Personal interview with Gong Shuguang

Gong Shuguang visited Sina to study: building a century-old shop of Zhongnan Media.

Moderator: Good morning, Sina users all over the world! Today is April 23rd, World Book Day, and the National Book Fair will open in Chengdu tomorrow. First of all, we will invite Mr Gong Shuguang, the leader of publishing Xiang Army, chairman of Hunan Publishing Investment Holding Group, secretary of Party Committee, chairman of Zhongnan Publishing Media Group and president of xiaoxiang morning herald Society. Welcome Gong Dong!

Today, we will not only talk about books, but also talk about the strategies of Central and South China publishing media in the new media situation and how traditional publishing can survive in such a situation. Please share with us. Say hello to all our netizens first.

Gong Shuguang: Hello, netizens of Sina!

The whole process of multimedia is the basic orientation of Central South Media.

Moderator: Gong Dong is also an old friend of Sina. Every year at the book fair, Gong Dong is the first thing netizens see. Let me tell you something. At the scene, I found that the advertising language of Zhongnan Media was particularly eye-catching, which made almost everyone feel that Hunan was the host. This year, it seems that your slogan is also very loud, called "multimedia inherits civilization and creates value all the way". Why do you make such a slogan?

Gong Shuguang: Actually, from last year to this year, in a year's time, we felt that the publishing industry in China and even the world was changeable. But as far as China's publishing industry is concerned, there are two biggest changes. The first is the process of digitalization, which has changed from vision to reality and is entering our actual reading field at a very fast speed. Second, many publishing groups are speeding up their listing process and entering such an industry as the world financial capital. So you mentioned our slogan just now, which is called "Multimedia spreads civilization and creates value all the way". In fact, this slogan is a basic positioning of our Zhongnan Media as a listed product. So let's put it this way. What will be the characteristics of Zhongnan Media in the stock market after its listing in the future? It is multi-media and full-process.

Moderator: How many media are there?

Gong Shuguang: The so-called multimedia refers to the media we have as a media group. In addition to broadcasting, we will launch our radio and television in a few months. In the future, we will have all the existing media forms in the world, including books, newspapers, periodicals, websites, mobile Internet, frame media and new technologies based on the Internet. So we are a multimedia media group at present, and we are moving towards an all-media media group. The so-called whole process is a link in the media field compared with some media groups that have been listed now. For example, only upstream publishing does not publish, for example, downstream publishing does not publish, or it is not printed. Our Zhongnan Group is an affiliated group from upstream to downstream. Such a group is of great benefit for us to master resources and use capital in media production and enhance the operational ability of media enterprises.

Moderator: How long did it take to do so many things?

Gong Shuguang: Zhongnan Media put the accumulation of Hunan publishing and human resources in the past 60 years in Zhongnan Media, so it took several generations of publishers in Hunan to build Zhongnan Media into a listed company in 60 years. Then we believe that after the listing of Zhongnan Media, its capital scale, its performance, its format and its accumulated resources will bring a top quality media force to China's stock market.

Moderator: Let's talk about multimedia and the whole process. Today, we all want to know that the Xiang Army newspaper led by you is also very prominent in the news. What new actions do we have?

Gong Shuguang: As you just said, as a traditional media enterprise, books and newspapers are all media. To cope with the digital wave, we need to launch our own new products, such as xiaoxiang morning herald's rolling news, which can be launched after the world events, and can reach out to netizens, readers and audiences in the shortest time to interact. This is a new product of our digital products in xiaoxiang morning herald, and it is also in the process of digitalization.

Moderator: I saw a data saying that Zhongnan Media completed its reorganization in eight months? Is this figure accurate?

Gong Shuguang: It is accurate.

Our reorganization is eight months, so far, many experts find it incredible. Because we are involved in more than 200 enterprises, involving more than 2,000 cases of land, involving 60 years of history. Therefore, in such a huge workload, Zhongnan Media really did a good job with the innate desperate spirit and tenacious will of Hunan people. And now it seems that although our work is short-lived, it is very practical and of a very high standard. At that time, I promised the management of the CSRC that when I said Zhongnan Media, we would build Zhongnan Media in accordance with the Securities Supervision and Administration Law of China and other specific requirements of the CSRC, and we would build Zhongnan Media in the best mode. Now our listing materials have also been reported to them. Judging from the feedback from the experts we visited, I feel that the quality of Zhongnan Media is very high.

Moderator: Just now, when it comes to standards, what do you mean by standards?

