**Chapter 43: Cooperation**
2023-05-02 Author: Yue Shang Xintou
Putting down the newspaper in his hand, Collin's weakened Super-Hearing activated, hearing a series of hurried footsteps approaching the newspaper office.
"Boss..." He subconsciously looked up at the doorway and saw Little John appear, drenched in sweat.
"I've investigated the nearby publishing houses as you instructed." Meeting Collin's gaze, Little John's excited voice instinctively lowered a few notches. He took a breath, composed himself, and then continued, "Generally, these publishers aren't doing too well. I specifically asked around, and many of them expressed concern, afraid they might get implicated..."
Currently, the specific bill has not yet been released. However, some magazine publishers have already received lawsuits from the United States Post Office Department, on charges that their magazines were suspected of obscenity and their content was not "public welfare information." Many publishing houses, especially small and medium-sized ones, began to worry if they would be the next target.
"To avoid potential imprisonment, many publishers were forced to adjust their magazine content, but this also led to a problem: the loss of original subscribers. In the worst case I encountered, a publishing house's magazine subscriptions dropped by more than two-thirds."
The readership attracted by vulgar content clearly wouldn't appreciate a 'proper' magazine.
"So, have you completed what I asked you to do?" Inside the Messenger Newspaper office, Collin listened intently to Little John's investigation before speaking.
"It's done." Little John nodded. "They're even eager to say they'll do anything as long as The Messenger is willing to publish the comic in their magazine."
Collin's refusal of the publishing houses' proposals wasn't because he was unwilling to serialize Superman in a magazine. On the contrary, with the comic's serialization, The Messenger's sales had gradually stabilized.
Therefore, he needed a new channel to increase the popularity of the Superman comic and thus gain more Faith. Publishing a magazine was clearly a good idea.
Previously, both Famous Comics and Humor Publishing House had shown great sincerity. However, Collin rejected them all for various reasons, not only because he had doubts about the conditions they proposed, but also because he couldn't guarantee that serializing Superman in someone else's hands would generate a response that could also be converted into Faith.
Now, it seemed his decision was clearly the right one. The current situation might be a crisis for the large and small publishing houses in New York City, but for Collin, it was a rare opportunity.
An opportunity to personally create a comic magazine for the Messenger Newspaper.
...
New York, inside a small publishing house. Publisher Harry Donenfeld paced restlessly in his office.
"Calm down, Harry." Looking at the anxious Harry Donenfeld before him, his colleague and partner, Jack Kriendler, couldn't help but advise.
"How can I calm down..." Hearing his friend's words, Harry stopped, his voice tinged with anxiety as he said, "Ever since the damned Senate news was published in the newspaper, our magazine sales have plummeted. Do you know how many magazines we sold yesterday? Three thousand copies, not even a tenth of what we used to sell! If this continues, we'll be bankrupt soon!"
"I know, but this isn't just our problem, everyone's in the same boat." Hearing Harry's complaints, Jack's expression was equally helpless as he spoke.
Previously, the publishing house had capitalized on the wave of the Yellow Press Era, extensively publishing and featuring vulgar magazines to earn money. But now, with the end of the Yellow Press Era and the influence of new policies, to avoid the disaster of imprisonment, they had to painfully abandon the publishing house's original low-brow approach. They turned to publishing various fashionable and serious content instead, only to face widespread rejection from their original readers. Magazine sales plummeted even further, leading to continuous losses.
If this continued, the two of them simply wouldn't be able to sustain the publishing house's deficit.
"Let's just go back to publishing the original content," Harry muttered through gritted teeth, his heart twitching at the thought of the publishing house's losses he'd seen that morning. He glanced at the pile of new magazines stacked like a small mountain in the corner of the office.
"If you want to live in prison, I wouldn't object to that suggestion."
"Even going to prison is better than bankruptcy; at least you can still eat in there." Although he spoke those words, Harry didn't have the courage to actually follow through. He still had a large family to support. Once imprisoned, his family would have no way to survive the Great Depression.
Just as the two were distressed by the publishing house's current difficult situation, a knocking sound suddenly came from outside the door.
"Come in." The sudden knocking interrupted their conversation. Inside the office, Harry and Jack exchanged glances. Jack cautiously reached his hand under the table to grasp a gun handle, then looked up and nodded at Harry, who then felt relieved enough to reply to the person outside the door.
Don't think their reaction was an exaggeration; in fact, this was the most normal response during the Great Depression. Harry had witnessed it more than once: on the streets of New York City, robbers borrowing guns from police officers and then splitting the loot together after the robbery.
It was a chaotic and insane era. Everyone racked their brains just to survive, and people would disregard anything for money. A uniform was merely a convenient tool for those individuals, after all, the government had owed them wages for a long time.
Then, the two saw the office door open, and a man in a black trench coat walked in. He took off his hat, revealing a young face, exuding a confidence and composure rare in this era.
"Good morning, Mr. Jack Kriendler, Mr. Harry Donenfeld." His gaze swept over the two men in the office. Collin ignored Jack's noticeably abnormal posture, placed the hat he was holding against his chest, and calmly greeted them.
"I am Collin Roper, the owner of The Messenger. The main purpose of this visit is to discuss some matters of cooperation regarding magazines with your publishing house."
After listening to Collin's self-introduction, Harry and Jack exchanged glances.
"The Messenger! Collin Roper?" "Cooperation?"
Pushing the gun handle he held a bit further into the drawer, Jack at the desk murmured the name "The Messenger" and asked, somewhat uncertainly, "If I'm not mistaken, The Messenger is the newspaper that serializes the Superman comic, isn't it?"
Thanks to Long Haomiao for the 100 Qidian Coin reward. Please support the new book~ (end of chapter)