Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 821 We Need to Recruit Someone
Chen Fan leaned back on the sofa, looked at Zhou Yali and smiled, "Don't try to seduce me. Even if I don't go abroad, can't I build a media empire?"

He frowned slightly as he spoke, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "But you know what, if possible, I hope that your publishing business in the United States can be connected with domestic publishers. Ideally, we should develop a plan for simultaneous development from a long-term perspective."

Considering the timeline, the future media empire News Corporation is only just beginning. It won't be until next year that it will be restructured, established as News Corporation, and embark on its journey to dominate the European and American media industry.

If we start planning now, Qianfan Company may not necessarily lose to News Corporation in the future.

In fact, the current benchmark in the publishing industry is still Bertelsmann Group. They have established book clubs around the world, forming a huge reader network, and then they can sell books directly to readers by mailing new book information directly.

Yes, at the time when they were developing most rapidly in China, almost every class in junior high schools and above had their members.

This could be considered the earliest form of e-commerce direct sales, right?

Bertelsmann later extended the book club model to music, film and television, making the Bertelsmann Group a giant in the world publishing industry.

One is news media, and the other is publishing and distribution. The two fields have similarities, but also have significant differences.

Based on the situation of Qianfan Publishing House, it was originally closer to Bertelsmann. However, this model is not long-lasting. When the Internet era of the new century arrived, especially the mobile Internet era, this old book club model will fall into a growth dilemma.

On the contrary, News Corporation's approach is more growth-oriented and sustainable, especially the power of discourse it controls through newspapers, television stations, websites, and other media, which is something that transcends capital.

However, developing down this path will also face a very real problem.

Ultimately, the Zhou family is also Chinese-owned capital. In the Western world, ethnic minorities can be a powerful supplement, but to become the top leader in a certain industry?

Tsk tsk tsk, Chen Fan was certain that Zhou Yali would face dozens of times more difficulties than Murdoch.

Chen Fan was deep in thought with his eyes closed, while Zhou Yali listened with a slight frown. "The situation in the US and China is different. How do you plan to proceed? And will the environment in China allow private companies to get involved in the media business? Are you sure you're not just fantasizing?"

Chen Fan opened his eyes and said, "Let's take it one step at a time. Do what's permissible, and put aside what's not possible for now. At the same time, we should try our best to make it happen someday. Otherwise, what's the point of planning?"

Zhou Yali pursed her lips, "You seem quite confident about the future. In that case, I have no objection. Anyway, you own half of the company, so you have the right to make decisions."

Chen Fan glanced at her. "Don't talk like I'm bullying you. What's the use of me saying anything if you don't agree? All the plans still have to be implemented by your people."

Zhou Yali chuckled, "Just say it. Otherwise, the two of us always agree, which doesn't seem like a board meeting at all."

Chen Fan couldn't help but roll his eyes as he listened. "Does a board of directors only count as a noisy, power-fighting affair?"

Zhou Yali: "Yes, yes, that's how it's portrayed on TV, isn't it?"

Chen Fan was too lazy to argue with her, so he turned around and shouted, "Is the food ready? If not, put it aside for now and come to the meeting."

Jiang Lili quickly came out of the kitchen and said loudly, "It will be ready soon."

Unable to contain his curiosity, he then asked, "What kind of meeting is it?"

Chen Fan patted his thigh and stood up. "Then let's eat and talk at the same time."

He walked over with his hands behind his back, cupped her face in his hands, and gave her a quick kiss. "First family development meeting."

Since we're having a meeting, let's also talk about Jiang Lili's career. Lili and Tiantian are both family members, and Zhou Yali can be considered half a family member. Calling it a family meeting is not unreasonable.

Jiang Lili wrinkled her nose, not understanding what this family meeting meant.

However, she understood that Xiao Fan had something important to say, so she quickly turned around and went into the kitchen. Together with her sister, they sped up the process and soon brought the food to the table.

Chen Fan sat in the main seat as usual. After Jiang Lili set out the bowls and chopsticks and poured the wine, he put his hands on the edge of the table, looked at the three of them with a serious expression, and said, "The theme of today's meeting is the establishment and development plan of the company. Everyone can speak freely and express their opinions."

