America 1982-Chapter 357 - 33: Goodnight, America_3
Tommy picked up a cigarette from Jim’s pack on the table, lit it, and took a drag. "You see, my television career has just started, and the primary audience is the not-so-wealthy black community at the bottom, so the only revenue I could rely on is from placing various advertisements for merchants, and the payments will come in slow. If I’m not mistaken, my best friend in the television industry, Wolfe Tuck, will definitely show up at BT Television furious tomorrow. Not furious with me but with people like Earl Rash. He’ll think that they’ve corrupted me because when I brought him over, we discussed the future development countless times. He knows that my vision for BT is definitely not this vulgar and shallow. He’ll certainly come to save me."
"So, that guy sees you as his best white friend, the talent scout he trusts, and witnessing the misleading influence of Earl on you, he’ll try to persuade you back on the right path. And you, exploiting his guilt for having left you before, are ready to throw him a tough gig?" For his meeting with Tommy, Jim had even refrained from a single drop of alcohol that night because he knew when Tommy called him over, it was for help, not a drunken congratulations. So with a clear head, as soon as Tommy finished speaking, he immediately understood that Tommy was ready to shackled an unfortunate black man.
Tommy looked at Jim with satisfaction and nodded slightly, "Yeah, I’m glad to see your brain hasn’t been pickled by the alcohol in New York, Jim. Wolfe’s team simply doesn’t suit the current channel style of BT Television..."
Although Tommy had complimented Jim, the latter’s reaction was to immediately shake his head and widen his eyes:
"I can’t listen to this anymore. I’ve said it, no money, no staff, nothing. Don’t tell me that you’re planning to start up a second channel as soon as your first one has launched!"
"I want to do a twenty-four-hour cable news network. Wolfe Tuck can’t be president, but I think he can have a spot on the management team to help me with the preliminary preparations. He knows this work inside out, having done it three times," Tommy admitted his thoughts.
Benjamin, upon hearing Tommy’s words, did not rush to speak. If Tommy simply wanted to launch a twenty-four-hour news channel right away, that reason alone was not enough to convince him to put up the money.
As for Susan, she was even more indifferent. In any case, she wouldn’t voice her opinion, accustomed to Tommy making the decisions. Besides, her income from EFF was the same as Tommy’s, entrusted to a Wall Street company for management by Sophia. If Tommy wanted her to contribute financially, he wouldn’t call her over for a face-to-face chat, because there was no need.
Only Jim, although he had just stated he wouldn’t contribute money or staff, changed his playful expression to a serious one after Tommy mentioned starting a news network:
"On the plane to Los Angeles, I’ve guessed the reasons you might have called me over. Starting another channel was among my many guesses, so I did some homework. CNN, launched officially in 1980, has just barely managed to reach 11 million subscribers by now in 1988, and a significant portion of that was because they were lucky with the Challenger space shuttle disaster in ’86. Since the other networks were not interested in reporting from the site, CNN gained an exclusive opportunity to report the disaster live, which led to an increase of over 3 million subscribers that month. It can be said that if the Challenger hadn’t exploded, CNN would have already been out of business. Last year, little Turner was still looking for investments among the major investment banks on Wall Street. How could you possibly not understand that there are so many twenty-four-hour paid sports channels, movie channels, even adult channels in the United States, but there aren’t paid news channels simply because America doesn’t have that much news to broadcast nonstop for twenty-four hours."
"Jim’s news about little Turner seeking investments for CNN on Wall Street, I can attest that it’s true," Benjamin chimed in: "CNN’s losses are indeed pretty severe."
"Why the losses, why the worldwide search for investment? Because even if CNN’s monthly subscription fee of 20 cents isn’t considered tax, relying on 11 million subscribers, it can only pull in 2.2 million a month, which isn’t enough even for the satellite signal lease, not to mention payroll expenses," Jim said with a serious gaze at Tommy.
"Besides the Challenger disaster, when CNN happened to be on-site, what other news pieces can you even remember? You can read the news in a paper or catch the important bits on the evening news on free TV networks, so why pay for a news channel? The yearly satellite lease costs at least 30 million, meaning you need a minimum of 20 million subscribers just to cover the lease, barely breaking even at 25 million. Eight years, 11 million, according to CNN’s growth data, it might take sixteen years to reach 25 million subscribers. Are you really prepared for a sixteen-year loss before breaking even? I know you want to be the eyes of the American people; I’m also aware that you’re salivating over FOX. But even FOX isn’t rushing like you. Just solidify your current black audience base and I believe those politicians will take notice of you too."
Seeing that Tommy was just smiling at him, not saying a word, Jim smacked his lips and slightly softened his tone:
"Do you know that CNN’s staff has an average age of less than 25 years old? Why is that? Because CNN can’t afford salaries and has to continuously hire interns, fooling these greenhorns by having them complete training in only six days, then issuing them press or production credentials to start working, exploiting them with a wage of three dollars an hour, promising them a share of profits in the future that never comes. In reality, other networks wouldn’t consider hiring those news editors or reporters who quit CNN, because they regard their work experience at CNN as simple play-acting."
