1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 365 Paper
"I've been following Mr. Li's house for the past few days and have figured out his movement patterns. He goes out at 11 o'clock every day and comes home to rest at 6 pm or 8 pm. He didn't come home twice, so he must have gone out for social events."

Wei Xing sat in the pickup truck, wolfing down a box lunch. The backs of his hands were covered with blisters from being burned by the boiling oil from pretending to be a fish ball guy over the past two days.

He chewed a piece of chicken wing bone with rice and swallowed it. He continued, "I have asked the neighbors nearby. Tai Po Road should be his permanent residence. His wife and three children only come to stay overnight occasionally. I heard neighbors complain that he often holds parties in his house, sometimes until dawn and disturbs the neighbors. However, I have not encountered such a situation in the past few days."

Zhai Yuan nodded after listening and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Brother Xing. Take a rest for two days first. Next time you go there, take a look at the surrounding environment."

Satellite stuffed his mouth with fast food again and grumbled twice to make sure he understood.

Zhai Yuan smiled and asked, "Don't you want to ask the reason?"

Wei Xing paused, puffed up his cheeks and looked up at Zhai Yuan, grinning so hard that his mouth was shiny: "Filling your stomach is the most important thing."

"It's better than Shangguan Yonggan's letter ball."

Zhai Yuan shook his head and smiled, opened the car door and pretended to get out, then turned back and said, "Take some time this year to bring your sister-in-law and her family over. The children are going to school here to respond to the call to study abroad. I'll make the arrangements."

Satellite curved his eyebrows and nodded more frequently.

……

The "September 1st Daily" will be officially renamed and released tomorrow.

Yesterday we invited another art designer who also does comic illustrators.

"Ms. Li Huizhen, previously worked at Sing Tao Daily, and now her main job is to publish children's comics magazines."

Pan Yongqiang introduced the newly recruited employees to Zhai Yuan.

The woman in front of him was about 47 or 48 years old, not young, but perhaps because she was working in the children's comics industry, she did not look old in her temperament. She had big wavy permed and dyed hair, a faint smile on her face, and a pair of glasses on her nose. Her eyes were clearer than those of her peers, revealing a bit of childishness.

Pan Yongqiang added: "The first children's comic in Hong Kong, "Miss Flower", and the first girls' comic, "13 o'clock", were created by Sister Huizhen."

Zhai Yuan showed an expression of sudden enlightenment on his face.

Actually, I haven’t heard of it.

But it still didn't stop him from extending his hands to greet her enthusiastically: "Sister Huizhen, right? I've heard a lot about you. My sister often reads your comic magazines, and now she is determined to become a comic master like you."

Li Huizhen couldn't help but be humble and polite again.

Finally, he took out a sample of the newspaper and said, "Mr. Zhai, I got most of the pages of the September 1st Daily last night. I made a preliminary design plan based on your request. What do you think?"

The plan was for Zhai Yuan to rearrange the layout based on later experience in making PPTs, and hand it over to art design for implementation.

Li Huizhen is worthy of being a former senior art designer of Sing Tao Daily. The samples she submitted completely reproduced his ideas and even made fine adjustments to some details.

Simply put, it is to maximize the arrangement of pictures and texts.

Cai Lan lived up to everyone's expectations and created an article titled "The delicacy you must eat before dying - Chaozhou Fansha Yam".

When designing the layout, Li Huizhen filled the entire food page with photos of fried taro coated with frosting, and arranged the text vertically, filling it in between the strips of fresh and tender taro.

Huang Zhan's first article "The True Story of the Boneyard Girl at No. 8 Portland Street" also used the same technique. He invited a beautiful girl with big breasts to be the model. In the photo, the exaggerated bust was torn open in an instant. Naturally, the breasts were not exposed, but the detailed address was written in a gimmicky way.

The financial page is even simpler and more straightforward. The stacked photos of Hong Kong dollars use overlapping light and shadow to create a pseudo-3D effect, which can attract the attention of money fans at a glance.

In fact, there is very little room for improvement in the development of print media.

The only option is to treat newspapers as magazines, increase the image rate, and give readers a stronger visual impact.

Zhai Yuan was quite satisfied after reading the sample. Pan Yongqiang, who was standing beside him, took it and flipped through it, then said, "Full-color printing is very expensive, Mr. Zhai."

This is very much in line with President Zhai’s usual style. This time, the “September 1st Daily News” has set a precedent in Hong Kong.

All pages of the newspaper use color roller technology, process inks and digital printing machines, and are printed in full color, which directly doubles the cost.

