In the office of Independent Newspaper Company, when facing Barron's company manager Bob and editor-in-chief Whitney again, it can be clearly seen that the smiles on their faces are more from the heart.
After all, although both of them accepted the three initial changes that Barron proposed for The Independent, they showed more "respect" for the new boss.
But now it seems that, apart from other things, at least the first two items proposed by Barron at the time - the novel of "Downton Abbey" and the increase of small pages in "The Independent" - have promoted newspaper sales.
From the initial sales of around 150,000 copies of The Independent, the current sales have exceeded 200,000 copies. The effect is still very significant.
Especially judging from the recent sales, the small-format Independent, which has an increasingly larger share, is obviously selling better.
Therefore, in the future, they are ready to stop printing the original large-format "Independent" and switch to small-format newspapers. It can be said that the 2 million pounds paid to them by their former owner INM Group is almost all used for this.
It can be said that a person's prestige must be gradually strengthened through continuous success. Now that Barron is in the newspaper, his weight is completely different from when he first took over the newspaper.
For this reason, both manager Bob and editor-in-chief Whitney began to pay attention to Barron's proposal to establish an official website for the newspaper, recruit editors for the electronic version of The Independent, and publish the electronic version of the newspaper.
Inside the newspaper building, they set aside half a floor to house editors and website construction and management staff for the newspaper's official website and electronic version.
"Your Highness, this is the online editorial department of our newspaper. This is the online editor, Mr. Dessen Joliot, and this is the technical director of our official website, Khalid Revere, who graduated from Cambridge University."
After hearing the introduction from the newspaper manager Bob, Barron's eyes fell on Khalid. He was quite surprised that the newspaper could recruit a Cambridge University graduate to be the technical director of the official website.
The official website of the Independent Press has been online for two weeks. Baron has visited it before and found that it has basically met the requirements he originally proposed, and there are even some small surprises.
What surprised him was the official website of the independent newspaper. In addition to the very simple interface and user-friendly settings such as the navigation bar, the content of the website was mainly pictures, and a discussion area was also set up.
Regarding some news reports on the official website, users can discuss and express their opinions by leaving messages. Although this has become very common in later times, it is still a very innovative idea at this time.
After shaking hands with the two men, Barron said:
"Gentlemen, I am very satisfied with your work. As we all know, the Internet era has arrived. The Internet is very attractive, especially to young people. We, the independent newspaper industry, cannot just stick to paper newspapers and make no progress. Instead, we should embrace the Internet and attract more young readers and users. If you have any novel ideas, you must speak out. You can speak to Manager Bob and his team, or to me. I am willing to support any attempt that can help the independent newspaper industry catch up. For example, adding comments after news reports so that users can speak freely is a very good attempt."
Now the official website of The Independent looks a bit like a portal website to Barron. He told Khalid, the website's technical director:
"I think we can add more content to our official website, not just news, but also other content that users like, such as entertainment, cars, games and even recipes. We can slowly open up sections so that they can find content that interests them and communicate with them."
"In this case, I'm afraid we'll need to add more editors, and then the official website will need too many people."
After hearing Barron's words, the newspaper manager Bob said with some embarrassment.
"Mr. Bob, I'm not saying that these need to be implemented right away. We can listen to the voices of users and find out what content they are interested in, and then we can gradually add those sections. As for personnel, that's not a problem."
Barron will enter the Internet industry sooner or later. The official website of the independent newspaper can be regarded as an attempt. Even if it costs a little more money, it is acceptable. He said to Bob:
"Didn't you complain to me before that the amount of advertisements in newspapers is decreasing year by year? What we should see is that the total amount of advertisements placed in paper newspapers is indeed decreasing. The reason is that advertisers have found more platforms for placing advertisements, including the Internet. According to survey data, the amount of advertisements placed on the Internet is increasing very fast. So if our official website can do a good job of content and attract users' attention, it can also become a profit growth point for the newspaper."
In addition, Barron had also considered the issue of newspaper staff. After leaving the online editorial department and returning to the office, he called the editor-in-chief Whitney over and discussed the issue with the manager Bob:
"Mr. Bob, you should have understood what I meant just now. We need to embrace new technologies. Therefore, in the future, I will not just position the Independent Newspaper as a newspaper company, but hope to transform it into a comprehensive media company."
Seeing the two people's puzzled expressions, he explained:
"To put it more clearly, we will be content producers, not just limited to paper newspapers. We can deliver our content to users through various platforms. Newspapers, the Internet and even mobile phones in the future can all be ways for users to receive our high-quality content..."
In response, Barron plans to gradually change the publishing process and staffing of independent newspapers and implement a strategy he calls the "New Editorial Plan."
The so-called new editorial department corresponds to the publishing process of the Independent at that time.
At present, the independent newspaper industry still attaches the most importance to the distribution of paper newspapers, so the staffing is all centered around the distribution of paper newspapers.
For example, at this time, there are more than 60 night editors in the independent newspaper industry, who are responsible for finalizing the layout and printing the contents of the next day's newspaper in a timely manner.
But Baron's new editorial plan will focus the newspaper on comprehensive content. The Independent is positioned as a "newspaper for the elite." More in-depth reporting and commentary will only require the selection of the newspaper's most elite team to serve specifically for this purpose, but not so many people.
As for other editors, they will be trained so that they can work for both the newspaper and the website to enrich the content.
The newspaper will also add talents in interactive, video, audio and icon production.
In fact, this "new editorial department plan" was the strategy adopted by the Financial Times a few years later. It was through such changes that the newspaper became one of the most successful in the global newspaper transformation.
Now Barron is applying it to the transformation of The Independent.
"In addition, I would like to discuss with you whether our other newspaper, the Sunday Independent, needs to continue to exist."
If Bob and Whitney could accept what Barron had just said, then his words surprised them.
"Are you planning to stop publishing the Sunday Independent? Your Highness, but this newspaper is still very popular with its users."
"The paper is too bloated, gentlemen, and I don't mean to actually shut it down, but to make some changes, like make it a free paper, and not just publish it once a week, but make it an evening paper..."