Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 244 New News Agency

"The San Jose Mercury News?"

In front of the newspaper, John Daly looked at the signboard of the San Jose Mercury News with a puzzled expression on his face.

He never imagined that the client would choose this place to meet the next day.

If Colin hadn't left a note at the front desk of the hotel, John Daly might not even have been able to find him.

"...and it is yours now, Mr. Colin Luper!"

When he came to the door of the newspaper office, the first thing John Daly heard was a slightly excited voice coming from inside.

When he opened the door, he saw a grey-haired man shaking hands with Colin with a smile on his face, and around him were several employees with uneasy smiles on their faces.

Hearing the movement from the door, the voice in the newspaper office became quieter.

The man turned his head and glanced at John Daly who appeared at the door, then turned his head and looked at Colin in front of him, who then said to John Daly.

"Sorry, John Daly, I may need a little more time to settle the newspaper business."

"No problem, Mr. Colin Looper, the car is just outside."

Hearing this, John Daly nodded, glanced at the people in the newspaper office, then turned around and returned to the car to wait.

The acquisition of the "San Jose Mercury News" went more smoothly than expected.

Perhaps it was because the owner of the newspaper office already had the idea of ​​selling it, so after a period of haggling, Colin finally bought the management right of the newspaper office for [-] US dollars.

So far, the "San Jose Mercury News" has become the second newspaper published in San Francisco in the hands of Colin.

Naturally, the first to bear the brunt of the change of the newspaper boss is the original employees of the "San Jose Mercury News", which is a local tabloid.There are not many people in the San Jose Mercury News, but there are three workers. Besides the typesetting workers, there is also a reporter and an editor.

The general structure is similar to that of Colin's original Messenger newspaper.

Just now, they witnessed the whole process of changing hands of the newspaper office, and they were feeling uneasy at this time.

After successfully transferring the newspaper, the man left the newspaper office without looking back.

With more than 3 US dollars, he can live comfortably in the Great Depression without worrying about the next business problems of the "San Jose Mercury News".

Watching the back of the man leaving, Ke Lin turned his head and scanned the remaining workers in the newspaper office.

"So, who wants to leave together?"

Hearing what Ke Lin said, the three people in the newspaper office looked at each other, but tacitly did not make any reaction.

"very good."

Looking at the three people who wanted to stay in the newspaper, Colin nodded: "Since you are willing to stay, it means that you still want to continue this job, and the purpose of my buying the newspaper is also to want Keep publishing newspapers."

In the newspaper office, the three couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they heard Ke Lin's assurance.

"but……"

However, in the next second, Ke Lin's words lifted their hearts from letting go.

Glancing over the three people who looked nervous in front of him, Colin continued: "Before that, the name of the "San Jose Mercury News" needs to be changed, so it should be called "San Jose Mercury News". The content also needs to be greatly revised, in addition to the original report, a part of the comic page needs to be added."

"Comic page?"

Hearing Ke Lin's request for a revision, the workers in the newspaper looked at each other, and finally the editor spoke up and asked cautiously, "I don't know, what do you mean by the cartoon?"

"Superman!"

……

Simply explain the problems of the San Jose Mercury Newspaper or the San Jose Mercury Newspaper, and Colin will leave the newspaper first.

He is very clear that whether it is the revision of the newspaper or the follow-up operation, it cannot be handled in a few words.

Right now, Colin is only confirming the general development direction of the "San Jose Mercury News", and the next specific operation needs to be controlled by someone.

Regarding the candidate for control, Ke Lin already had a rough outline in his mind.

At present, most of Colin's focus is still in New York, so it is impossible for him to stay in San Francisco to run the newspaper for a long time.

Therefore, a trustworthy employee has become the focus of Ke Lin's consideration.

Old John is a good candidate. As an old employee of the Courier newspaper, he not only knows the basics, but also experienced the development process of the "Daily Courier" from a local tabloid to one of the top newspapers in New York. He has rich experience in newspaper offices .

Arranging him to San Francisco to be in charge of the operation of the "San Jose Courier-Journal" obviously met Colin's expectations.

However, the only thing that needs to be considered is how to convince Old John himself to develop from New York to San Francisco.

Colin wasn't too worried about this.

After all, in this era of high unemployment, a stable job is hard to find.

I believe that Old John himself will fully understand this.

……

"Mr. Ke Lin, please allow me to introduce, this is my investor, who has been supporting me since the invention of television..."

That afternoon, in Ferro Farnsworth's laboratory.

Colin meets Filo and the investors in his invention.

These investors, who are willing to provide funds to Ferro Farnsworth, naturally value the prospects of his TV.

Therefore, after learning that there might be problems with the patent of the TV set, they hurried over.

"Sorry, Mr. Colin Luper, it's not that I don't believe what you said, it's just that all this is a bit too sensational. If this is true, wouldn't it represent what we have invested in the Ferro experiment in the past? All the funds have been wiped out?"

Of course, not all investors believed what Ke Lin said.

Some of them also think that this is just a commercial method of Ke Lin, the purpose is to lower the price to obtain the TV patent license in Ferro's hands.

"If you follow the news, you will know that RCA's promotion of televisions has been going on for a long time, and the related reports have become more frequent recently. It is obvious that some results have been obtained..."

Colin didn't think that his few words could persuade Ferro Farnsworth and others to give him the patent of the TV set.

Fortunately, however, he was prepared for this.

