head emerged from the magazine wrapped in a book cover, “I heard he was arrested last month.

How did he get out so quickly?”

Great Dumas took a sip of coffee, speaking indifferently, “Eld, think a bit more with that brain of yours.

Guess how Hetherington was arrested?”

Eld raised an eyebrow, stretching his mouth into a wide laugh, “Arthur, son of a—, I was wondering why Hetherington was arrested out of the blue?

Everyone said he usually kept a low profile.

So it was you who did it, now it all makes sense.

After all, probably only you in the entire Scotland Yard possess such capability.”

Hearing this, Arthur calmly responded, “Eld, don’t misunderstand, the LPS doesn’t have the power to target arrests, that was performed by Scotland Yard’s Tower Hamlets division.

And most importantly, Mr.

Hetherington voluntarily accepted the arrest by Scotland Yard.”

“Voluntarily accepted the arrest?” Great Dumas frowned and asked, “Why?

Did Hetherington drink too much of the Thames River waters?

Or did he suddenly develop some illness that makes him like being imprisoned?”

“It’s nothing,” Arthur replied.

“I just had a few words with him, that’s all.”

“What did you say to him?”

Arthur put down his teacup, “I told him that he was charged this time because the Tory government felt threatened by the opinions published in The Poor Man’s Guardian, and the charge against him was trivial—it was merely for failing to pay the stamp duty properly.

Moreover, back then, the Tory Party was shaky, and most Londoners were dissatisfied with the Cabinet, so even if the case went to trial, it might not receive support from the Magistrates’ Court or the jury.

Therefore, the likelihood of a guilty verdict was slim.

Hence, instead of fleeing London and thus confirming his guilt, leading to an absence at trial, it would be better to follow Scotland Yard straight to the Magistrates’ Court.

Oh, right, I also mentioned to him that Mr.

William Cobbett, the founder of ‘The Political Register,’ attacked the stamp duty and satirized the government’s corruption, and was sentenced to two years in prison for libel.

After his release, the sales of ‘The Political Register’ did not decline but increased, selling over forty thousand copies each month.

Though I don’t encourage Mr.

Hetherington to imitate Mr.

Cobbett’s actions, if he truly capitalized on this for marketing, I couldn’t say he’d be breaking the law.

A month or two in jail, consider it gilding for the newspaper.

Afterward, when The Poor Man’s Guardian is published, Mr.

Hetherington can proudly add a note at the beginning of the paper—’Founder of this publication has served time in jail; parentheses, regrettably, the sentence was slightly shorter than Mr.

Cobbett’s.’”

Having worried about Hetherington’s situation, Dickens couldn’t help but chuckle at Arthur’s words, “Looking at it this way, to boost the sales of ‘The British,’ perhaps we should consider selecting a suitable candidate to send to jail?”

Upon hearing this, Arthur blinked and took out the handcuffs hanging from his belt and tossed them onto the table.

“Due to work commitments, I temporarily can’t go to jail, but I can offer you folks a fast track.

Who among you is willing to make a sacrifice?”

Great Dumas elbowed Eld, “It’s your turn.”

Eld glared at Great Dumas in anger, “Damn it, Alexander, don’t get the order wrong.

One only gets sent to the Royal Navy after being in jail, and I’m already at the latter stage of this process.”

Arthur nodded, “Alexander, Eld is right on this point.

And we wouldn’t need to trumpet up a libel charge like Mr.

Cobbett’s to send this young fellow to jail; I’ve got a pile of cases on him already.”

Upon hearing this, Darwin laughed out loud.

Eld, seeing him laugh, glared, “Charles, what are you laughing at?

Your charges are worse than mine!

I should go to church and accuse you of plotting to betray God.”

Then the Red Devil, hearing these words, simply placed a hand on Arthur’s shoulder and smirked, “Betraying God?

Oh, my dear Arthur, surely we have another here who is guilty of that?”

Arthur ignored him and turned to a contemplative Disraeli, “So now, Benjamin, you should understand that it’s nearly impossible to profit from selling newspapers alone.

We can only secure the magazine’s healthy development by increasing sales volume and attracting enough advertisers to invest.

And if we want to increase sales, blindly raising the price is not feasible.

Perhaps to the upper class, a few pennies more or less for a magazine doesn’t make a difference.

But for the carefully budgeting middle class, or the common worker with average financial status, every little price increase could make us lose a portion of our readership.”

Disraeli’s expression showed some struggle, “That’s true, but even setting aside the initial profit concerns, you must also consider the middle class’s vanity.

Sometimes lowering the magazine’s price too much might make them think reading our magazine has no class.

We surely can’t sell our issues for just one penny like The Poor Man’s Guardian, right?

They don’t pay stamp duty, so naturally, they can keep their costs low, but if we price ours at three pennies, even excluding printing costs, we’d lose two pennies on each copy.

No one does business like that!”

Arthur thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled and asked, “So, Benjamin, have you considered tiered pricing?”

Disraeli inquired, “What is tiered pricing?”

Arthur explained, “It’s simple; for the upper and middle classes, we stick to normal pricing strategies.

At the same time, we can also delay a few weeks and distribute magazines through old bookstores or street peddlers, targeting ordinary workers—these copies will certainly be cheaper than the original ones.

Of course, to expand our popularity, perhaps we could give away some free magazines to professional pub readers.

Serialized novels like ours would certainly be very popular among them.

Also, I should mention, there will be a concert at the Coburg Theatre this weekend.

If you can print the first issue of the magazine before the concert begins, I think maybe we could give away a small gift to the attendees after the concert ends.

I believe those well-off gentlemen and ladies would certainly be interested in our fashionable novels.”

Light dawned on Disraeli’s face, and tapping his fingers against the table, he smiled and said, “That’s right…

this stuff is like opium tincture, I guarantee that once they finish the first issue, they’ll be craving another hit.”