"This one won't do, it's too stiff!"
"This one won't do either, you wrote about the Angel saving people as if it were a case of 'dog eat dog'…"
The next day, Fang Yuan sighed as he looked at the articles submitted by the two reporters.
None of them were to his liking.
"Quentin, Baker, didn't you two claim to have the potential of ace reporters? How can you not even write a decent article?"
Fang Yuan thought to himself, "Your names are wasted on you two."
Quentin Baker, Mysterio in Marvel, whose most notable achievement in the movies was creating a Superhero and tricking Tony Stark's foolish son, Peter Parker, out of Tony's inheritance.
Ever since acquiring All Heavens Vought Company, Fang Yuan had taken Mysterio as his role model.
But these two employees, each bearing half of Mysterio's name, made him a little disappointed.
"Our main problem is… we haven't written this type of story before," said the tall, thin reporter, Quentin Black, somewhat ashamed.
"Exactly." The other reporter, shorter and plumper, named Larry Baker, echoed.
Fang Yuan thought about it and agreed, so he explained his requirements in more detail.
"The most important point is that the Angel is a positive character, and his identity as a Superhero must be highlighted."
"Then it needs to be unique and attract readers. We are a tabloid now, the more people who read it, the more income you will get."
Fang Yuan paused briefly, then brought out his trump card: "For this issue, for every multiple increase in sales compared to the last issue, your manuscript fees will increase by the same multiple, up to a maximum of 500 U.S. dollars!"
Quentin and Baker's eyes instantly turned red. Their current monthly salary was only 170 U.S. dollars!
Money moves hearts, and they rushed back to their desks to seclude themselves and write their articles.
After they left, Fang Yuan shook his head and sighed, "Sure enough, a newspaper that's about to go bankrupt can't find talent."
Quentin and Baker, described as having "ace reporter potential," simply meant they didn't have much ability right now.
The newspaper he owned was called The Observer Daily, a small, soon-to-be-bankrupt tabloid that Fang Yuan had acquired, with a total of only sixteen employees.
Among the newspapers in New York, The Observer Daily was considered a century-old newspaper, having fluctuated between suspension and bankruptcy for a hundred years, with fifty of those years spent in suspension.
Although Fang Yuan said he wanted to create Vought Corporation, Vought was currently just an empty shell, and its establishment or non-establishment didn't matter much.
What is the soul of Vought?
Cunning, sinister, inhumane, profit-driven?
Well, all of those seem correct, but the reason Vought can be so arrogant is entirely because they control the World's top public opinion resources.
With that level of propaganda capability, Vought can make the dead sound alive, and black sound White. Since Fang Yuan is All Heavens Vought Company, he naturally has to emulate them.
It's just that while Charles gave Fang Yuan a lot of money, it wasn't enough to buy a TV station.
Anyway, Fang Yuan just needed a tool for propaganda and a voice, so he chose the quickest channel to get started—a newspaper.
Moreover, in the 1960s, although newspapers were already past their peak, they still had a great deal of influence.
The Observer Daily was named a daily, but due to lack of funds, it was currently only published on Sundays, and its distribution was limited to the New York area.
Quentin and Baker were the only two people Fang Yuan found in the newspaper who wrote decent articles.
"There are still limitations of the era."
Fang Yuan pouted. After arranging for the other newspaper staff to prepare printing materials and filler news, he planned to write the articles himself.
But just then, Quentin and Baker walked in, one after the other, carrying their latest articles.
Since they were already there, Fang Yuan picked them up and started reading. Then he frowned, looking at the two in surprise.
"The Superhero Angel is an envoy sent by God to the human World, Quentin? You even vividly described a story where God assigned tasks to the Angel in Heaven?" he asked incredulously, "Aren't you afraid the believers will drag you out and burn you for writing such nonsense?"
"How could that happen?" Quentin said excitedly, "Readers love these kinds of stories!"
Fang Yuan then looked at Baker: "You're also outrageous. You actually wrote that when the Angel was fighting criminals, God, to punish evil, sent down divine Fire and burned down a factory."
