The Fiery Era: Starting from Longxugou

"No, Director, what I mean is, which page should this manuscript be placed on? Logically speaking, it's enough to be on the front page, but it's too long. I just roughly counted and it's nearly three thousand words!"

If the article is cut down to about a thousand words and the main feature on the transformation of Longxugou is summarized, it can still make it to the front page. However, this would mean cutting most of the content, leaving the article as a dry report that lacks completeness.

If it were placed in the third edition of the documentary series, it could fit in, but that would also bury the manuscript! So you see…”

Seeing that the director had misunderstood, Chen Fuli quickly explained that their Youth Daily publishes one newspaper per issue with four pages, each with its own characteristics. The front page mainly publishes major news, editorials, and important meetings or policies, with short commentaries as the main focus.

The second edition focuses on youth work, news within the Youth League, youth activities in various regions, and summaries of experiences; the content leans more towards work guidance and news.

The third page is a supplement, mainly publishing content on literature and art, documentaries, essays, news reports, popular science, and youth life, with a special section for long articles.

The fourth edition primarily features international news and cultural knowledge, reader letters, and short essays. It covers international news, current affairs commentary, popular science tidbits, reader letters, and short miscellaneous articles.

This edition is fragmented and contains many short articles, so it's not suitable to include this article.

The article in his hand, "The New Look of Longxugou," describes the transformation of Longxugou, a key project for improving people's livelihoods in the capital and a model project comparing the old and new societies. It has been featured prominently in the People's Daily, the Beijing Daily, and their Youth Daily, and is definitely worthy of being on the front page.

However, because there was too much content, it was destined not to be published. Too much was cut, and it lost its original flavor. He felt it would be too much of a loss to put it in the supplement, so he wanted to hear the director's opinion.

"Old Chen, you're right! Deleting too many articles like this would make them no different from the previous ones, losing their original flavor. Placing them in the supplement is the best solution right now. I'll talk to the editor-in-chief later about adding a short news introduction to the front page, emphasizing that the articles were submitted by local residents, which will also serve as publicity!"

After thinking it over, Li Huaimin finally decided to promote the product by publishing a summary and the full text in a supplement.

"Wonderful! Director, you're truly amazing!"

Upon hearing this, He Anguo and Chen Fuli gave the director a thumbs up.

"Alright, stop flattering me. It's such a simple thing, don't tell me you can't figure it out!"

Are you clear about the submitting author's information? What are your suggestions regarding payment standards?

Li Huaimin waved his hand to stop his subordinates from flattering him, and when he saw the Arabic numeral number 4399 on the manuscript, he asked about the contributor.

For reader submissions, the newspaper's mailroom always opens the envelope and keeps only the text of the manuscript.

Each manuscript will be assigned a unique submission number, which will be reset every ten days, with three rounds per month. Any difference of one day will be reflected in the final round.

The mailroom has a "Manuscript Registration Book" which contains information about the contributors.

"I haven't checked with the mailroom yet, but based on the content of the article written by the contributor, it's highly likely that it was submitted by a newcomer."

I suggest setting the payment at 80,000 per thousand words!

Upon hearing this, Chen Fuli offered a suggestion. Last year, the State Council's Publishing Administration adopted the Soviet Union's "print quota system" and formulated payment standards for state-owned publishing houses.

The royalties are the sum of the basic royalties and the royalties based on the number of print runs.

The basic remuneration standards are: RMB 6 to RMB 18 per thousand words for original works, and RMB 4 to RMB 13 per thousand words for translated works.

The Youth Daily is a major national newspaper, and it doesn't limit the payment to the lower end of the standard rate for submissions from new writers; most of them receive around 80,000 yuan per thousand words.

"It's a bit low. The remuneration for a documentary news article is usually between 80,000 and 150,000 yuan. Although the contributor is a newcomer, considering the scarcity of the article, setting the remuneration according to the conventional standard is a bit low. Let's set it at 100,000 yuan per thousand words for now!"

