Wen 丨 Cao Shengming
Source丨Media practical faction
"Lao Cao, when I went to Chengdu a few days ago, I saw that all the newspapers were reporting in large volumes, and after the experts' research, the matter of Sinking Silver in the River was true. You know, this is your exclusive report of the year! At the end of 2015, I received similar phone calls from several old colleagues of Chengdu Business Daily.
The old colleague has a little bit of a grievance. At the beginning of 1999, Lao Cao, then a reporter for the Chengdu Business Daily, based on the scientific research materials provided by Professor Wang Gang, an expert in the history of peasant wars and the history of the Qing Dynasty at the Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, made a series of reports on the fact that "Zhang Xianzhong left a large amount of historical sinking silver in the area of Jiangkou Town in Pengshan County, and no one has excavated it so far." This aroused great concern from all walks of life, and the Hong Kong media and some domestic media represented by the Beijing Evening News and the Beijing Youth Daily subsequently reprinted it.
Later, due to lack of funds, policy obstacles, and failure to obtain more "superior" level authoritative certification, the further excavation of "Jiangzhong Shenyin" ended without beginning. The series of reports by Chengdu Business Daily have also aroused the doubts of some good people.
Before the old colleagues called, the news coverage of the country's large and small media was already overwhelming. Relevant reports represented by Xinhua News Agency and West China Metropolis Daily show that there is no doubt about the incident of "Zhang Xianzhongzhong sinking silver in the middle of the river." At the end of 2015, more than 10 experts from the Institute of Archaeology of the Palace Museum, the Department of Comprehensive Archaeology of the National Museum of China, Chinese University, Peking University, the Institute of Underwater Archaeology of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology gathered in Pengshan District, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, and basically determined that pengshan "Jiangkou Shenyin Site" was one of the central areas of Shenyin.
In 2005 and 2011, a large number of cultural relics were found twice during the construction of the local Minjiang River Channel Project, including silver ingots engraved with the year number of "Great West" and gold coins and silver coins of "West King Reward".
Even more eye-catching is the fragmented golden seal, 12 centimeters long, 10 centimeters wide, weighing 730 grams, engraved with 29 characters, which has been identified as a national first-class cultural relic. "The Golden Seal may have been the first page of a decree issued by Zhang Xianzhong after he established the Great Western Kingdom in Chengdu." Wu Tiantian, director of the Pengshan District Cultural Management Institute, said.
However, after searching through all the reports, Professor Wang Gang, the first in China to provide complete scientific research materials and traveled with the reporter of Chengdu Business Daily in many directions and appealed to him, did not mention a word.
Yes, this matter is far from comparable to Columbus's discovery of the New World, but our social memory should maintain the least respect for the efforts and feelings of a scholar.
Opening the dusty memories, those familiar and unfamiliar scenes, began to pluck the strings with green and cheerfulness. "Shi Long to Shi Hu, Gold and Silver, Whoever Knows It, Buys Chengdu Province", the rhythm of this ancient nursery rhyme, once again crisply and brightly floated into my ear drums.
Deep inside, a warm smile suddenly burst out. Like a traveler on a long journey, he suddenly learned that the seedlings planted in the early years were already in the place of departure, with a magnificent posture and green shade.
01 Chengdu paper is expensive, and the opponent actually responds to the battle with slander
It was an afternoon sixteen years ago. An ordinary afternoon. Usually, even the needle fell to the ground, and no one picked it up. It was another extraordinary afternoon. That afternoon, I met Professor Wang Gang. Time is still faint, I can't remember the origin, the deepest impression is that night, the moon is dark, the wind is not high.
Surrounding Professor Wang Gang were a number of reporters from the mainstream media in Sichuan, such as West China Metropolis Daily, Sichuan Television Station and Chengdu Television Station. As if inadvertently, Professor Wang Gang told everyone a story to the effect that he found a place where a large amount of gold and silver jewelry was buried, which was left behind by the "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong when he was defeated and retired to Chengdu.