Zhou Yali was the first to raise her right hand, saying, "I support all of Chairman Chen's proposals. That concludes my statement. Thank you."

After saying that, she took the soup from Jiang Tiantian, thanked her with a smile, and blew on the hot soup to drink it.

As for Comrades Jiang Tiantian and Jiang Lili, they were both busy serving rice and soup while keeping a close eye on Chen Fan, waiting for him to continue.

Chen Fan glanced at Zhou Yali, his brows furrowing slightly. "We're talking about serious matters. Can you be a little more serious?"

Zhou Yali didn't even look up, her lips still pressed against the spoon, reluctant to leave. She just glanced at him and said, "You're so serious. Phew, it tastes good. I'm serious. I absolutely support your decision. I'm very confident in voting for you."

Chen Fan tilted his head, deciding to let her off the hook for now, and turned to Jiang Tiantian, "Tiantian, tell me your thoughts, what are your plans for this magazine, and how do you intend to develop it?"

Jiang Tiantian stared blankly at him, her eyes wide with surprise. "Isn't this what we talked about in the car earlier? We'll change our office location, and I'll organize the content for the inaugural issue, as well as discuss distribution channels, pricing, and printing plants."

Chen Fan pursed his lips, about to speak, when Zhou Yali quickly said, "I forgot to tell you, Xiao Fan and I discussed it today. We want to set up a paper mill in Shenzhen. Setting up a paper mill is easy. Once we buy the equipment and pulp, we can start production. If things go smoothly, it won't even take a month. With a paper mill, we can set up a printing plant."

"I'll take care of all your magazine's printing business; you won't need to ask anyone outside for help."

Jiang Tiantian looked at her with a face full of surprise, "Really? Is that okay?"

Zhou Yali grinned and said, "Of course we can. We're family. It's something that can be done with just a few words. Why would I let you suffer outside?"

Jiang Tiantian reached out and took her hand, turned to look at Chen Fan, then at her, and smiled, "It's not that I'm being wronged, it's just that I'm afraid of not doing a good job and disappointing Xiao Fan."

Chen Fan blinked, his brows furrowing slightly. "Um, you've gone off-topic. We're supposed to be talking about development planning now. Do you know what development planning is? It's what we'll be doing in the future." Jiang Lili put a few dishes in his bowl and said with a smile, "Then tell us, we're listening."

Jiang Tiantian and Zhou Yali nodded in unison, indicating their agreement.

Chen Fan's face scrunched up. Wasn't this supposed to be a meeting? How did it turn into him announcing a decision?
Looking at the three pairs of eyes staring at him, Chen Fan hesitated for two seconds, sighed, and pointed at Zhou Yali, "You, tell Tiantian about the scope of overseas media business and some basic information."

Zhou Yali immediately raised her hand, pointed at Jiang Tiantian, but looked at Chen Fan and said, "Tiantian asked me these questions a long time ago, and I told her a lot about them."

As she spoke, she gave Jiang Tiantian a thumbs up, "Tiantian is serious about running a magazine!"

When Jiang Tiantian saw Chen Fan looking at her, she smiled shyly and said, "I just asked Yali about some things, but I may not be able to adapt to life in China."

He frowned as he spoke, "For example, magazines can be affiliated with other organizations in China, but television stations, radio stations, and newspapers are companies in the United States, and even private individuals can start them. However, in China, they are legitimate public institutions and cannot be run by private individuals."

My thought at the time was that the American system was not suitable for application in China, but their business methods and profit-making strategies could be used in our magazine.

Therefore, my idea is to concentrate all our energy on the magazine, to make it in-depth and excellent. Once we have a certain circulation base, we can consider advertising products, just like television stations and newspapers.”

On January 4th of this year, the Tianjin Daily published an advertisement for Lantian toothpaste, and on January 28th, Shanghai Television broadcast its first television advertisement for Shengui Tonic Wine.

Moreover, Shanghai was the most prosperous place for advertising in China at that time. Before the 60s, there were many billboards on the streets. After the ban was lifted a couple of years ago, Sony took the lead in launching street advertising.

Therefore, Jiang Tiantian is no stranger to advertising and knows that newspapers, magazines, TV stations, and radio stations can earn advertising fees.

Not to mention, Zhou Yali also introduced her to the advertising situation in the American media industry.

