Chapter 305: Running Newspaper

“Court bulletin?” Fang Beidou creased a frown on his forehead and asked, “Are you talking about the court bulletin that the imperial court publishes?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s the court bulletin that the imperial court publishes!” Yan Liqiang replied with a nod.

“I already know what a court bulletin is. I’ve seen it before too. May I know why you are asking me about this?”

Yan Liqiang smiled, “Very simple. What I want to say is that we should also start publishing newspapers…”

“Ah?” Fang Beidou widened his eyes and looked at Yan Liqiang with a baffled expression, “Doesn’t the imperial court have high officials under them that run this court bulletin? How can an ordinary person interfere with that? Moreover, isn’t one court bulletin enough? If I were to run one, where’s the sense in copying the court bulletin word for word every time?”

Yan Liqiang knew Fang Beidou had a really slow reaction on the matter just by looking at his expression. This was hardly surprising as the people in this world were already used to the only type of newspaper that had existed in this world for numerous years, which was the court bulletin. The moment he mentioned newspaper, Fang Beidou’s first thought was the court bulletin. He also felt that things of the same content would not require another copy. The court bulletin was the official newspaper of the Great Han Empire, which was equivalent to internal reference in the future. It was a tool that the imperial court used to publish announcements to the lower ranks. Those who could see the court bulletin were officials and members of government organizations. Generally, ordinary people would not be able to read the information published on the court bulletin.

“I’m not talking about the court bulletin, but something similar to that. I call this thing a newspaper. The court bulletin is meant for various ranking officials in the imperial court and various ranking bureaucrats. The newspaper I want to start is not limited to the officials. Anyone can read it, especially the common people!”

Fang Beidou remained stunned for a long time, unable to return to his senses, “Isn’t that still the same as the court bulletin? One can learn about the news within the court just by inquiring someone. Moreover, decrees and various information released by different departments are extremely dull and uninteresting. What’s the use of my lord relaying those things to the people? Who would read them?”

Realizing that Fang Beidou’s form of thought was still trapped inside the model of the court bulletin, Yan Liqiang decided that he could only patiently explain the concept to him once more, “The first distinction between the newspaper I mentioned and the court bulletin is that the target group of readers is different. The court bulletin targets the officials of diverse ranks in the Great Han Empire, whereas the newspapers I mentioned targets ordinary citizens. The second difference is the method of distribution. The court bulletin is issued by the imperial court and the government for free, whereas my newspapers aren’t free to read as this requires people to buy them with money. They can only read the content of the newspaper after paying for it. And that concludes the second difference.”

“The third difference between these two is the published content itself. As long as the content is related to people’s daily lives and interests them, everything will be included. Information regarding decrees and whatnot by the imperial court will only take up a small section. The other sections will include a variety of new and interesting news happening within the Imperial Capital and the surrounding areas. There can be statements of criticism from certain people, notices from people in finding people or items, stories told from the storytellers in those teahouses, advertisements from merchants and businesses alike, and so forth…”

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Fang Beidou was considered to have seen much of the world, yet after listening to Yan Liqiang’s explanation about the content that could appear on the newspaper, he couldn’t help but become dumbfounded, “This… newspaper… can still… can still include these things!”

“Of course they can. If I say it’s possible, it is possible!” Yan Liqiang confidently laughed. The values he mentioned that existed in this type of newspaper were based on the examination of time and history, so there was no way he could be wrong about them. The reason why the people in this world hadn’t thought about this concept was because their form of thought had always remained within the circle of the court bulletin, which was why they would never expect that newspapers could be made like this. As for the so-called ‘court bulletin’ of this world, it was actually made more or less like a book. A copy of the court bulletin was about the size of a book that consisted of a bountiful number of chapters. After the court bulletin is published, these copies could be regarded as official documents and archives — which would then be shelved. The concept of text-based fast consumer goods such as newspapers was completely absent from this world. In everyone’s mind, things with words printed on paper were books. No one knew what a newspaper was.

Meanwhile, Yan Liqiang’s idea of running a newspaper was the product of steady planning in recent days.

How could one mitigate the number of dead people to a few million from the calamity in four years? This question had been swirling in Yan Liqiang’s mind for the past few days. He considered an array of possibilities in his head and discovered that the outcome of the calamity was impossible to avoid. After a few considerations, he found that the only way to avoid the calamity was to make everyone leave the Imperial Capital and the Four Regions when the calamity occurred. There were only two ways to do that. The first was to become the Emperor of the Great Han Empire within these four years while also getting rid of the Grand Chancellor. As the Emperor, he would stand by his word, and with the blessing of an invincible leadership aura, one word from him could make the entire Imperial Capital and its surroundings to go into an exodus. This would allow millions of people to enter a great migration phase. Otherwise, the second way would be to warn everyone of the calamity beforehand.

It would not be difficult to alert just one person. The difficult part would be to warn millions of people in the Imperial Capital and the surrounding cities. To achieve this, he needed a strong information platform. Otherwise, even if he lost his voice as a result of yelling, only a few people would hear it. Additionally, not many would believe in what he had to say.

The government was a channel that could release warnings to the public with haste. However, even though Yan Liqiang had command over this channel, he had zero confidence that the bureaucrats in the imperial would listen to his words four years later and hastily release news that could affect the stability of the entire Great Han Empire. Because of that, the most reliable method to save people and avoid calamity would be to possess an information channel comparable to or better than the government’s. By then, when he released the warning in advance, everyone would immediately know about it and evacuate before the calamity would strike. This was the only way, and the best solution that Yan Liqiang could think of based on the experience and knowledge he accumulated from his past two lives…

The easiest way to bring about a channel for releasing and spreading information in this world would be the newspaper.

The difference between this and Yan Liqiang’s previous life was that this era seemed to be devoid of any control or licensing system on news publication. You can print whatever you wanted without the restriction of issue numbers or book numbers without getting permission from anyone. As long as one did not spread fallacy to deceive people or publish rationals that would give rise to rebellion, no one would try to interfere. Just like those bookstores that marketed their own printed publications, there were no restrictions. In this sort of publishing environment, it was simply a diamond era for print media.

After hearing Yan Liqiang’s explanation, Fang Beidou quickly understood what Yan Liqiang’s desired newspaper would look like.

“So your intention is to have me take these 100,000 taels of silver to run a newspaper business….”

“Yes, that’s right. You can go to the Imperial Capital to find and buy a printing workshop first. As for the rest, we can slowly discuss how we will execute it…”