Jiang Xiaoman went to the county TV station's integrated media office, where he was received by Mi Li, the deputy director of the integrated media center, who had been recommended to him by Sun Zheyuan.
After hearing Jiang Xiaoman's purpose, Director Mi said somewhat awkwardly—
"Xiaoman, you were introduced by Secretary Sun, so I won't say any more pleasantries."
“If this had happened last year, before our county’s TV station and newspaper had merged to form this integrated media center, we definitely could have sent a reporter there to report on it.”
"But this year is different. The higher-ups have performance targets for our media convergence center. Events like this rural tourism festival are all commercial activities that require payment..."
As soon as Director Mi said those words, Jiang Xiaoman knew that the matter was probably doomed to fail.
Sure enough, after Mili finished speaking, she picked up a beautifully printed business promotion brochure from the table, opened it to a page, and handed it to Jiang Xiaoman to read.
“Secretary Sun called me yesterday and told me about your current difficulties. I’ve thought about it and this package is currently the most cost-effective and suitable for the situation in Langshan Town. Please take a look.”
Jiang Xiaoman looked down for a while.
To be honest, Director Mi's proposal was not intended to rip them off. The total cost of the package was 150,000 yuan. In addition to a live broadcast event, it would also help them produce a new promotional video for Langshan Town, provide three consecutive days of posts on the local official WeChat account, a fullnewspaper ad before and after the event, and half a month of tourism promotion on the local radio station.
Compared to the promotional videos that some influential self-media figures charge hundreds of thousands of yuan per video, this package of promotional services is only 150,000 yuan, which is definitely a friendly price.
Director Mi knew that Langshan Town was facing difficulties and was worried about the difficulty in applying for funding, so he offered to help apply to the station leaders for an additional 20,000 yuan discount.
"Director Mi, thank you very much for your concern for Langshan Town. I won't mince words with you. Let alone an additional discount of 20,000 yuan, even the total publicity fee for the entire event is 20,000 yuan, which our town doesn't have the funds for."
Jiang Xiaoman gave a wry smile, "You and Brother Zheyuan are friends, so you must have heard him talk about the difficulties he faced when he worked in our town before."
“Our town is a notoriously poor town, and our annual publicity budget is less than 100,000 yuan. Before, Zheyuan and his friends couldn't bear to spend money on custom-made banners, so they bought red cloth online, cut it into strips, cut words out of white paper, and pasted them on. When they needed to use it again, they would just peel off the words, and the red cloth could be reused…”
Jiang Xiaoman wasn't saying this to deliberately elicit sympathy; it was simply the situation in the town.
Although the villagers have made some money with them in the past two years, they had suffered huge losses before. The money they earned in the past two years was either used to pay off the debts they had incurred or to save money to renovate their old houses. The town's collective economy is not as good as their village-run enterprises.
However, before leaving, Jiang Xiaoman still took the business promotion manual with her.
Although he couldn't afford to spend the money now, he believed that they would eventually be able to spend money to advertise in the county!
After seeing Jiang Xiaoman off, Mi Li felt very heavy-hearted.
She was transferred from the front lines of journalism. In the past, when they went to rural towns to report news and write articles, they never needed the other party to pay them. They were lucky if they were given a meal.
But now the higher-ups have reorganized the TV station and newspaper's operations, and they have an annual performance target of five million for their business lines. They have no choice but to delegate the task down the chain of command.
In Mili's opinion, a poor town like Langshan should not be charged money!
But there's nothing we can do; this is the rule set by the higher authorities. If Langshan Town is made an exception and charges free of charge, what about the other towns?
If they make an exception and offer everything for free, their media convergence center won't be able to pay salaries...
Ultimately, it all comes down to not having enough money. Sigh!
After leaving the media center, Jiang Xiaoman lost interest in shopping at the supermarket. She bought a sesame seed cake with pork tenderloin and a cup of the cheapest iced lemonade from a roadside vendor. After eating and drinking her fill, she drove straight home.
Since we can't rely on the county's publicity resources, we have to find other ways.
With his and Jiang Yu's fan base, organizing an online event would definitely boost viewership.
However, the reason he wanted to hold such an online tourism festival was not to show off online, but to take this opportunity to let people in the county know that Langshan is now a tourist destination, and that everyone can come and visit on weekends and holidays.
Attracting local tourists is the key to a sustainable and long-term business.
After all, even if tourists from other places are very curious about Langshan and have visited once and fulfilled their wish, they may not necessarily come back a second time.
Local tourists, however, are a different story. They're so close, and the prices are reasonable, making them perfect for families to visit during holidays. This is the stable customer base that Langshan needs to attract.