As an expert in the history of peasant wars and the history of the Qing Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty, Professor Wang Gang's journalistic sensitivity is no less than that of a mature journalist. For many years, he had been immersed in rigorous academic research, but his thinking did not become rigid, on the contrary, he found major news in the pile of old papers and was excited about it. What he wants to tell the journalists is that this major news has great cultural relics value and economic value, and it is worth vigorously exploring in modern society.
As an inland city, Chengdu has successively given birth to the "West China Metropolis Daily that set off the phenomenon of metropolitan newspapers in the country" and "Chengdu Commercial Daily, which became the first share of China's newspaper industry", which once grew into a second media highland comparable to Guangzhou. In the later journalism career of going south and north, many news colleagues are quite curious about this. I always tell them that when you walk the streets of Chengdu and see a tricycle lady holding a newspaper and reading it with relish as soon as you stop; when you come into contact with a non-journalist like Professor Wang Gang, you will understand it out of ten.
That day, back in the Chengdu Business Daily office, with a little excitement, I wrote a 600-word message and submitted it to the newspaper's manuscript library. At the time, I was only vaguely aware that I might have caught a big fish.
At that time, for me, who had just entered the news industry, like countless recruits, the first task of opening my eyes and tightening my legs every day was to look for news clues. The most exciting thing every day is not a delicious meal of wine and food, not a hormonal wave of male and female love, but a clue to interview, a manuscript to write and write and publish, even if it is only a small message of only a few dozen words, even if it is only a "slag draft" that is not worth mentioning in the eyes of old reporters, even if it ends up occupying only a small piece of tofu.
Half an hour later, a key reporter who had replaced the head of the department at the pre-editorial meeting called me over.
"Is this manuscript exclusive?"
"A lot of reporters were there. But it seems like they all say it's not news. ”
In his impression, he immediately called the chief editor on duty and said:
"It's a very interesting thing. You'll take a photojournalist to a supplemental interview tomorrow morning. Ask Professor Wang Gang if any reporters from other media have interviewed him later. ”
Examining the actual operation of a circle of domestic media, "point of view" can be said to be the original vocabulary of Chengdu Commercial Daily, and consciously become the primary language used by the leaders of Chengdu Commercial Daily to ask reporters. That is to say, whether there is a point of view and how much to see is the key element for Chengdu Business Daily to judge the importance of news. Compared with other urban media inky words such as "novelty", "point of view" has a stronger practical significance.
The next day, until press time, no other media followed up with the interview.
On the third day, a striking news appeared on the front page of Chengdu Business Daily:
"An expert yesterday met with a reporter of this newspaper to shake out the amazing "treasure map" in a certain place in Sichuan (citation) There are thousands of silver ships in the river (theme)."
Day 4: "Chuanzhong "Treasure Map" Excited Rongcheng From All Walks of Life (Citation) Shen Yin Detailed Address Temporarily Kept Secret (Theme)".
Day 5: "A great war 300 years ago, full of fire, a thousand ships destroyed... Treasure Map Genuine (Theme)".
Day 6: Reporter field trip, titled "Experts Appeared Yesterday to Unlock the Treasure (Introduction) A Thousand Ships of Gold and Silver Sank in Jiangkou Town (Theme) The Local Government Expressed Maximum Support for Treasure Hunting (Subtitle)".
Day seven: "2 million "buy" a thousand ships of gold and silver (theme) Experts say that the river needs to be diverted to naked excavation (subtitle)."
For a time, Zhang Xianzhong's sinking silver in the Middle River reported by Chengdu Business Daily became a hot topic in street talk. "Chengdu Business News Luoyang paper is expensive!" A reader lamented to reporters in front of the newsstand.
One after another, under the repeated bombardments, the brothers in the same city media began to dismiss it, and then they were stunned. The other reports they carefully wrote suddenly lost the heat they deserved. In this news competition, they appear dull and passive, and even red-eyed.
In the impression, a media also specially organized a negative news article to publicly question the matter of "Zhang Xianzhongzhong zhongshenyin", and even made a lot of remarks about Professor Wang Gang, to the effect that "the academic oil that is hyped up for Bo's fame" is quite a bit.