Gong Shuguang: In fact, the CSRC has very detailed and strict standards for listed companies, so this standard is clearly written in the relevant securities supervision law and related management. In fact, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has very strict requirements, which must be implemented according to certain standards, so we are very serious when building our company according to these standards. This standard is the standard for evaluating a good enterprise, because I have a saying that when I talk about this market, in fact, a good enterprise, as the CSRC, should be a good enterprise at present, so I think Zhongnan Media has gradually moved towards a good enterprise that meets the standards after eight months of work and more than one year of operation.

Gong Shuguang: The media should focus on people's hearts.

With the development of China's cultural industry, a number of industry leaders have emerged in recent years, and Gong Shuguang of Hunan Pavilion is one of the most prominent figures. 10 years ago, he switched from the hotel industry to the mass media industry and founded xiaoxiang morning herald. In those days, some practices were regarded as madness, but now they have become the footnotes of his success. Zhongnan Publishing Media Group, which he is now leading, has 18 subsidiaries such as publishing house, Xinhua Bookstore, xiaoxiang morning herald and Red Net. He has many original views on the cultural industry. During ICIF, he accepted an exclusive interview with reporters. Media should meet the rigid demand

Reporter: In addition to its six top 100 publishing houses, Zhongnan Publishing Media Group also has xiaoxiang morning herald, which was born in the same year as Bao Jing. These two newspapers have achieved market success in Changsha and Shenzhen respectively. When it was published, you were outside the newspaper circle. Why did you choose to run this newspaper?

Gong Shuguang: I remember that 200 1 founded many newspapers with high success rate. There are "Nanjing Daily, Zhongxiang and Beijing Hua (Reporter's Note: Jinghua Times)", all of which have certain influence in the industry.

Personally, running a newspaper is mostly accidental. I am not a person who likes to engage in a certain profession for a long time, so I have been a hotel for four years and want to change my profession. At that time, the provincial press and publication bureau wanted to run a newspaper and found me suitable.

Reporter: How successful did you feel at that time?

Gong Shuguang: To be honest, if it doesn't succeed, sometimes there are too many accidental tracks. At that time, some colleagues even told us that it was the biggest insult to the newspaper that a few people who didn't know newspapers led a group of people who didn't run newspapers. Some insiders also said that the Morning Post will die in three months. I still think that there were some shortcomings in China newspaper industry at that time, at least in Hunan newspaper industry. From a professional point of view, there was still room for improvement in Hunan newspapers at that time.

Reporter: What are the aspects of this technical space?

Gong Shuguang: First of all, it is manifested in the relationship between a newspaper and readers, as well as the relationship between a newspaper and culture, and the relationship between a newspaper and the economy. The so-called relationship between newspapers and readers, I think, newspapers should be useful, the more useful this product is, the more valuable it is. You can not only fill people's stomachs and feast their eyes, but also satisfy their speculative psychology. We at least know that our newspaper is a product for the public and must meet the rigid needs of the audience. This is why we can make up our minds to do it. The second is the relationship with culture. In my opinion, a newspaper must be a survivor, reformer and promoter of a local culture. Our relationship with the market is a strong intervention in the market, not in the image of bandits, but in the image of gentlemen.

I was the boss when I was the youngest.

Reporter: xiaoxiang morning herald is successful after all. In your opinion, is there any secret of success? Is there any experience or lesson you can enjoy?

Gong Shuguang: I have always felt that there are not many things to enjoy in this world, including the successful experience of the same industry. For example, Bao Jing, Jinghua Times and xiaoxiang morning herald, founded in the same year, were all very successful, but their temperament was completely different. Even if all conditions are the same, it is difficult to copy these people. For example, it is difficult to copy a Gong Shuguang and a Zhu Defu. Even if I run another newspaper, it is difficult to copy the environment, team, opportunity and even mood at a certain moment. When it comes to successful experiences, everyone has nothing to hide.

I still believe that in today's era, the quality, ability, experience, culture and pursuit of major leaders still determine the fate of an enterprise, including a media. At this point, it is very important for China media to choose a suitable team leader. Xiaoxiang morning herald's survival is related to our core team and my mentality. To tell the truth, I don't have to eat this line. Besides the media, I still have a lot of land to farm. This mentality makes the morning paper not eager for quick success and instant benefit, and it doesn't have to be what it looks like one day. This may stand higher than some media people. What matters is not how much money this thing can earn, but when it can be made. Employees have to work for a living every day. There can be no such mentality. It is important for leaders to have this mentality.