Even local government media outlets in small towns can still wield significant influence.
Jiang Xiaoman specifically looked through the official WeChat account of the county's media center. A peach blossom festival this spring had over 100,000 views. Subsequent reports showed that nearly 300,000 local tourists bought tickets to visit the festival over the weekend.
But anyone with a brain knows that those 300,000 local tourists were definitely bought with real money by the organizers by throwing money at local media outlets!
Because the promotion costs were too high, Jiang Xiaoman had to abandon the half-finished online tourism festival plan and come up with a new one.
Just as his fans had reminded him, he could take advantage of the opening day of the industrial park to promote Langshan's local specialties.
Whether or not local tourists come, it's good to make money by selling things.
After returning to the village and explaining the situation to everyone, they were all speechless.
Although they had never been in contact with the media before, they always thought that if they came across a news story, they could just go to the local media to report it and a reporter would come down to interview them. Why are they charging money now?
“This is different from a news report; it’s a commercial activity. The TV station went to great lengths to promote us, using equipment that cost several million yuan. It’s only right that we get paid,” Jiang Xiaoman quickly explained.
Although Director Mi didn't agree to give it to them for free, Jiang Xiaoman wasn't ungrateful. They were all just trying to make a living, and Director Mi had her own difficulties. After all, it was public property, and Director Mi couldn't just give it away like that.
Just like their village cooperative, even if it's an industry they invested in themselves, when he, Jiang Yu, and Lang Ying want to buy some local specialties as gifts, they can't just go to the cooperative to get them directly, otherwise the accounts will be messed up.
Moreover, they set a bad precedent, and others below will follow suit, eventually hollowing out the cooperative.
The eldest brother, let alone the second brother, they themselves strictly follow the rules, so how can they be demanding of the TV station?
There are also a lot of people at the TV station waiting to get paid!
"So what I mean is, let's change our approach and do what netizens have suggested: on the day the industrial park opens, let's do a live stream to promote our Langshan local specialties!"
"However, if we just do live-streaming sales, people might say we're taking advantage of the situation to make money. I thought about it on my way back, what do you think of this..."
Jiang Xiaoman explained her plans to everyone.
The educational environment in the village has indeed improved, and the new school buildings are even better than those in the central primary school in the township. However, there are still some children from poor families in the mountains who have to walk for tens of minutes or even one or two hours to go to school every day.
He wanted to establish a special scholarship fund in the name of the industrial park throughout Langshan Town.
In the future, any remote and impoverished family that rents a house in a township or village to accompany their child to school will be able to apply for a special educational assistance fund of 5,000 yuan per year.
Rural rents are cheap; some people only need to rent one room, and 100 yuan a month is enough. Adding in the living expenses for the adult and child, the student grant can completely cover the rent and living expenses for two semesters a year.
Jiang Xiaoman hadn't done this before, not because he couldn't afford it, but because it was hard to find work in the town and village. If parents went down the mountain to accompany their children to school, it would mean that an adult laborer would lose their income, which was simply unacceptable for the already impoverished mountain families.
Moreover, families in the mountains usually have more than one child. If the mother goes down the mountain to accompany the older child to study, what will happen to the younger child?
But things are different now. Whether in the town or the village, there are job opportunities everywhere. After accompanying their children to school, mothers can also find odd jobs nearby.
To take a recent example, Lang Ying's wild mushroom cultivation cooperative hires people every day to sort mushrooms. They earn 8 to 10 yuan per hour. If they work eight hours a day, they can save 70 to 80 yuan a day. Over a year, they can save up to 20,000 yuan.
What's more, this is the lowest-paying part-time job.
If you're willing to work hard, or learn a skill like Langshan embroidery or bamboo carving, you can earn just as much in a year as you would farming in the mountains.
"As long as our foundation can guarantee the basic living needs of mothers accompanying their children to study and impoverished students who come down from the mountains to study, I believe that more and more children in the mountains will come down to study."
"If we want to keep this foundation going, one live stream is definitely not enough. I'd like to discuss with everyone that once the industrial park opens, we'll definitely need to register an official live stream account. At that time, could a portion of the revenue from the live stream be used to cover the costs of maintaining the foundation and other charitable activities?"
"For example, for every item sold in our official live stream, we donate one or five cents to this foundation. In this way, little by little, if the foundation can have a stable and sufficient income, it can not only help students from remote and impoverished areas to attend school nearby, but also continue to support these children when they are admitted to high school or university."
