Chapter 658: Rag Tiger Series
In January 1993, following the "fake news" incident of Southern Metropolis Weekend in the second half of the year, another eye-catching event occurred in the Chinese news industry.
——Many central-level newspapers, including Reference News, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, China Youth Daily, and Liberation Daily, have revised and expanded their layouts, changing from the consistent layout of the past decades to a style that is more in line with market development.
Reference News is an important information newspaper founded in November 1931 during the First National Congress of the Chinese Soviet in Ruijin. Before 1993, it was in quarto, four pages. From January 1, 1993, it was expanded to quarto, eight pages.
Guangming Daily is one of the official newspapers of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. It was founded in June 1949. In 1993, it proposed the reform measure of "transforming the science, education, culture and newspaper into a comprehensive newspaper".
The Economic Daily was founded in BJ in January 1983. It is China's first specialized newspaper on economic life and information. Ten years after its founding, in 1993, it added more pages on the original basis.
From the founding of New China until the late 1980s, the development of literature and even culture was inseparable from the dissemination capabilities of various newspapers and periodicals, especially literary journals.
From the "weaning" of various periodicals in 1984 to the revision of major newspapers this year, the newspapers and magazines that were accustomed to eating "imperial food" are either actively or passively moving towards the depths of the market economy.
With the lead of these central-level newspapers, newspapers at all levels in provinces, cities, and other places have also joined the process of revising or expanding their editions.
In addition to retaining the original style and layout, the biggest change of these newspapers is the establishment of supplements and weekend editions, such as the establishment of "Cultural Weekend" by "China Culture Daily", "Beijing Weekend" by "BJ Daily", "New Weekly" by "China Sports Daily", "With You" by "China Women's Daily", and "Youth Weekend" by "Beijing Youth Daily".
In addition to publishing necessary news, political commentary, thoughts, and cultural content, these supplements and weekend editions have greatly increased the amount of overwhelming advertising and soft cultural and entertainment content.
This initiative of revising and expanding the edition is called "using newspapers to support newspapers" in the jargon of the industry.
In addition to newspapers, the name change and revision of literary journals has also gradually become a trend.
"Literary Critic", founded by the Shandong Provincial Literature Research Institute in 1985, was renamed "Literary World", and it has transformed from a pure literary criticism magazine into a comprehensive, informative and interesting magazine.
"Jibei Literature" was renamed "Contemporary People"...
Reform events of this type seem to be emerging in an endless stream.
I don’t know when it started, but it seems that overnight, if newspapers and magazines don’t change their names or layouts, they seem to be out of touch with the trend.
If you don't emphasize the words "comprehensive newspaper" or "comprehensive magazine" in your statement, then you have no market economy mindset and no development pattern.
Faced with the turbulent changes in the outside world, several publications under Guowen Publishing House are like thousand-year-old turtles, standing still.
It's not that everyone doesn't want to make a move. Dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country have revised and expanded their editions. It's impossible to say that the people in charge of these publications are not nervous.
But they just had an idea in their minds, and before they could even arrange the matter, they were poured cold water on by the editor-in-chief Lin Weimin at the meeting.
"Only those who can't make a living change the version. Why would a good person change the version for no reason?"
"Are sales now falling off a cliff? Or are readers making demands?"
"The market has no reaction, readers have no reaction, what are you so excited about?"
"Does your butt itch when you see other people poop?"
"Just coming up with a stupid idea on the spur of the moment is called reform?"
…
After being scolded by Lin Weimin in the conference room, the editors-in-chief of the Guowen Society's publications became much more sober and looked at each other in shame.
Being scolded is not scary, and being scolded by a bunch of people is even less scary, as it is almost the same as not being scolded at all.
However, everyone could not help but complain in private that after serving as editor-in-chief for two years, Lin Weimin was becoming less and less respectful to elders.
After the meeting, Cheng Zaochun came to Lin Weimin’s office.
"I heard that you showed off your power at the meeting?"
"Who is accusing me of something?"
Cheng Zaochun shook his head. "No one is reporting you. I just heard about your meeting and came to ask about it."
No way!
A group of people in their fifties and sixties were scolded by a young man like me for more than half an hour in a meeting. It would be strange if they didn't have any emotions.
But I can't blame him for being angry. "These people believe everything they hear. Do they think reform is just a game?"
Lin Weimin's words made Cheng Zaochun feel deeply gratified. He has always been cautious about reform. In the past two years, he was worried that Lin Weimin was too young and too aggressive, which conflicted with his ideas.
But now it seems that I was not wrong about him.
Weimin is a mature man at a young age.
"Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. Although our National Literature Society is small, we cannot be impatient all the time," said Cheng Zaochun.
Lin Weimin glanced at Cheng Zaochun. Is he trying to point a finger at me?
"There is nothing wrong with reform, but we cannot do it randomly, and we certainly cannot do it blindly. We must have a target in mind," Lin Weimin responded.
Cheng Zaochun knew Lin Weimin too well. Hearing this, he couldn't help but ask, "What are you planning to do?"
"What do you mean by 'unexpected events'? This means assessing the situation and catering to the market."
"Just say it."
Seeing that Comrade Lao Cheng was so straightforward, Lin Weimin did not hesitate and said, "I plan to launch a 'series of books'."
"Another series of books?" Cheng Zaochun asked with a frown.
"One series of books is different from another. For example, the World Literature Masterpieces Collection is a series of books of a library nature. This time, I want to create something more like a boutique book."