There was a rather outrageous example that even Chen Fan himself hadn't expected.

In his work "Legend of the Dragon Knight," Zhou Yali used a large number of real European place names. So, she took the advice of professionals and hired several lawyers from her father's law firm to find the local governments and take a series of beautiful promotional photos for them... and then inserted them into the novel, making a fortune in advertising fees!
This move left Chen Fan speechless. Apart from marveling at the sheer number of ways to make money in capitalist society, he really didn't know what to say.

Jiang Tiantian, however, remembered the words "advertising fee" very well. Even before the magazine was launched, she was already thinking about earning advertising fees.

After listening to Jiang Tiantian's words, Chen Fan thought for a moment and said, "I talked to Ba Jin about a lot of things today, including the multiple roles of magazines."

As soon as he said that, all three of them turned their attention to him.

Jiang Tiantian looked at him, puzzled, and asked, "The multiple functions of a magazine? What do you mean?"

Besides reading, what other uses do magazines serve? Like propping up table legs?
Chen Fan explained, "The magazine itself is just a medium for stories; its most important function is naturally to publish stories for everyone to read. But have you ever thought about what else we can do if a story becomes very popular?"

Seeing the three of them deep in thought, Chen Fan smiled at Jiang Tiantian and said, "Tiantian, you just said that it's impossible for private individuals to run television and radio stations in China. However, just last month, Jiang Film Studio filmed two episodes of a TV series, which will be broadcast on Jiangnan TV around New Year's Day."

What can you learn from this?

Upon hearing this, Jiang Tiantian's previously bewildered eyes instantly brightened. "Provide content for radio and television stations! The content is the stories published in magazines. We can adapt these stories into radio recordings, TV dramas, and even movies. One story can be developed into multiple different art forms."

So you're saying that the multiple functions of magazines are to acquire good stories through magazines, and then to collaborate on various artistic forms based on those stories…

After she finished speaking at length, Chen Fan smiled and gave her a thumbs up, "Indeed!"

He paused for a moment, then added, "Moreover, if this story is suitable for a wider audience, it can be licensed to Qianfan Company in the United States for broader commercial operations."

He turned to look at Zhou Yali and said seriously, "So, the reason why I said earlier that domestic and foreign planning should be coordinated is because Bertelsmann is an insurmountable mountain in terms of business planning, so we don't need to imitate their model."

However, multi-business collaboration could become a development direction for Qianfan Publishing House.

Publishing, magazines, newspapers, and even newspapers, radio, and television stations can all become areas of development for Qianfan Publishing House, and of course, film and music companies are also included.

He spread his hands and said, "Didn't you just make four hundred million dollars? The US economy is relatively overheated right now. As long as it's not a bad industry or a terrible company, the annual return will be higher than the interest rate of more than ten percent in a bank. If you don't make an acquisition now, when will you?"

Zhou Yali blinked frantically as she listened. "So you mean, on the one hand, Qianfan Company is aggressively expanding and broadening its business lines in the United States, and on the other hand, it's using the copyrights of domestic magazines to conduct commercial operations worldwide? Providing content domestically and then making money abroad?"

Chen Fan smiled slightly and said, "Don't be too restrictive. What we call domestic copyright is global copyright. Domestic magazines are just a tiny part of domestic intellectual property rights, and domestic copyright is just one component of Qianfan's global copyright portfolio."

Zhou Yali raised her head high, thought for a while, and then shook her head and said, "I understand, I understand, I know what you're trying to do."

She turned to look at Chen Fan, her eyes practically sparkling, "Brother, what were you thinking? How could you come up with something like this?"

Chen Fan smiled slightly, said nothing, and simply picked up his wine glass to drink.

How did I come up with all this? Hmph, of course, it was by standing on the shoulders of media giants like News Corporation and Sony Media, which acquired Bertelsmann!
At this moment, Zhou Yali suddenly said, "If that's the case, we need to poach someone from here, otherwise I definitely won't be able to handle it."

Chen Fan turned to look at her, "Who?"

Zhou Yali's smile vanished, replaced by an extremely serious expression. "My mom! The CEO position at Qianfan Group is absolutely hers!"

Chen Fan's eyes flickered slightly, and he couldn't help but nod slowly, "Good idea!"

(End of this chapter)