“You all saw how difficult it was to recruit in the industrial park this time. I had to beg and plead with everyone I knew to finally get Young Master Jin to help us negotiate with the city investment company about affiliation. I was thinking that it’s better to rely on ourselves than on others. If Langshan can get a few more college graduates, even if only half of them are willing to come back to work in their hometown, then we won’t lack talent.”
The faster an industry develops, the greater the demand for specialized talent.
Jiang Xiaoman not only felt this, but the others present also shared the same sentiment.
“I think it’s feasible! We can make do for now, but once the industrial park opens, we’ll definitely introduce more advanced production lines. Our handicrafts, like Langshan embroidery, might even have a chance to be exported. It’s really too difficult to recruit highly educated people like this who know foreign languages and technology from outside and keep them here with peace of mind!” Lang Ying added.
"That's right! Let's start training them ourselves from now on! Ten years, twenty years! Sooner or later, Langshan won't need to beg and plead for people from outside; our own children will be able to help!" Jiang Yu slammed her hand on the table and was the first to stand up and declare, "Anyway, I will definitely support my three daughters through university. If any of them are greedy and refuse to come back to build up their hometown, they won't get a share of the family fortune!"
The proposal to establish a scholarship fund received unanimous support. Jiang Xiaoman then raised a second question: what should be sold in the live broadcast room on the opening day of the industrial park, and how much stock should be prepared?
Thinking about this, Jiang Xiaoman felt irritated again.
Each of them is currently keeping its own inventory records. If they could recruit a skilled person who could accurately calculate the inventory and shipments of their entire industrial park, they wouldn't need to waste time holding this meeting.
Just make a phone call, and all sorts of data will be sent to his phone immediately!
Ultimately, it's because Langshan is too poor and backward, with a "bad reputation." As soon as people hear that they're coming to work in Langshan, anyone with a little ambition is scared away.
We still need to develop the local economy as soon as possible to attract more talent and build Langshan together!
Chapter 271
That evening, after finishing his work, Sun Zheyuan took some time to call Jiang Xiaoman and ask how the negotiations for hiring a TV station to broadcast the program were going.
Hearing that TV stations now require payment for live broadcast promotion services, Sun Zheyuan remained silent for a while on the other end of the phone. Jiang Xiaoman almost thought he had lost the connection before Sun Zheyuan's tired voice finally came through.
"Xiaoman, I'm sorry, I didn't find out the details properly."
“Whenever our county party committee office has interview assignments, we usually ask the TV station to send reporters over directly.”
"I almost forgot, TV stations aren't obligated to report on townships. So, when does our town's industrial park open? I wonder if the town could invite the Party Secretary or the County Head to the opening ceremony. If those two high-ranking leaders are there, you won't have to pay for it; the TV station and newspaper will definitely send people to cover it."
Sun Zheyuan wiped his face, feeling a wave of weariness wash over him.
I thought that being in a higher position would allow me to do more. But in less than a year, this cruel and realistic society has taught me a lesson.
In the county, each department has its own considerations. The county party committee office is backed by the top leader, so other township departments will indeed give them some face.
But this sense of face becomes worthless once it touches upon the vested interests of various departments.
Sun Zheyuan never intended to use his position as the secretary to bully others or to force the TV station to give him face as the secretary's chief secretary.
But if he hadn't been so careless and hadn't thought things through, Jiang Xiaoman wouldn't have had to run into trouble.
Now that the other party has refused, if he tries to use his connections again, he will force the media convergence center to do a free live broadcast for the Langshan Village Cultural Tourism Industrial Park. It's not that it's impossible, but it's easy for Xiaoman to offend people.
After hanging up the phone, Sun Zheyuan lit a cigarette, sat quietly in his office for a while, thought for a moment, and then called Dang Yimin.
Dang Yimin had absolutely no idea about this!
Hearing that Jiang Xiaoman had gone to the TV station to save the town some advertising money but was met with a cold shoulder, Dang Yimin was both moved and angry, ultimately letting out a long sigh.
"Ah Yuan, Langshan is just too poor!!!"
If they could manage the collective economy better and have sufficient funds for activities, why would they make their children suffer like this?
It's just 150,000 yuan, isn't it?
That's just the advertising expenses for their entire township for the whole year...
Dang Yimin struggled internally for a while, but ultimately couldn't bear to spend the money.
Is it possible to squander a whole year's worth of publicity funds for a single event?
Even if you have a mine, you can't squander it like this! What's more, they not only don't have a mine, but they also have a lot of debt. Sigh~ With so much debt, there's no need to worry. The Party Secretary felt he could live on for another two years.
"Is there really no other way? Can't I call the Party Secretary and ask him to put in a good word with the TV station?"