I don't expect anything from the newspaper. What I want is a sense of success. It must be a great sense of success. This determines that the morning paper must be the boss, and it must build the skeleton of the boss, not the skeleton of the second child and the third child. What we do when we are young is what the market leader does. Your team's positioning of your product will determine the future development of your product.

The "last mile" is irreplaceable.

Reporter: I heard that you put forward the concept of "media enclosure".

Gong Shuguang: I think what the media should do is to hold people's hearts. The so-called influence of a media is to what extent it can influence the audience, and the media is essentially a work of enclosure.

Of course, the media can encircle the land in content and management. The trust generated by the influence of the media has formed an enclosure in the spiritual field. The management also has a problem of enclosure. The operation of any media has a limited field. Newspapers demarcate areas by publishing, television demarcates areas by watching, and network demarcates areas by clicking. No matter how big the media is, this area is not infinite. Because the influence will not be unlimited, and your business will not be unlimited.

To some extent, the influence of the media is a vague margin, a bigger margin; The operation of the media is a clear margin, and it is a relatively small margin. Circle the readers and you will gain the greatest commercial initiative. I think: my readers are my land, and my site is my decision.

We use the media to identify a reader, which costs a lot, but the commercial return is very single, that is, selling advertisements and newspapers, which is a great waste of resources. When you enclose it as land, you should plough it deeply.

Reporter: How to cultivate intensively?

Gong Shuguang: When we put forward the slogan of "community enclosure", there was also a slogan called "community nanny". What shall we do after enclosure? Just be a community nanny, that is, provide family services outside the distribution for every community in the city.

I have been thinking about the correspondence between the Internet and the real world. I think that the virtual world and the real world, online and offline, will have a great influence on people in the future. These two worlds are separated. The more separated they are, the more they need a new node. Where is the knot? In the community, in the last mile of logistics. The "last mile" is irreplaceable when ordering flowers, tea or food online.

We have done some work, such as delivering newspapers, magazines and milk, but this is still a traditional model and has not formed a new format according to the concept of enclosure. This is a new subject, and we have done some of it, but we haven't finished it yet. I believe that the industry provided by the Internet in the future must be a "one-kilometer service" industry.

First enter the pension industry, then enter the media, and then enter the entity.

Reporter: There must have been many stories when it was first published, right?

Gong Shuguang: There is a very funny thing. After the morning paper was founded, the advertising price was set high, which was higher than other media in the same city. The owner of a newspaper is very strange: how can there be such a price? He said that if you cut the advertising fee by half, the advertisement will come up. I told him I wouldn't do it. He said, why don't you do it? I said: If my advertising price is not the highest, I won't do this newspaper. I want to be a newspaper, just want to be a boss. Now I have kept the price down. I want to raise the price in three months, but I'm afraid I can't bring it up. He stared as if he were watching a madman. But I think it is better to tide over this difficulty than to reduce the price now. My price is so high that I want to maintain a future market order.

Reporter: Zhongnan Publishing Group has run another newspaper for the elderly called Happy Old People, which is a bit unexpected. How did you make this decision?

Gong Shuguang: Anyone with a little business intuition will see that an aging society will be the biggest problem in China in the future. The aged society is a social form that China has never experienced. The future problem of the world is the problem of the elderly, and the problem of the elderly in China is more complicated than that in the world. In China in the future, the old-age industry must be a big industry. Five years ago, I proposed to take the old-age industry as an important strategy of the group. The old man passed the golden period of his life, from the mainstream to the bottom, from the strong to the weak, and his mentality changed from self-confidence to fear. How do you face such a group and do his business? What this needs is-trust! The media can make the elderly trust. Therefore, I will be the media first, and then the entity! This is the plan of our pension industry. At present, there are few media dedicated to the elderly. The elderly are a group of 200 million people, and there are very few media products tailored for the elderly in line with their psychology and physiology. So, we started a newspaper for the elderly. I also think that if China real estate is to be transformed in the future, it will turn to pension real estate.

The progress of science and technology makes people lazy.

Reporter: The Central South Publishing Media also has new media, such as Red Net. Can you evaluate the operation of Red Net in recent years?

Gong Shuguang: We have many network products, not just red net. Red Net is a local portal website with news and community as its basic functions. As far as its popularity and position in local websites are concerned, it is one of the best local portals in China, but it is not a multi-functional website, a dating network, a search engine or an e-commerce network, nor a relatively traditional news portal.

It meets some of my requirements for network products, but not all of my requirements. The current website is still relatively mature and is aimed at the minority. Because of the experienced netizens, the minority has become the public; Or build a platform that can provide many kinds of products, just like Tencent. I have always believed that QQ is the largest network product integrator in China. It has so many high-viscosity netizens that they can sell whatever they want. Tencent has changed from a product-oriented website to a functional platform, and the future products may be like this.