To this end, I was entrusted by the leaders of the newspaper to find Professor Wang Gang and said that I would sue the media to seek justice. I remember That Professor Wang Gang smiled and listened, and on a blank piece of paper, he wrote down the words "YouRong Is Big" and handed it to me. Since then, I have not mentioned a single word about this matter, but have continued to explain historical knowledge and stories to me with great interest. The magnanimity of the professor is truly amiable and respectable!
But unfortunately, this has caused some criticism within the newspaper, especially the wavering of the editorial level, which has led to the eventual unsustainability of the "backhand" of this group of reports, and has also led to the gold and silver treasures that have been sleeping at the bottom of the river for more than 300 years, and they have to sleep for another 16 years before they can begin to exert their social, economic and cultural heritage value.
02 Gao Miao planning, the early prototype of O2O
Today, looking back at the series of reports on the "Silver Thousand Ships Sinking in the River", it can be called a small news war, and the brother media have almost no ability to fight back. A very few of them also blushed sharply and made a faint move. They don't just lose to news sensitivity. The news planning of Chengdu Commercial Daily at that time was also high and clever to their expectations.
News planning is to combine social hotspots, refine the main facts of the news points, and then from the point to the surface, through a series of different angles of the news article, the news points are reported in turn. Chengdu Business Daily boldly introduced a hype element when using this tool at that time.
First of all, when throwing out the first report, the identity of the whistleblower was consciously concealed, expressed as "a mysterious professor who did not want to be named". Then, the main news point was expressed as "Chuanzhong Treasure Map", and the specific address of the treasure map was consciously and temporarily hidden again. While attracting the eye, it leaves enough suspense.
Then, the second part is not in a hurry to decrypt, but according to the scientific research materials and ancient books provided by experts, the reporter uses a smooth white painting technique to reproduce how a thousand ships sank into the river in the thrilling war 300 years ago; at the same time, through the report on the enthusiastic response of readers from all walks of life, it continues to trigger the reader's curiosity and continues to arouse the reader's high attention, which can be described as an appetite.
Another benefit of this treatment is that competitors are confused or even preconceived not to pay attention to it because of general hype. It is worth mentioning that in this transitional report, the timely and eye-catching annotation of the thematic column "There are sinking silver thousands of ships in the river" and the continued revelation of the mysterious professor are all indispensable elements. Otherwise, the manuscript will appear too thin and become a demolition for the sake of breaking the manuscript.
Then, the mysterious professor appeared at the reporter's visit, the address of the treasure map was revealed, and the reporter rushed to the scene to interview and report from all angles and angles.
Suddenly, an ancient nursery rhyme is rejuvenated. "Shi Long to Shi Hu, gold and silver, who knows it, bought Chengdu Province", has become the talk of people after tea and dinner. The water of the MinJiang River is clear, the water of the Minjiang River is rushing, the history is hooked, the sinking silver is emerging, and the climax is repeated. Just like the baggage in crosstalk, after layers of laying, and then shaking and revealing without a trace, it is the most explosive.
At this point, the competitors just woke up like a dream, suddenly realized, but it was too late, and the opportunity was lost. In the post-mortem summary, some leaders said: "This kind of planning also has certain risks, and the next time it is used, it must be changed." If I were a competitor, after the first report of your Chengdu Business Daily was thrown out, I would send out elite soldiers and bring you a pot. ”
Later, I entered the online media, and I also easily and skillfully used the news planning tool, splitting some major press releases into several small articles for release, and achieved good click rate and user visits.
It is worth mentioning that in the whole process of writing at that time, we also had a follow-up link in our minds. That is, with the support of the local government, the introduction of various funds, large-scale development and mining of sinking silver at the same time, the launch of tourism, health and other commercial projects. Now that I think about it, this plan includes all aspects from online to offline, which can be called "the early prototype of the popular word 'O2O' in the mobile Internet era."
If it were to be put into practice, wouldn't it be a classic case in the history of journalism and business? Ahhh, let's imagine.