"If I remember correctly, this morning's newspaper said the cause of the fire was the factory owner's drunken negligence, right? Are you fabricating news?"
Baker said nonchalantly, "Boss, readers just like to see excitement, who cares about the truth?"
"And the Superhero Angel is real, writing like this will definitely create a sensation!"
Fang Yuan had investigated earlier and found that this World had no Marvel or DC, and the concept of Superheroes had not yet emerged. If he wrote about the Angel like this, many people would indeed read it.
Fang Yuan, coming from the 21st century, still remembered that news needed to be truthful. Although he wanted to develop in Vought's direction, he didn't plan to be so outrageous right from the start.
But seeing Quentin and Baker's matter-of-fact expressions, he realized that the survival methods of tabloids were completely different from those of major newspapers.
Moreover, the 1960s were different from the 21st century. In this era, news fabrication was perfectly normal, with stories of Water monsters and aliens constantly emerging.
News media favored "launching satellites" style reporting, and the public, lacking entertainment, also loved to read these sensational stories.
It was then that Fang Yuan realized that the person with the limitations of the era was himself.
But he had to admit, compared to the articles he planned to write, Quentin and Baker's submissions were more appealing.
And they had, without instruction, mastered the key Vought Corporation spirits of telling lies and writing scripts.
Were they really geniuses?
Anyway, it was very Vought.
So Fang Yuan simply let himself go.
"You guys just write the news as stories. I want to see entire articles about the Angel, whatever attracts attention, do it!" Fang Yuan finally decided.
Professionals do professional things. Since Quentin and Baker were so professional at making up stories, he only needed to guide the direction.
The articles were quickly finalized, and then a small old man in a baseball cap ran over. His name was Chuck, and he was in charge of the newspaper's printing work.
"Boss, how many copies of the newspaper are we printing this time?" Old Chuck asked.
"Let's print about 30,000 copies for now," Fang Yuan replied.
"30,000?" Old Chuck was incredulous.
"Last week we printed 10,000 copies," Old Chuck pursed his lips, carefully reminding, "but only sold a little over 5,000."
Fang Yuan, of course, knew this. He had even researched The New York Post, a highly influential newspaper in New York, which had a daily circulation of approximately 700,000 copies.
Compared to that, The Observer Daily was indeed pitifully small, only considered a community newspaper.
"We'll print this many initially, and be ready to print more at any time," Fang Yuan decided.
Another very important reason Fang Yuan bought this newspaper was that it came with a printing factory.
Although Old Chuck couldn't quite understand, he still went back to the printing factory and did as he was told.
Then Billy, the newspaper sales manager, also came over with a long face.
"Boss, I heard you plan to print 30,000 newspapers tomorrow? We can't sell that many."
Newspapers are hard to sell?
This was no problem for Fang Yuan at all. He had never thought of making money by selling newspapers.
His goal was to expand Mutant influence. How much money could he make selling newspapers? Is having Superpowers not better?
"What is the price of one newspaper now? Where is it mainly sold?" Fang Yuan asked.
"3 U.S. cents," Billy replied, "mainly through retail, wholesalers, and home delivery subscriptions."
Fang Yuan waved his hand: "Lower the price!"
"From now on, it's 1 U.S. cent per copy. Wholesalers get 100 copies for 60 U.S. cents, and home delivery subscriptions all get a 20% discount!"
"What?" Billy was shocked, "That would certainly sell them, but it's a complete loss!"
1 U.S. cent per newspaper was not without precedent. 100 years ago, the "penny press" craze, which was 1 U.S. cent per newspaper, swept through, but now it was 100 years later.
Even if all 30,000 copies were sold, it would only be 300 U.S. dollars, not even enough for Fang Yuan to pay Quentin and Baker's manuscript fees.
"Just do it this way. Don't worry, the newspaper won't go bankrupt."
Fang Yuan shook his head.
What's a loss? What he wanted was fame, and fame meant Superpowers.
Where could he find such a good deal as getting Superpowers by losing money?
You will get 90 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
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