As Lin Weimin spoke, he explained his ideas in detail to Cheng Zaochun.
The major revision of newspapers and magazines in 1993 was a nationwide event. Some of these publications were enterprising and hoped to breathe new life into their publications through reform, but many more simply went with the flow and echoed what others said.
If the revision of publications can be considered as improvement, then some actions taken by the publishing industry during this year can be called large-scale reforms to adapt to the market economy.
In November 1993, Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House launched the "Blouse Tiger Series" with "Blouse Tiger" as its registered trademark name. This is a brand of books carefully created by Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House, and it is also the series with the greatest commercial influence since the beginning of Chinese literature in the new era.
Since 1977, Chinese writers have had a very comfortable period. At that time, the system of remuneration for writing had just been restored, and most writers were part-time workers. In addition to their main jobs, they could use their spare time to write.
In addition to having a job, there are also royalties. In an era when prices had not yet risen, if you could publish a short story of 10,000 words, you could easily earn a hundred or so yuan, which was equivalent to two or three months' salary, and you could live a comfortable life for the whole year.
But after so many years, the increase in royalties has not kept pace with the increase in prices. For a short story of 10,000 words, many magazines only offer a standard remuneration of around 20 yuan per thousand words, which is less than a month's salary for many people.
There are actually not many publishing houses like Guowen Publishing House that are willing to pay writers high royalties and remuneration in the domestic publishing industry. Most publishing houses are not very profitable and do not have the confidence to pay such high royalties and remuneration.
This is also one of the reasons why many writers are willing to cooperate with Guowen Publishing House.
The slow or even stagnant increase in royalties has brought about a major disadvantage: some publications that are already struggling to survive now have even more difficulty receiving manuscripts, let alone receiving any good manuscripts.
This vicious cycle continued, and then people were desperate to try any possible means and, after catching up with the trend of newspaper reform, they made some desperate changes.
Back to the question of remuneration, according to a survey: in 1992, there were 17 professional writers in Shanghai, all of whom made a living from the salary from the Writers Association and royalties. The first-level writers earned more than 400 yuan, while the second-level and third-level writers earned 300 and 200 yuan respectively.
In that year, the average monthly expenditure per person in Shanghai was 270 yuan.
The salary of a third-level writer is barely on par with the average monthly expenditure. Without royalties, they cannot even support their family.
Without any works published, the income will drop sharply and the expenses will not be enough to cover the expenses.
When prices soared and wages in factories and enterprises increased several times compared to before, writers who once lived a comfortable life relying on wages and royalties were now in an unprecedented predicament.
Many full-time writers have a hard time making ends meet as their salaries have not increased significantly and the increase in royalties has not kept up with the price increases, meaning their income has been reduced in disguise.
It should be said that this is the first time that the difficulties in material survival since the founding of the People's Republic of China have had such a direct impact on the group of writers.
And it was at this time that the "Rag Tiger Series" came into being.
It attracted well-known writers to join by offering high royalties and high print runs, and was extremely popular from the very beginning. With a brand-new publishing model, it took a firm step towards the marketization of Chinese literature.
In later generations and even into the 21st century, there were still many writers who became famous through the "Rag Tiger Series", such as Guo Xiaosi, Wei Hui and others.
If we want to delve into the fundamental reasons for the success of the "Rag Tiger Series", we can't do without two important factors.
First, high royalties and high print runs.
On September 7, 1990, the Copyright Law was passed, stipulating that remuneration may be paid in accordance with the contract.
The remuneration system was no longer unified and the publishing market was gradually liberalized. Huayi Publishing House became the first publishing house in China to pay royalties to writers. Guowen Publishing House followed closely and became the trendsetters at the time.
However, the royalty system is not a panacea. The introduction of the royalty payment system means that writers' income is directly related to book sales, and they can no longer get guaranteed income as before.
This is certainly a good thing for some famous and best-selling writers.
But for the majority of writers, or part-time writers, this is actually disadvantageous.
Chunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House gave up the fashionable "royalties" and instead offered high royalties to attract writers to contribute, which quickly received a warm response from the writer community.
Publishers can also use the considerable income from high print runs to pay writers high royalties.
Second, it is to establish a brand image and strengthen publicity efforts.
Before the "Rag Tiger Series", there were publishing houses that had published series of books, including Guowen Publishing House. Many publishing houses had taken this step, but it was difficult to balance sales and influence.
Back then, Lin Weimin launched the “Contemporary Selected Books Series” in “Contemporary”, which had good sales, but it was, after all, a derivative series of a magazine and lacked influence.
Last year, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House launched a "cross-century series of books", which had a great influence, but the sales volume was hard to describe.
The brilliance of the "Rag Tiger Series" lies in the fact that it fully utilized market-oriented means and the media power of the new era, and carried out multi-faceted and large-scale publicity to push the popularity of the series to a peak, and then successfully converted this popularity into sales.
In this way, a beautiful picture of soaring sales and influence is created, and a long-lasting brand is formed.
In the past, when Lin Weimin was at Contemporary, although he had good ideas, the resources he could mobilize were limited, resulting in the "Contemporary Selected Books Series" not becoming a brand as he had imagined.
Now he has become the editor-in-chief of Guowen Publishing House. In the past two years, serious literature has been declining, which has given him an opportunity to re-establish a "brand literary series".
As long as this series of books can be developed, it will definitely further promote the development of Guowen Publishing House.
(End of this chapter)
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