I'll talk to the editor-in-chief later. Our newspaper is about to switch from a Tuesday to a Wednesday publication. If this article can be published in the April 1st issue, it might be a great start!

Upon hearing this, Li Huaimin immediately made a decision: the Youth Daily was currently a Tuesday publication, meaning it was published twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Starting from the day after tomorrow, April 1st, the Youth Daily will change to a Wednesday publication, with another issue being released on Thursday. The article "The New Look of Longxugou" is perfect for the Thursday issue of the Youth Daily. I believe that after the article is published, it will definitely reignite the Longxugou craze.

"The director really has a discerning eye!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Fuli gave a thumbs up again.

Hearing the director's words, He Anguo was secretly alarmed!

As the person who discovered the manuscript, he counted it several times when he went to the director for review; the whole article had more than 3,100 words.

According to the remuneration standard set by the director, this article is worth 300,000 yuan. With my monthly salary of 160 yuan, it comes out to about 352,000 yuan.

This one article is worth as much as my monthly salary. Based on the content of the article, the author is a newcomer.

The payment standard was set at 100,000 yuan per thousand words as soon as the article was submitted. If this person continues to submit articles, the payment standard will only continue to rise and will not fall.

If the author is still young, he might become a "prodigy writer" like Liu Shaotang.

Given his ancestral home in Longxugou, as long as he doesn't make any major mistakes, his future achievements will certainly be substantial.

……

The school bell rang, and after the teacher left, Zhao Shi'an packed up his books and went home as usual.

As soon as I entered the alley, I saw my two younger sisters running towards me.

"Big brother, big brother, our little melon has sprouted!"

"Brother, mine has sprouted too. Does that mean it'll be ready to eat soon?"

Upon seeing their elder brother return, Zhao Xiaoyue and Zhao Xiaole, who had been eagerly awaiting his return, immediately rushed over and hugged his legs on either side.

"Haha! Don't rush, don't rush. The seed has just sprouted. We have to wait for it to grow, flower, and bear fruit before we can eat it!"

Seeing his two younger sisters running over, Zhao Shi'an squatted down, took one in each hand, and explained with a smile.

In fact, the melon seeds sprouted yesterday, but the four little ones had been following me to the flower market and secretly ate some sweet cakes at the market. When they got home, they were a little guilty and didn't pay much attention to the sprouting of the seeds. Fortunately, their mother thought that the children were just having a short-lived interest, and since the seeds had just sprouted, it was impossible to tell unless you looked closely.

"Big brother, when Little Melon is old enough to eat, I want to eat so much!"

"Big brother, I want some too!"

Upon hearing their elder brother's words, Zhao Xiaoyue and Zhao Xiaole had already set their sights on the melons.

"Okay, okay! We'll have everything, I promise you'll eat your fill!"

Zhao Shi'an, holding his two younger sisters' hands, walked towards home.

"The boss is back, hurry up and wash your hands and eat!"

The melons you planted have grown quite a bit today, they look really good. I didn't expect this weather to be suitable for planting, I just wonder if they'll bear fruit!

When Liu Guiying saw her son return, she invited him to wash his hands and eat, and briefly explained the germination of the seeds.

"Definitely! As long as we control the temperature well, it will definitely grow. After it flowers, we'll pollinate it ourselves! After the fruit sets, leave two or three melons on each vine, and we'll guarantee that the melons will be big and sweet!"

Zhao Shi'an washed his hands, went to the stove, looked at the melon seedlings that had broken through the soil, observed them for a while, and looked at the thriving seedlings as if he could see a scene of harvest.

"Brother, why didn't you leave more? Two or three small melons aren't enough for me!"

Zhao Xiaoyue was immediately unhappy when she heard that only two or three melons would be left.

"Little Yue, be good! If you leave too much of the melon, it won't be sweet! Do you want it sweet or not sweet?"

Zhao Shi'an affectionately pinched the little girl's cheek.

"Big brother, I want something sweet!"

"If you like sweets, let's leave less, okay?"

"good!"

Zhao Xiaoyue and Zhao Shijie nodded seriously upon hearing this.