We should save where we can and spend where we can. If we are going to do something, we should do it to the best of our ability. Therefore, before the just profit from the box office of "Lost in Translation" was remitted to Hong Kong, it was replaced with several new machines in Japan and shipped to the printing factory in the New Territories.

"Nowadays, the material cost of a black-and-white or semi-color newspaper in Hong Kong can be controlled at HK$1. With the labor and distribution costs, the price varies from company to company, but is usually around HK$2. Therefore, if a large-format newspaper is priced at HK$4, the profit may be around HK$1."

Pan Yongqiang said, "But if we switch to full-color printing, the printing factory will have to spend millions to buy equipment and machines. It's a one-time investment, but the price of the board material will increase in the future, which is a continuous investment. The material cost alone is 2 Hong Kong dollars."

Roughly speaking, the cost is 2 yuan for production plus 2 yuan for distribution, so the cost price is equal to the selling price of large newspapers such as Ming Pao in Hong Kong at that time.

However, in reality, because the printing factory purchases dozens of tons of newsprint and ink materials at a time, it will get some discounts accordingly, and the cost will be reduced by another one or two cents.

"I plan to import newsprint from the mainland, which will be cheaper."

Zhai Yuan proposed a way to further reduce costs.

"The mainland?" Pan Yongqiang frowned. "How can we get it? We are importing paper from Japan and South Korea now. I have never heard of such resources in the mainland."

Hong Kong is a port city with a very scarce papermaking business, so newsprint is also nicknamed "foreign paper" and has always been imported from overseas.

Before the 1970s, Hong Kong printing factories all imported paper from European and American paper mills. Then the economies of Japan and South Korea rose one after another. After the 1970s, Toyo Paper Mills had overcapacity, and the bosses of several major paper trading companies came to Hong Kong in person to sell their paper, breaking the monopoly of European and American paper in Hong Kong.

In order to promote consumption, Japanese paper merchants have launched preferential benefits, allowing them to lend money to Hong Kong printing factories for up to 90 days and pay for the goods after the other party makes a profit.

In recent years, South Korea has intervened and supplied paper to Hong Kong printing factories at a price that is 10% to 20% cheaper than that of Japan. Its market share in Hong Kong has reached %, gradually posing a threat to Japanese paper products.

Nowadays, almost all the papers used to print books, handbags, packaging bags, toys, newspapers, etc. in Hong Kong are from Japan and South Korea.

But the mainland economy has been reformed.

With vast territory and abundant resources, the mainland's papermaking industry has taken advantage of the situation and taken off in the past one or two years. Coupled with a large labor force, this has provided a solid foundation for paper production.

Jiangxi Fenyi Paper Mill, Hangzhou Huafeng Paper Mill, Jilin Jiuzhan Paper Mill...

Zhai Yuan recalled the Xijiang Paper Mill in Guangfu City that he had contacted through the Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

The factory director's confident voice on the phone echoed in my ears again:
"Boss Zhai, don't worry. We can produce kraft paper, containerboard, coated paper, newsprint, whatever you name. Last year, our factory produced 2000 tons of paper. This year, we replaced the new machine, and the output can be increased. We can definitely meet your needs!"

In the era of high labor costs in Hong Kong, a newspaper could be bought for a few Hong Kong dollars.

But at that time in mainland China, the retail price of a newspaper remained at around 1 cent, and costs were compressed to the extreme.

"Whether the newsprint from the mainland is okay or not, you will know when you go to the printing factory tonight to supervise the work."

Zhai Yuanchong smiled at Pan Yongqiang, who was looking doubtful. "I placed an order yesterday. Just before I came to the company, the printing factory informed me that they had received ten tons of goods. The price is 800 yuan per ton. If you pay in Hong Kong dollars or US dollars, you will get a % discount."

Pan Yongqiang's eyes widened immediately after hearing this: "Is it cheaper than South Korea?"

"Ah, right!"

Zhai Yuan ignored Pan Yongqiang and suddenly remembered something. He waved to the editor-in-chief who was busy writing international news at his workstation: "Hey, this issue of "Window on the World" has already decided to write about Asian refugees. Don't change it. Remember to add the international editorial for me in the next issue. The papermaking industry in the mainland is developing day by day, but at the same time, we Chinese people love the environment very much, so we never destroy trees. When making paper, we only import high-quality wood pulp from Japan..."

(I have a migraine every day. I'll take two packs of Acacia powder first. I'll update the second chapter later.
(End of this chapter)