Chapter 69 Competitive Advantage

First of all, "Paris Business" has no aristocratic background.

The current boss of the newspaper is a businessman from Marseille. It is a family business and he is the only shareholder.

Secondly, the operating situation of this newspaper is not very optimistic. It has applied for tax deferral twice a year, so it should be willing to sell.

Finally, and most importantly, "Paris Business News" has a very large printing workshop, and it seems that it wants to operate the printing business of other newspapers at the same time, but obviously this area does not bring it much profit.

Joseph immediately decided that this was the one.

The most direct way for him to get involved in the media field is to acquire existing newspapers.

Then he screened several alternatives, and by the time they were all finished, it was already sunset.

Early the next morning, Joseph went straight to the North District of Paris to discuss the acquisition of "Paris Business". Of course, he also went to inspect the newspaper's situation on the spot.

The neighborhood where "Paris Business" is located is not considered prosperous, but a very large building facing the river is extremely conspicuous.

There was a "Paris Business" sign on the front door of the building, and black wastewater was constantly being discharged into the river behind the house.

Joseph first looked around the newspaper office. The huge building was the printing workshop, with seven printing presses. There were craftsmen constantly pulling handles more than one meter long, pressing blank sheets of paper against the bottom plate.

When the handle was pulled up again, a newspaper was printed.

There are dozens of workers around them who are busy adding ink, drying, and moving. Their movements are quick and precise. They are all obviously experienced workers who have been doing this for a long time.

After Joseph saw the editorial room, he felt quite satisfied, so he expressed that he wanted to find the owner of the newspaper. An editor hurriedly took them to an office on the second floor of the newspaper.

The editor pointed to a fat middle-aged man wearing a dark green vest and glasses: "This is Mr. Denico."

When Denic saw someone coming, he immediately stood up and greeted him, smiled and saluted: "Welcome, distinguished sir. Do you want to advertise, or do you want to print something?"

Joseph didn't like to be wordy, so after returning the gift, he said straightforwardly: "Mr. Denico, I intend to buy your newspaper."

Denico immediately returned to his chair, waved his hand and shouted: "Please go back, I won't sell it."

Seeing that Joseph didn't move, he raised his voice and said, "Let's go, otherwise I will drive them away!"

Joseph glanced at Emang and thought to himself that according to the routine in the movie, shouldn't you stand up and say, "Discourteous! Do you know that the person standing in front of you is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

But Emang obviously had no intention of interrupting.

Joseph had to pretend not to hear and continued: "Can you tell me why you don't sell it?"

Denico lowered his head and muttered: "I promised my father that I would run this newspaper well."

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "I will buy it for 150,000 livres. You can still run and manage the newspaper."

He brought his accountant. He had roughly estimated the price just now. The newspaper was worth about 120,000 to 140,000 livres. The real estate and the printing workshop were mainly valuable.

Denic was stunned. In fact, the newspaper had been losing money for more than a year. He thought it would be good to sell it for more than 100,000, but he didn't expect the young man to ask such a high price.

He struggled in his heart: "No...my father told me before he left..."

Joseph nodded: "160,000 livres."

 "But..."

"170,000, the last bid."

"Pay it all in one lump sum?"

 "Yes."

"Oh, okay, this is yours." Denico thought to himself: Dear father, you can't blame me, he really gave too much...

Joseph's lawyer immediately took out the contract that had been prepared and gave it to the two of them to sign. Then the accountant and De Nico went to the bank to settle the payment.

The efficiency of banks in this era is not very high. In addition, due to the huge amount, the procedure took more than two hours, and it took three days for all the funds to be settled.

Denico had already found out Joseph's identity from his accountant on the way, and felt that he had been favored by God today. Not only did he get a large sum of money from the sale, but he also gained a relationship with the crown prince.

When he came back, he had become extremely respectful and repeatedly expressed that he would do his best to run the newspaper for the crown prince.

Joseph encouraged him and asked: "How many skilled panel makers are there in the printing workshop now?"

The current newspaper printing technology is still relatively primitive. The text part uses lead movable type, and the cost is relatively low.

All the picture parts require a little bit of stenciling by the craftsman, and then they are placed in movable type blocks or printed separately. Because engraving copper plates is extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming, it is also the most expensive part of the entire printing process.

Denico said without hesitation: "Your Highness, the workshop now has five craftsmen, three of whom have more than ten years of experience and are somewhat famous in the coppersmiths' guild."

Joseph nodded: "Please prepare some chalk with a fine texture, cut it into the size of a drawing board, and polish one side smooth. In a few days, let them take it with them and come to see me at the Palace of Versailles."

Chalk is a type of limestone that can be found everywhere as a building material.

Deniko said in surprise: "What do you want Baichao to do?"

Joseph smiled slightly: "Teach them a new type of lithography."

Denico's eyes widened: "You mean, use stone plates for printing?"

 "Is such that."

Joseph knows very well that if you want to crush the existing publishing industry, high-quality content alone is not enough. You must start from many aspects such as cost and distribution channels, so as not to leave other publications the opportunity to fight back.

The content of my newspaper is sought after by all readers, and a copy only sells for 1 sou, or even 8 denier. However, the content of your newspaper is ordinary and the price is 4 sous. What can you do to compete with me?

In terms of cost control, lithographic printing, or lithographic printing, is several times or even several times cheaper than the existing copper plate printing!

Another technology is cheap papermaking, which also reduces the cost of paper by 70%. Historically, this papermaking technology even triggered a revolution in the British newspaper industry.

With the blessing of these two technologies, Joseph is fully confident that he can reduce the price of newspapers to one-fifth of the current price, and he will still make a profit.

Of course, the technical requirements for cheap papermaking are relatively high, and he is not completely sure about it, but lithographic printing is not complicated, and experienced panel makers should be able to master it quickly.

Later, Joseph asked Denico some things to be done in the near future, such as increasing the manpower of the newspaper office, designing a new newspaper called "Truth", etc.

After roughly arranging things for the newspaper office, it was getting dark. Joseph asked Denico: "Where is the larger papermaking workshop?"

De Nico said without thinking: "Your Highness, that is of course the town of Saint-Antoine. More than half of the paper used in Paris is produced there."