The harsh reality is that due to the lack of funds, policy obstacles, failure to obtain more "upper-level" authoritative certification, offensive reporting by competitor organizations, and internal vacillation of Chengdu Business Daily, the further excavation of "Jiangzhong Shenyin" was declared over without starting. Our whimsical idea, regrettably and gloriously, was stillborn and did not come to an end.
03 Behind the "Sinking Silver Thousand Ships", the smoke of gunfire is filled
Behind the success of the series of reports on "Sinking Silver and a Thousand Ships in the Middle of the River", the Chengdu newspaper market is full of smoke and smoke, and it is in full swing. Here are a few very interesting little passages for you to insert.
At that time, as the first dark horse of China Metropolis Daily and the phenomenon of City Daily in the whole country, West China Metropolis Daily was still blowing its horn in the mid-air clouds and sounding loudly. Huge banners all over the country, "Warmly welcome Mr. Xi Wenju, the godfather of Metropolis Daily and editor-in-chief of West China Metropolis Daily," are still waving high in the wind. Jing Zhongchun, then secretary of the municipal party committee of Nanchong City, my hometown, attended a local meeting and earnestly instructed the person in charge of the local evening newspaper to learn from the West China Metropolis Daily.
In the secretary's thinking inertia, there is another layer of perception, West China Metropolis Daily is a provincial party newspaper system newspaper, Chengdu Commercial Daily is a municipal small newspaper with a private nature. Such tabloids could not enter his field of vision at all. Or maybe he hadn't even heard a few words from the Chengdu Business Daily at that time.
Anyone with a modicum of journalistic knowledge knows that in a market-oriented, fully competitive, or even relatively fully competitive market, the administrative level of the media is not even a competitive element. Sometimes, the higher the level and the stronger the administrative color, the more rigid and rigid, the more stagnant, dwarfing the competition. Of course, in the context of power monopoly and propaganda machine, the screws and interests of the people are like drinking nectar, which can only be a different matter.
In fact, at that time, in the minds of the Chengdu citizens I came into contact with, Chengdu Commercial Daily, a private newspaper without administrative level, was already the best newspaper in Sichuan. When they get up early in the morning, what they want to buy most is Chengdu Business Daily. They have news clues, and what they want to find most is Chengdu Business Daily. They have a need to protect their rights, and the one they most want to ask for help is Chengdu Business Daily. Because the news of Chengdu Business Daily is the most interesting, the most suitable for their street talk, parents li short and chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea.
At that time, Chengdu Business Daily opened 8 (or 12?). News hotline, each phone has a full-time operator, 24 hours on duty. A special hotline information department has also been set up, and departmental reporters have been set up to deal with hotline leads full-time. Every day, the phone rings and the news leads are endless.
In the words of the mobile Internet era, those hotlines are a convenient and fast entrance for the platform to connect users. However, this obvious, easy and effective entrance has long been ignored by competitors across the street. One day, many years later, a former colleague went to Tianfu Morning Post, a sub-newspaper of Sichuan Daily, to bid for the director of a news department. A senior management team composed of elite personnel of the Sichuan Daily system sat in front of him sternly. The grand scene, and one of its problems, left a deep impression on him.
"Please give some suggestions for improvement in the news work of the Tianfu Morning Post." I hope you speak freely, the advantages are needless to say. ”
"I think, first, the prominent position on the front page, there should be a hotline, Chengdu Business Daily has always been like this, the news leads continue to flow. Second, we should emphasize the news point of view, and the perspective should be bottom-up, not top-down.... ”
Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a few slightly mocking voices: "Leave a phone number in such an important place on the front page?" "Do you expect readers to read the newspaper and call you to break news leads?"
Regarding the design, operation and operation of Chengdu media competition, it will not be repeated here. However, for the sake of the series of reports on "Sinking Silver Thousand Ships in the River", I will share two more passages that I have heard.
First, in the early years, Chengdu Commercial Daily was only an internal tabloid. When he staggered to start, the West China Metropolis Daily was already in the sky across the country. After some trial and error, Chengdu Commercial Daily finally found its own direction: to learn from West China Metropolis Daily and become a student of West China Metropolis Daily; to implement the doctrine of taking, what good topics or columns do The West China Metropolis Daily have today, Chengdu Commercial Daily will reflect it on its own page tomorrow. After a certain period of time, the students quickly became blue and better than blue, running ahead of the teacher.
