Chapter 4

The first task Gao Da assigned to Luo Lun was to own a legitimate newspaper.

Whether it was buying an existing newspaper or starting one from scratch, Gao Da only needed a result.

In order to show his capabilities to Gao Da, Luo Lun attached great importance to this task.

In just two days, he investigated the existing newspaper organizations in Italy and screened out those with potential that could possibly be acquired.

Il Sole 24 Ore (The 24-Hour Sun), this was the list of newspapers Luo Lun finally provided.

This was a newspaper founded last year, and it currently only had a certain degree of popularity in the business circles of Milan.

But this newspaper persisted until later generations, and even became one of Italy's top ten newspaper media outlets.

Being able to achieve such results meant that the potential of this newspaper was beyond doubt.

This also meant that Luo Lun, who selected this newspaper, had an absolutely unique and excellent eye.

After determining the acquisition target, the next task Gao Da gave Luo Lun was to properly acquire this newspaper called The Sun.

This also reflected the benefits of having subordinates to order around; at least Gao Da didn't have to do some things himself despite his status as a prince.

The road to acquisition was relatively smooth.

At this time, The Sun was ultimately just a small newspaper, and the founder could not possibly resist the temptation of Gao Da's increased acquisition price.

From proposing the acquisition of the newspaper to obtaining all the shares of The Sun, Gao Da only spent less than four days.

Unfortunately, precisely because The Sun was still a small newspaper, the number of newspapers that could be sold every day was only about 1,500, and this sales volume was difficult even to support the newspaper itself.

However, Gao Da's goal was not to make the newspaper profitable immediately. The role of a newspaper was not to earn that little bit of money; Gao Da's goal was to have cheaper and more popular newspapers flood the streets of Italy to increase Gao Da's control over public opinion in Italy.

Whether continuing to stay in Italy or seeking the opportunity to become the King of Spain in the future, the experience in the newspaper industry could allow Gao Da to complete the laying of an opinion empire more smoothly.

After controlling public opinion, it would become easier to do anything. At least with the support of the public, Gao Da would occupy the initiative.

But then again, compared to other small and medium-sized private newspapers, The Sun controlled by Gao Da still had many advantages.

At least by virtue of his status as an Italian prince, Gao Da could publish some content that was not easy to pass censorship, such as current affairs news that the public cared about more.

This was not the era of later generations where newspapers had no sales at all. If there was good news and content, it was still very simple for a newspaper to expand its sales and achieve profitability.

As Gao Da's only subordinate at present, Luo Lun naturally took charge of the Italian Sun without hesitation and was fully responsible for the expansion of The Sun.

Several plans Gao Da formulated for Luo Lun.

First, within the next two years, the daily sales of The Sun should be increased from 1,500 to at least 7,500.

Considering that the location of The Sun was Milan, a prosperous city in northern Italy, and it could also radiate to Turin and Genoa, which were relatively close, such a sales requirement was actually not high.

The second requirement, The Sun must become one of the well-known newspaper media in northern Italy and have a certain degree of credibility among the people.

If the content published by the newspaper could not be believed by the public, then the existence of the newspaper would be unnecessary.

After all, the primary purpose of achieving opinion manipulation was to make the public believe in public opinion, and this was also one of Gao Da's expectations for Luo Lun.

Another thing was to make The Sun profitable within two years and control as many newspapers as possible.

Although Gao Da's original intention was not to make money through newspapers, since the newspaper industry could be self-sufficient, Gao Da would definitely use the funds in more important places.

As for founding or acquiring more newspapers, it was naturally to strengthen the power of public opinion in Gao Da's hands.

In Gao Da's layout, The Sun would focus on reporting current affairs news and major international events in the future, and some small newspapers could fill the vacancies for entertainment news and various gossip.

After all, if a newspaper with high credibility were to report some lace news and gossip, it would definitely destroy the credibility of the newspaper.

While Luo Lun was diligently executing Gao Da's tasks, Gao Da, on his side, was already looking at the existing map of the Kingdom of Italy and contemplating.

Although the fragmented Apennine Peninsula had basically been unified into a complete Kingdom of Italy, there were still two places that had not returned to the embrace of Italy.

The Venice region in the north was still controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Rome, the most important city for Italy, still belonged to the Papal States.

Although the Papal States looked like the soft persimmon, unfortunately, Falanxi stood behind the Papal States.

Falanxi at this time was not the surrenderer mocked by others in World War II, but the French Empire bathed in the afterglow of Napoleon.

Because Germany had not yet been unified, Falanxi at this time could be said to be the hegemon of Western Europe and the number one land power in Europe.

With the support of Falanxi, the Papal States were able to continue to hold Rome, which also made the capital of Italy have to be relegated to Florence.

However, Gao Da was not in a hurry about this.

Historically, the process of the Kingdom of Sardinia unifying Italy could be said to be lying down to win, and it had not experienced any difficult battles at all.

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the largest country in southern Italy, was rotten and was easily eliminated by the Thousand-man Corps led by Garibaldi.

And the size of the states in central Italy was completely disproportionate to the Kingdom of Sardinia, and they had no qualification to resist in the face of the general trend of unification.

The two bones that were really hard to chew were completely relying on hugging the thigh of Prussia. In the Austro-Prussian War, it relied on Prussia to attract the attention of the Austrian Empire and recovered the Venice region.

In the Franco-Prussian War, it relied on the French guarding against the Prussian army and successfully took over Rome.

The two bones that looked very hard to chew were bitten to pieces so easily. Although it was the Prussian army that bit these two bones, the one who got the benefits was indeed the Kingdom of Italy.

Gao Da still had a certain understanding of this period of Prussia's rise.

Coincidentally, this year happened to be 1866, which was the stage when the Austro-Prussian War broke out.

If we look at the historical trend, the Austro-Prussian War should break out in half a year, Prussia would accelerate the unification of Germany, and Italy would also recover the Venice region in the north.

Facing such an important historical node, Gao Da naturally could not let the opportunity pass in vain. Although it was impossible to directly interfere in the Austro-Prussian War, as a participant in the war, it was no problem for Gao Da to change the historical process a little bit.

New book sets sail, seeking recommendation tickets, seeking collections, seeking follow-up reading, seeking investment!

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(End of this chapter)