Rebirth of England.

In the office of the Independent Newspaper Company, when they faced Barron's company manager Bob and editor-in-chief Whitney again, it was obvious that the smiles on their faces were more genuine.

After all, although both of them accepted the "three axes" proposed by Barron to reform the Independent, they still had some "respect" for the new boss.

But now it seems that, if nothing else, at least the first two items proposed by Barron at the time - the "Downton Abbey" novel and the increase in small pages in "The Independent" - have boosted newspaper sales.

From the initial sales volume of about 15 copies of "The Independent", now, the sales volume has exceeded 20 copies, and the effect is still very significant.

Especially from the recent sales situation, the small-page "The Independent", which has an increasing share of the market share, is obviously better in sales.

Therefore, in the next time, they are ready to stop printing the original large-page "The Independent" and change all newspapers to small-page newspapers. It can be said that the current 200 million pounds paid to them by the former owner INM Group is almost All used on this.

It can be said that a person's prestige must be gradually strengthened through continuous success. Now that Barron is in the newspaper office, its weight is completely different from when he first took over the newspaper office.

Therefore, both manager Bob and editor-in-chief Whitney began to pay attention to Barron's proposal to establish the newspaper's official website, recruit editors for the electronic version of The Independent, and publish the electronic version of the newspaper. stand up.

In the newspaper building, they dedicated half a floor to accommodate the editors and website construction and management personnel of the newspaper's official website and electronic version.

"Your Highness the Duke, this is the online editorial department of our newspaper. This is the editor of the online version, Mr. Deisen Jolio. The other one is Khalid Revere, the technical director of our official website. He graduated at Cambridge University.”

After hearing the introduction from newspaper manager Bob, Barron's eyes fell on Khalid. He was quite surprised to be able to recruit a Cambridge University graduate to be the technical director of the newspaper's official website.

The official website of the Independent Newspaper has been online for two weeks. Barron has visited it before, and it basically meets his original requirements, and there are some small surprises.

What surprises him is that the official website of Independent Newspaper has a very simple interface, very user-friendly navigation bar and other settings, and the content is mainly pictures. It also has a discussion area.

For some news reports on the official website, users can leave messages to discuss and express their own opinions. Although this has become very common later, at this time, it can be regarded as a quite innovative idea.

After shaking hands with the two men, Barron said:

"Gentlemen, I am very satisfied with your work. As we all know, the era of the Internet has arrived, especially for young people. The Internet is very attractive. Our independent newspaper industry cannot always stick to paper newspapers and not be enterprising. , but should embrace the Internet to attract more young readers and young users. If you have any novel ideas, you must speak up. It is okay for Manager Bob, them, or me. Anything that can make the independent newspaper industry catch up. I am willing to support all attempts, such as adding comments after news reports so that users can speak freely, which is a very good attempt."

Now the official website of "The Independent" makes Barron look like a portal. He said to the website's technical director Khalid:

"I think our official website can add more content, not only news, but also other content that users like, such as entertainment, cars, games and even recipes. We can slowly open up sections to let them You can find content that interests you and communicate with it.”

"In this case, I'm afraid we need to add more editors, and then the official website will need too many staff."

After hearing Barron's words, the newspaper manager Bob said a little embarrassed.

"Mr. Bob, I'm not saying that these are things that need to be implemented immediately. We can listen to the voices of users and what content they are interested in, and we can gradually add those sections. As for personnel, it is not a problem."

Barron will enter the Internet industry sooner or later. The current official website of the independent newspaper can be regarded as an attempt. Even if he pays a little more money for this, it is acceptable. He said to Bob:

"Didn't you once complain to me that the advertisements in newspapers are decreasing year by year? What should be seen is that the total amount of advertisements placed in paper newspapers is indeed decreasing. The reason is that advertisers We have found more advertising platforms, including the Internet. According to survey data, the amount of advertising placed on the Internet is increasing very quickly. So if our official website has good content and attracts the attention of users, it will also It can become a profit growth point for the newspaper."

In addition, Barron had already considered the issue of newspaper staff. After leaving the online editorial department and returning to the office, he brought editor-in-chief Whitney over and discussed this issue with 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 industry as a newspaper. I hope that through transformation, we will Become an integrated media company.”

Seeing the puzzled expressions on both of them, he explained:

"To put it more clearly, we will be a producer of content, not just limited to paper newspapers. We can deliver our content to users through various platforms, including newspapers, the Internet and even in the future. Mobile phones can be a way for users to receive our high-quality content..."

In response, Barron is preparing to gradually change the publishing process and staffing of independent newspapers, implementing a strategy he calls the "New Newsroom Plan."

The so-called new editorial department corresponds to the publishing process of The Independent at this time.

At present, the independent newspaper industry mainly focuses on the distribution of paper newspapers, so staffing is all based on the distribution of paper newspapers.

For example, there are more than 60 night editors in the independent newspaper industry at this time, just to finalize the edition in time every day and publish the content of the next day's newspaper.

But Barron's new editorial plan will focus the newspaper on comprehensive content. The Independent's positioning is "a newspaper for elites" and more in-depth reports and comments. These only need to be selected. The newspaper's most elite team is dedicated to serving this purpose, but it doesn't require that many people.

As for other editors, they will be trained so that they can work for both newspapers and websites to enrich content.

In addition, the newspaper will also increase talents in interaction, video, audio and icon production.

In fact, this "New Newsroom Plan" was the strategy adopted by the Financial Times a few years later. Through such changes, this newspaper became one of the most successful in the transformation of the global newspaper industry.

Now Barron is putting it to use in the transformation of The Independent.

"In addition, our other newspaper, the Sunday Independent, I would like to talk to you about whether it is necessary for this newspaper to continue to exist."

If Bob and Whitney could accept what Barron just said, then his words surprised them.

"Do you want to shut down the Sunday Independent? Your Royal Highness, but this newspaper is still very popular among users."

"This newspaper is too bloated, gentlemen, and I don't mean actually shutting it down, but making some changes, like making it a free paper and not just publishing it once a week, but Become an evening paper…”