Second, West China Metropolis Daily is a provincial-level newspaper, and its content, distribution, advertising, etc. are naturally oriented to all prefectures, cities, and prefectures in Sichuan. In the initial stage of Chengdu Business Daily, the focus point was fully locked within the second ring road of Chengdu, the content was closer, the distribution was more concentrated, and the readers were more effective. Like a banyan tree, after its roots are deeply rooted, it then spreads its branches and leaves in all directions; like the sassafras pine in the desert, it has not seen a tree for three years, and no one for five years, how can a species with a solid foundation be easily shaken?
04 Teacher Wang Gang, are you okay?
Now, the dust has settled and the truth has come out. Under the great attention of all sectors of society, those gold and silver treasures that have been sleeping at the bottom of the river for more than 300 years will eventually return to shore and exert huge social, economic and cultural heritage value.
Don't forget to dig wells, and plant trees in the shade. For the efforts and feelings of Professor Wang Gang, who was the first to come up with complete scientific research materials sixteen years ago and has been tirelessly calling for many parties, our social memory should maintain the minimum respect.
Personally, he was more than just one of my interviewees. First of all, he was a scholar with a rigorous academic discipline. During the interview, he stressed many times that the historical circles follow the principle of "words must be based on evidence, and quotations must be noted", and the information provided must be informative and credible, and must not be open-minded. Talking about historical allusions, he gushed endlessly, quoted the scriptures, and went deep and simple, and people forgot their identity as journalists. For almost every allusion listed, he can casually take a book from the shelf and go straight to the page number to find out accurately. It can be seen that the knowledge is strong and the depth of hard work.
As early as 1979, the "Middle School History Textbook" issued by the ministry was revised according to the article "Discussion on "Li Zicheng Leading the Peasant Uprising in the Late Ming Dynasty" published by Professor Wang Gang. He also put forward the "Qing Dynasty Sichuan Development Hybridization Theory" for the first time in the "History of Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty", which was called by the Qing historians as the first Person in China to thoroughly dissect the 4433-volume, 50 million-word Qing Dynasty's largest historical book of the Qing Dynasty, the Records of the Great Qing Dynasty.
More importantly, he was a division commander whom I respected. For sentences that I did not understand, he would write them, or point to books and explain them repeatedly. He also told me many times that journalists shoulder moral responsibilities and write articles with clever hands are a very important role in society. And repeatedly told me not to change careers easily, but to learn from Fan Changjiang and other predecessors to realize the value of their lives. Now that I think about it, isn't this the journalistic sentiment that the journalistic saints insist on? Although the word "feelings" has been blown in all directions now and now, you know or don't know, my respect for Professor Wang Gang is there, growing day by day.
Unfortunately, I later left Chengdu. Because he was busy making a living all day, he never contacted Professor Wang Gang again. Unfortunately, the four words he wrote to the newspaper company, "Yourong Naida", and the calligraphy work of "Pengcheng Wanli", which he wrote specifically for me, were all lost in my tossing and turning. At that time, he was also the director of the Sichuan Institute of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting. His calligraphy is known for its neatness and rigor, rigidity and softness, fat and thin, and its own style.
In a flash, 16 years have passed. In a flash, I stepped from a naïve youth to a middle-aged man full of vicissitudes. Those young days when every cell of the body was full of vitality, braving the pouring rain and riding bicycles on the streets of Chengdu, never to return.
In a flash, Professor Wang Gang should also be 80 years old. Dear Professor, are you in good health today? The body is still so tough, the voice is still so bright, right? 【Produced by "Media Practice School"】
Note: This article was written on January 8, 2016. Subsequently (January 14), in the follow-up report conducted by Chengdu Business Daily accordingly, Yan Xue, Lu Wangyi, Jiang Lin and other reporters learned that Professor Wang Gang had passed away in 2013, and he did not wait for the day when his research was recognized... [Produced by "Media Practice School"]
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