Chapter 641 (1/2)
Outside Greenwich, the Hester family's mansion.
It's more than eight in the evening.
William Hurst III came to his study after a hasty dinner with his family, accompanied by his personal assistant Roger hols.
”Nike informed us this afternoon that they plan to cancel all the advertising cooperation with Hurst group in the second half of the year,” Roger hols carefully looked at William III's expression and reported another bad news, explaining the reason: ”cersei capital's black rock asset management company recently increased its stake in Nike to 5.6% and won a seat on Nike's board of directors . What's more, Nike is still in contact with igrit portal, and intends to further expand the Internet advertising efforts. ”
As Roger hols was saying this, William Hurst III suddenly swept the coffee cup on his desk to the ground, making a clatter, and staring at Roger fiercely: ”can't you give me some good news?”
During this period of time, not only the overall block of westrow system, many other advertisers of Hurst group have cancelled the cooperation between the two sides for various reasons.
Not to mention whether this situation will continue to deteriorate, but from now on, Hurst group's 1994 annual revenue may have a serious negative growth of more than 20%. If an enterprise's revenue stops growing, it already means decline. A series of domino effects, such as layoffs, insolvency, business contraction and so on, brought about by negative growth of up to 20%, are enough to make a large company go bankrupt in just a few years.
William Hurst III's only happiness now is that Hurst group is not a listed company. Otherwise, the share price of Hurst group may fall by more than half during this period.
Even so, an article in the Wall Street Journal last week pointed out that under the influence of a series of recent disturbances, the total wealth of the Hurst family at this stage may be only about $1.5 billion, with a decline of as much as $1 billion.
A spokesman for Hurst group refuted for the first time that the Wall Street Journal was trying to attract the attention of the public. However, a member of the board, William Hurst III, understood that the judgment of the Wall Street Journal, even if slightly exaggerated, was almost the same.
At the present stage, the main assets of the Hurst family are still a series of newspapers, magazines and other paper media, while TV assets only account for a small part.
In fact, only 30% of the income of print media comes from the sales of newspapers and magazines, and the other 70% is advertising. Because of the interruption of cooperation between westrow system and more and more advertisers, the sharp decrease of newspaper and magazine income will form a series of negative effects, and the final result will be the sharp depreciation of the paper media itself, or even bankruptcy.
Roger hols called the maid to clean up the coffee cup broken by William III. looking at the angry boss, he had a slightly absurd idea in his heart.
Good news?
It does.
Last week, Citizen Kane, which made a big comeback in North American Theaters, even took us $17.36 million at the box office with only 1271 screens. The first week with more than US $13000 sold out many new films at the end of April. It is expected that the total box office in North America of the film will reach US $60 million this time.
Therefore, it can be seen that the Hurst family is still famous in the United States.
After the sudden outbreak, William Hurst III soon calmed down. What he should face is still to face. Now the most important thing is how to get rid of the present predicament.
There is obviously no hope of reconciliation.
During his trip to Washington a few days ago, William III even asked the White House for help, but it was still in vain. William III even doubted whether Clinton would help to make that call after he promised. You know, after Clinton came to power, the media of Hurst group was not polite to the politician who unexpectedly ascended the presidency because of all kinds of opportunities.
Clinton is in the mire of Paula Jones' sexual assault case recently. Even though we all know that this is the only thing that the Republican Party has created for this year's mid-term election, the media of Hurst group has not little to do with the hot news.
In a word, since the president took office more than a year ago, the traditional paper media have not given him much affirmation. From the traveling gate, the military homosexuality dispute, the barber scandal and so on, to the recent Paula Jones sexual assault case, the traditional media have basically stood on the side of crusading against the president.
It's not hard to imagine that the White House can't have a good impression of traditional print media.
If it was in the past, we would have done the same for the president. After all, the White House, which is made of iron, paper and running water, is just for the president.
However, many people didn't expect that this time, another big change in the media industry was encountered, and it was different from the TV and newspaper in those years. At that time, they could still exist with each other. This time, the surging rise of the Internet has the trend of completely replacing the traditional paper media.
It happens that the new Internet media is on the side of the White House.
So, it is self-evident which side the White House will stand on, one side is the traditional paper media that has scolded itself for more than a year, and the other side is the emerging Internet media that firmly stands on its own side.
What's more, igrit portal, which has almost monopolized the Internet interface, has accumulated hundreds of millions of users worldwide in just a few years, and its comprehensive influence is no less than that of any old media group.Washington, of course, is wary of this, but this powerful media influence will certainly be devastating if it tries its best to target someone. As the head of an old media group, no one can understand this better than William Hurst III.
As a result, on his last trip to Washington, William Hurst III tried to contact some politicians to suppress the further expansion of the westero system, and received a lot of responses. For example, the candidates for Congress who have been criticizing the westero system since March, but few of them are willing to take substantive action Law is a threat to the westero system.
As for the Hurst group.
William III can't help but think of the live broadcast of the United Nations General Assembly this morning. Simon westrow, the beautiful female spokesperson, was fighting against others in the face of the sudden difficulties of some national representatives.
Because of the recent racist massacre in Rwanda and the support of the westero system, almost all public attention has been drawn to Africa.
As a result, the pressure on Hurst group has not been alleviated at all. The block, lawsuit and performance decline are still the same. However, not many people have paid attention to this matter. This is to make Hurst group bleed to death in silence.
Thinking of this, William Hurst III suddenly came to light.
That's right.
The first thing to do is to draw public attention back from Africa.
Only by regaining enough public attention, can Hurst group manipulate public opinion again, and then attract the attention of other companies in the same industry and federal government regulators, and intervene to stop Simon westero's misdeeds.
Thinking for a moment, William III raised his head and asked Roger hols, ”what's the name of the maid we paid to westrow?”
Roger Holls said, ”Doris Fischer.”
”That's her,” William III nodded. ”Have we been in touch with her lately?”
Roger hols shook his head.
Since Doris Fletcher was sued by the Westeros for $12 million, the other side has been completely abandoned. The Hurst family does not have the habit of spending a lot of money to fight for others like Simon westero. As for the fate of the other side, it is not within the consideration of the Hurst family.
William Hurst III combed again for a moment and said, ”in this way, you can contact her now, find her as soon as possible, and persuade her to deliberately create a suicide incident. We need an explosive news hot spot to attract the public's attention again.”
Roger hols heard the words, paused, and asked, ”Sir, what exactly should I do?”
William III looked at his assistant and said, ”a poor young girl was forced to commit suicide because of Simon westero's malicious lawsuit. Such a strong news is enough to let westero encounter thousands of people's accusations, and we can regain the initiative in public opinion.”