Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 5 The Newspaper Crisis
"...No, the angle of this photo is too blurry, I can't see Cheryl's face at all...It can't be used in typography..."

"However, this is already the closest one to Cheryl among all the photos I took, and I was kicked out by them later."

"If it really doesn't work, we can only give up this report."

"But if this is the case, this week's material is not enough. We have not enough typesetting for several weeks in a row. If this continues..."

bang-

The sound of pushing the door outside interrupted the discussion in the newspaper office.

"Good morning, Colin."

Looking at Colin who came to the newspaper office, Old John helped the brass reading glasses hanging on the bridge of his nose, and said with a wrinkled smile on his skinny face.

"Good morning, John."

Taking off his coat and hat and hanging it on the floor stand beside him, Colin nodded to Old John who was sitting in front of the heavy machine, and shifted his gaze to the man with a dull expression beside Old John, and said with a smile: "...and little John, good morning."

"Morning... good morning, Colin."

Hearing Colin's greeting, Little John responded with a stiff smile on his dull face, grabbing the camera around his neck.

In front of the typesetting machine, seeing Little John's dull reaction, Old John shook his head helplessly, and then said to Colin, "Boss, the sales of "The Courier" have dropped again this week. Tell me that more than half of the newspapers we published this time did not sell, and in the end they had to sell the remaining newspapers at a discount. If this happens again, they will not Another delivery for the Courier . . . "

It's a little different from the anti-world, although it's still in the news media industry.

But Ke Lin's identity has changed from a journalist to the owner of the "Messenger Newspaper" in front of him.

However, it can be seen from Old John's words that the current situation of the newspaper office is not optimistic.

The impact of the Great Depression swept across all walks of life in the United States.

As the "Messenger Newspaper" of the news newspaper industry, it is naturally not immune, especially with the introduction of the "Child Labor Protection Measures", the progressives advocated the promotion of the restriction of child labor, and successfully raised the working age of newspaper boys during the Great Depression. A blow to the living space of local tabloids like the "Courier".

A large number of cheap newsboy workers have been lost, and the labor cost of newspaper printing and delivery has further increased.

Let the "Messenger Newspaper"'s not-so-high sales volume become even more sluggish.

"I see."

Without saying anything, Colin nodded, indicating that he knew the situation.

In fact, Ke Lin was also at a loss as to what to do about the current predicament that the "Messenger Newspaper" was facing.

Judging from the clues he found after traveling for a week, in fact, the operation of the newspaper office has long been in crisis.

Even, in the desk drawer of Kelin newspaper, a bank mortgage certificate was lying there quietly.

Only under the impact of the Great Depression, a large number of banks were forced to go bankrupt.

Among them was the one that Ke Lin originally planned to mortgage the "Messenger Newspaper".

Colin frowned, walked to his desk and sat down.

Along with the boss's silence, the atmosphere in the entire newspaper office became a little uneasy.

Sitting in front of the typesetting machine, Old Johnson pressed the button with a worried expression on his face. At his current age, once he loses his job in the newspaper office, there is no possibility of re-employment at all.

What's more, the people hit by this kind of unemployment not only cover Old John alone, but also his son Little John.

That's right, Old John and Little John who work in this "Messenger Newspaper" are actually father and son.

So once the newspaper goes bankrupt, what will be involved will be the livelihood of their entire family.

On the side, feeling the uneasiness emanating from his father, Old John, Little John opened his mouth in the direction of Colin, but finally lowered his head silently, with a look of frustration on his face.

"Is there really no other way?"

Sitting at the desk, Colin muttered to himself.

Naturally, he didn't want the "Courier" to go out of business if he could.

Especially in the current environment of the Great Depression, once the newspaper office collapsed, not only the old John and his son, the employees, would be unemployed, but also the boss Colin himself.

Thinking of this, Colin, who was sitting at the desk, twisted his body unconsciously.

He didn't want to be one of those people who roamed the streets of New York.

It's just that subjective ideas are one thing, and reality seems to be another.

Right now, judging from the increasingly sluggish newspaper sales of the "Courier Newspaper", it seems that he is getting closer and closer to the future of street bums.

"No."

Shaking his head and suppressing the uneasy thoughts in his mind, Colin began to seriously think about the solution.

As a newspaper, the options available to weather the immediate bankruptcy crisis are rather limited.

Among them, the most reliable way is to increase the sales of newspapers.

For example, big newspapers such as "Fortune" and "Wall Street Journal" were also affected by the economic impact of the Great Depression in the early stage, resulting in a sharp drop in sales, but they quickly found a solution. The eyes of the people who are in urgent need of work to maintain their livelihoods, so as to stabilize sales.

However, such a method is only useful for large newspapers, because they have a large number of contacts and channels in their hands, which can be turned into resources.

For a local tabloid as focused on the day-to-day life of New York City residents as the Courier-Journal, there was simply no such outlet.

Of course, no merchants are willing to publish recruitment information in weekly newspapers like them.

In fact, the original "Courier" was also a daily newspaper, but with the impact of the Great Depression, in order to survive, various attempts were made, including reducing costs and changing to a weekly newspaper, but the results were minimal.

"...to increase the sales of newspapers."

Sighing silently, Colin murmured and turned his gaze to the old newspapers piled up in front of his desk.

As the Courier failed to sell, the pile of old papers on his desk grew.

He took out a newspaper and opened it. The report on the premiere of the silent film "City Lights" immediately appeared in front of Colin.

As a silent film directed and starred by comedy master Charlie Chaplin.

The filming process of "City Lights" was not smooth, especially with the emergence of sound films, which had a huge impact on Chaplin's film career. It took three years.

It is said that Chaplin did not have much confidence in the box office of "City Lights" at the time.

Unexpectedly, however, the movie was a huge hit once it was released.

On the day of the premiere, the theater was surrounded by movie fans, and the surrounding shop windows were smashed by the crowd, so that the local police were sent to maintain order. You must know that the time when the movie was released coincided with the worst economic crisis in the United States during the Great Depression. During this period, the success of "City Lights" in such an unfavorable environment is enough to prove the excellence of Chaplin and the film itself.

It is worth mentioning that on the day of the premiere, Einstein was also invited to attend the premiere of the film, and was moved to tears at the end of the film.

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(End of this chapter)