While speaking, Colin took out the news he had collected in New York. Since he took the train all the way to San Francisco, he was naturally fully prepared.

Taking the newspaper in Colin's hand, Ferro Farnsworth soon saw the interview about Radio Corporation of America on it.

"...America Radio Corporation stated that the TVs manufactured by the company have made staged progress, and I believe that interviews will be available in a short time. The new TVs are different from traditional mechanical TVs in terms of signal reception. , will change the history of television... Feratimir Svrogin, as the inventor of television, provided a lot of ideas for the R&D of American Radio Corporation, and is also the key to the success of television..."

"Feratimir Svrogin?"

For this name, Ferro Farnsworth has some impressions. It seems that after he obtained the patent for the invention of the television, he appeared as one of the few inventors who also claimed to have invented the television set.

"They are stealing, cheating!"

"Television was obviously invented by Filo!"

"The Radio Corporation of America is so daring to admit that it is the inventor of television in such a grand manner, they have not even paid a patent fee..."

In the news, the Radio Corporation of America has clearly admitted that the televisions it produces are electronic televisions that are different from traditional mechanical televisions.

The patent right for electronic television is in the hands of Ferro Farnsworth.

Therefore, several investors are naturally very angry. They have been investing in Ferro Farnsworth's invention for a long time, in order to be able to become the beneficiaries of this invention when the TV is industrialized in the future, but Radio Corporation of America not only cut off the production of TV sets, but the key point is not to pay patent fees.

This is obviously unacceptable to them, because once it is determined that the patent for the TV set belongs to RCA.

Not only in the future, these investors will not be able to obtain the patent fees for TV production, and even the experimental funds invested in Ferro Farnsworth before will be in vain.

After reading the news in Kelin's newspaper, most investors were filled with righteous indignation.

After all, what Radio Corporation of America did really touched their interests, but these investors couldn't help hesitating when they thought of the enormous power of Radio Corporation of America.

It's one thing to be angry at what RCA is doing, but it's clearly powerless to try to get them to do more.

After all, with the development of radio, especially the popularity of broadcasting, American Radio Corporation has become the largest radio company in the United States, not to mention that American Radio Corporation is backed by the support of the US government.

This is why Ferro Farnsworth and investors have never been able to cause much trouble to RCA.

After all, the strength of an individual is too weak compared to a group, especially in a capitalist society like the United States.

The power of capital has easily crushed inventors like Ferro Farnsworth.

Knowing that RCA was involved in the copyright issue of TV patents, the expressions on the faces of several investors were obviously shaken. They did not invest much money in Ferro Farnsworth. There are losses but at least they can barely accept it.

However, the few remaining people obviously cannot make an easy decision. Some of them have already invested a large sum of money in Ferro Farnsworth's TV, and there is no possibility of retreating. A road accompanied Fei Luo to the dark, but some of them also reacted.

Now that the matter has come to this point, Colin is willing to help Ferro Farnsworth in the joint production of televisions even though he knows the Radio Corporation of America, so he naturally has his own confidence.

"Mr. Colin Luper, do you have a way, or are you simply the person in charge of patent negotiations at Radio Corporation of America?"

Seeing Ke Lin with a calm expression in front of him, several investors reacted, and some even asked whimsically.

"Unfortunately, I am not."

Shaking his head, Ke Lin denied the investor's absurd idea.

"RCA clearly never intended to pay you for your patents."

Ke Lin's words directly extinguished the last glimmer of hope in the hearts of investors.

"So, what is the reason why you came to San Francisco all the way?"

Hearing this, some investors were puzzled.

At present, Ferro Farnsworth's TV patent right has clearly gone awry. Even investors like them have vague thoughts of withdrawing. What is the reason for Colin's coming here?

It can't be because of a sense of justice, because I can't understand what the American radio company is doing.

Even Philo Farnsworth could not believe it when he said it.

"As for the reason, I have already explained to Mr. Ferro before that I see the prospect of TV, so I hope to cooperate with him to produce TV."

From the beginning to the end, he came to San Francisco for only one purpose, and that was the TV set.

Others, including the acquisition of the newspaper, were just accidents in the process.

"Maybe I didn't introduce it clearly before. Colin Luper, in addition to having a machinery factory in New York, also runs a newspaper office. The "Daily Courier" published by him is currently the newspaper with the largest circulation in New York... "

Although, in addition to the "Daily Courier", the "World Journal" is also good, but the "World Journal" will soon be a thing of the past, so it is not a lie for Colin to say that his newspaper is the largest in New York.

"The Daily Courier?"

The New York newspapers are obviously still unfamiliar with people like Ferro Farnsworth who live in San Francisco, but there are also a few well-informed investors who have responded.

"Is it the newspaper that published Superman?"

Because one city has one newspaper, the coverage of newspapers has its limitations, but comics are obviously not in this category.

San Francisco also has the book "Messenger Comics", which is the work that Jack was responsible for before.

Although there is a time gap between comics in New York and San Francisco due to the distance, "Messenger Comics" also has a certain market in San Francisco.

In addition, the radio drama "The Adventures of Superman" also cultivated a group of loyal listeners in San Francisco.

The coldness of "The Adventures of Superman" is only relative to the radio drama "The Lone Ranger". In fact, apart from "The Lone Ranger", "The Adventures of Superman" is still popular, and the audience rating in San Francisco has always remained good. Achievements, occupying the No.3 position of the San Francisco radio drama.

(End of this chapter)