Back to 80: My Literary Life

President Huang pondered for a moment and immediately nodded in agreement. He looked at Director Zhang and said, "Director Zhang, your office will be responsible for the two advertising tasks this year."

Director Zhang was stunned for a moment, but still nodded in agreement.

In fact, according to Fang Minghua's thoughts, magazine distribution should not be the responsibility of the editorial department. A separate marketing operations department should be established to be responsible for magazine distribution, advertising, external relations, exchanges, etc.

However, none of the major magazines have this awareness now, especially "Yanhe". For the time being, I will just do it myself.

After the meeting ended, Fang Minghua returned to his office and called the three deputy editors over to continue the meeting.

Seeing that everyone was silent, especially Bai Miao, who usually likes to talk, was also a little silent.

Fang Minghua was not in a hurry. He made himself a cup of tea first, then took out a pack of "Hongtashan" from the drawer and gave one to each of the three of them.

I don’t smoke, but I have hospitality cigarettes in my drawer, which my employer provides for free at this level.

These days, "Hongtashan" is very popular, and it is considered a relatively good cigarette in Xijing from "China".

Watching the three people start to smoke, Fang Minghua said: "Do you think my proposal to reach 300,000 monthly subscriptions next year is a bit of a 'big leap forward'?"

The three of them nodded in unison.

"It's a bit difficult, but it may not be impossible to achieve." Fang Minghua said very relaxedly: "Let's do this, let's take a multi-pronged approach."

"First, strive to include "Yanhe" in the recommended magazines for party newspapers and party publications."

Recommended magazines?

The work of collecting subscriptions for party newspapers and periodicals is issued in the form of red-headed documents to all administrative enterprises and institutions at the provincial, city and county levels. It is a political task that must be completed, so there is no need to worry about no one subscribing to these newspapers and magazines.

Drought and flood ensure a good harvest.

Of course, "Yanhe" magazine is not within this scope.

Looking at everyone's slightly surprised looks, Fang Minghua continued with a smile:

"It may be difficult to include "Yanhe" in the scope of subscriptions for party newspapers and periodicals, but we can request the province to list "Yanhe" as a recommended subscription magazine on the red-headed document. This should not be difficult."

Wonderful

This does not violate relevant national policies, but also expands the subscription volume of the magazine. It is certainly not as good as the mandatory subscription of party newspapers and periodicals, but there will always be units that subscribe, right?

Think about it, how many enterprises and administrative units are there in the province? !

Everyone immediately beamed with joy.

"Of course, this can only be effective within the scope of our Qin Province. Qin Province's red-headed documents cannot control other provinces." Fang Minghua said with a smile: "So, we have to advertise for magazine subscriptions."

"Editor Fang, we have implemented this. We are going to use a special section on the last page of the November and December issues of Yanhe to call on readers to continue to subscribe for next year's Yanhe." Zhao Muchun explained.

"Not enough, very not enough." Fang Minghua shook his head; "This will maximize the number of readers who have already subscribed to the magazine to continue to subscribe, but it will not attract new readers."

"So, you plan to place a subscription advertisement in the newspaper?" Bai Miao guessed what Fang Minghua meant.

"Yes! It's in the People's Daily, which has the largest circulation! I bought half the page!" Fang Minghua waved his hand with great momentum.

Oh my god, half a page, how much does that cost?

The three of them looked at each other.

"Our magazine is now in a period of expansion, and increasing sales must be our top priority! We must attract more people to see it, and ensure excellent content. This will increase reader stickiness and create a virtuous cycle."

"As for advertising, I went to President Huang and said, Bai Miao, you are responsible for writing the advertising content. You must highlight the fact that we will increase the number of pages in the magazine this time but not increase the price! Write it and let me see it."

"Okay!" Bai Miao agreed readily.

After the meeting, Fang Minghua went upstairs and knocked on President Huang's office and told him how to expand subscriptions.

Although President Huang felt a little distressed about spending money on advertising in the People's Daily, he still agreed.

"Okay, just do what you said! If you can't bear the child, you can't catch the wolf; if you can't bear the wife, you can't catch the gangster!"

As for Yanhe being listed as a recommended magazine for party newspapers and publications, Fang Minghua reported to Hu Cai, chairman of the Provincial Writers' Association, hoping that he would report to the relevant provincial departments in the name of the Provincial Writers' Association. On the other hand, he had to find Zhao Hongjun's boss Dad helps.

But this time it went quite smoothly.

"Yanhe" is the only literary magazine in Qin Province. In this era of literary glory, many officials also like to read and love literature, and their literary status is very high. Otherwise, Wang Meng would not have become a writer. A minister with real power, rather than a deputy position in the National People's Congress and the Political Consultative Conference.

unique

Three days later, Fang Minghua also received the advertising content written by Bai Miao himself, and his eyes suddenly lit up:

First, use bold bold fonts as the core content of the copy:

"Yanhe" will not increase its price this year!

Damn it!

Simple! Rough, good!

Next is the sensational content. Under the leadership of editor-in-chief Comrade Fang Minghua, vice chairman of the Qin Provincial Writers Association and winner of the Mao Dun Literature Award, "Yanhe" magazine gathered celebrities including Chen Zhongshi, Lu Yao, Jia Pingwa, Wang Anyi, and Mo Yan. , Yu Hua and other well-known and emerging writers. Last year, they released a number of excellent works such as "Little Baozhuang" and "Red Sorghum", which were well received by readers.

Columns such as "Editor's Recommendation" and "Great God's Appointment" have been opened to give the entire magazine a new look. Readers and friends are welcome to subscribe.

Um.

good.

But it’s too straightforward. Literature needs to be a little subtle.

Fang Minghua thought for a while, and then added in the advertisement: "The spiritual home of literature lovers". Let it be used as the external propaganda slogan of "Yanhe" magazine, at least until the mid-1990s.

It was the first time that a magazine subscription advertisement was published in the People's Daily for a domestic magazine. The effect was really obvious. Subscription emails and remittance orders came to the magazine like snowflakes, which made the finance department and the office staff very busy. .

It was the end of November, and this morning, Fang Minghua was signing the proofs of the last issue of "Yanhe" magazine of the year.

According to regulations, the original magazine must be proofed and signed by editor-in-chief Fang Minghua before it can be officially printed by the printing house.

In the last issue of the magazine in 1986, the "Editor's Column" recommended the novella "1986" written by Yu Hua.

The novel describes a history teacher who was taken away by a group of students in that special era. He reappeared in the town and became a madman. He finally died from the punishment he had imposed on himself. The time was fixed in 1986.

Judging from the content, it belongs to the category of scar literature, but Yu Hua uses a calm, calm and objective external perspective to tell the story.

It uses poetic and delicate words to write a cruel and bloody story. Fang Minghua felt a little cold when he saw it, and the sunlight shining in from the window seemed not as warm as before.

This guy is indeed a person who leaves his sorrow to the readers and his happiness to himself.

Fang Minghua seemed to see the smile on his lips after he finished writing this novel.

Take this article "1986" to say goodbye to 1986.

"May the sunshine always be just warmth and the tragedy never happen again."

This was the last sentence in his comment on the article.

Fang Minghua signed the words "Agree for publication" and his own signature on it.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door, and it was Zhao Muchun, the deputy editor in charge of the poetry and prose group, who came in.