This is how I understand the Internet. The Internet should have the following characteristics: First, it should be simple. The progress of science and technology must make people lazy, not diligent; Second, it must be cheap, and any product must be cheap as its survival value; The third is interaction, which is a completely different function between new media and traditional media; The fourth is the accurate search of massive information. Massive information is the characteristic of the Internet, and accurate search is the demand of users. Good Internet products must meet these four conditions before they can be made. So the red net can't achieve these characteristics in many functions. In a sense, I think there is something wrong with Sina, which can't meet the fundamental requirements I just said. Of course, Sina is much better than Red Net.

The Internet also has the responsibility of inheriting civilization.

Reporter: Zhongnan Publishing Media Group plans to go public next. Your slogan is "Multimedia inherits civilization and creates value in the whole process". How did you come up with this slogan?

Gong Shuguang: "Multimedia" is the present situation of our group and the future path. A comprehensive media publishing group, guarding a media, will not go on. Sina and Shanda have the most advanced media in the world-Internet, but they still do paper publishing, and Shanda also does film and television. This also shows that the paper and screen technology of digital media and traditional media will have a common development period of 10 years. "Inheriting civilization" is our responsibility. Many websites dare not say that they are spreading civilization, but I dare say that we just want to inherit civilization, and it is our own responsibility to inherit civilization.

Reporter: You mean that online media is different from traditional media in terms of the responsibility of inheriting civilization.

Gong Shuguang: The more developed the Internet, the greater the responsibility of inheriting civilization. If the Internet can't bear the responsibility of spreading civilization, it may be a disaster for mankind. I once said sharp words, and Internet people may not agree with them. I said that the internet sometimes turns personal will into public violence and convenience into survival panic. I believe that many people are far more afraid of the internet than of driving, because you don't know when you will be searched by human flesh and when you will be subjected to will violence. Network is a platform for expressing personal goodness, and it may also become the storm center of group evil. If the network cannot establish basic professional ethics, it may be evil.

Tossing and turning because of pessimism

Reporter: You once said internally, "I am more pessimistic about the group's prospects than everyone here, and more pessimistic about China's publishing industry than many people in the industry." You say it's pessimistic, but you are bold in your actions. Why?

Gong Shuguang: It's very simple. For example, you can live to 100 or 80 years old, but you can't live to die at this time. To tell the truth, I often feel that I am a pessimistic person, a person who has reached the original proposition of philosophy in pure thinking. Survival has no ultimate meaning. In this case, there are two choices: one is to make the ultimate solution, and many "great suicides" have chosen the ultimate solution; We are not that great, so I have to toss and turn. Without the ultimate meaning, the process becomes the ultimate meaning. Just because I'm not optimistic about the prospects of some aspects doesn't mean I won't toss and turn. Because of pessimism, I am tossing; The reason for this is that everyone has the same ending. If others don't harass you, your harassment will be meaningful.

Reporter: The traditional publishing industry is not optimistic, but people's reading needs have always existed. Have you considered the future publishing format?

Gong Shuguang: In the future, the screen must be the mainstay, not paper. Quite simply, most shoes are made by machines, and some shoes are made by hand, but not many people make shoes by hand.

Money can't buy imagination

Reporter: After listening to this, the staff of Morning Post all remember that you taught them in the staff training class and mentioned that everyone should build their own knowledge structure.

Gong Shuguang: A person's knowledge structure cannot change every day. I often read books now, but not every book can be my own knowledge framework. My knowledge structure mainly includes four aspects: first, history, which influenced me are Historical Records and Fifteen Years of Wanli; The second is logic. What influenced me was Hegel's little logic. Thirdly, my social outlook is the literary mainstream of Brackett19th century; Fourth, management. What influenced me was The Foundation of Hilton Hotel Management and Autobiography of Welch. This knowledge is the original proposition. Any event, what you see must be the appearance, and you can definitely push it back. The further you push it, the closer you get to the essence. I asked what its essence was, and it gradually became a habit of thinking.

Reporter: As the boss of the publishing media group, you once said that "capital is king", and some people said that content is king and strategy is king. After interviewing you, it seems that creativity is king.

Gong Shuguang: The so-called "king" should stop when capital is king. What Wang can do is what money can buy, and the only thing money can't buy is imagination. Napoleon was a strategist, and it was such a man with supreme power and infinite power who said this sentence that I can't forget: imagination rules the world.