The day after Qiao Feng flew back to Hong Kong, he received a call from Jin Yong.

"Mr. Qiao is amazing." As soon as Qiao Feng entered the door, Jin Yong said with admiration.

It is no wonder that Kim Yong admired it. In the period when the Hillsborough tragedy occurred, Ming Pao's sales in Hong Kong can be said to have reached a significant level because of the first time to pay attention to reports and criticism of the South Yorkshire Police Department, the British authorities, and even No. 10 Downing Street, as well as the subsequent in-depth investigation and exploration of the truth. In the past, Ming Pao's average daily sales were around 180,000 copies, but in this period, it has basically not been less than 230,000 copies, and in many days it broke through 300,000 copies.

Although Hong Kong is not big, its football culture is very deep, which may be related to its British colony. Anyway, almost most Hong Kong stars like to play football, such as Huang Rihua, often make an appointment to play football together. Celebrities like it, and of course the public also like it. Naturally, I pay great attention to the tragedy caused by a football match in Hillsburg, England.

In addition, the so-called truth of the matter has changed again and again, Hong Kong citizens want to know what the truth is, so they continue to pay attention to it, and then the sales volume of Ming Pao, which was first reported, naturally increased significantly.

"Where is, Mr. Cha is over-reputable, but it just happened. To be honest, I didn't expect it to cause such a big sensation and effect." Qiao Feng waved his hands and said modestly.

"Mr. Qiao is too modest. Being able to discover and measure the importance of the news as soon as it appears and then seize the opportunity to follow up the report in time is the most important ability to do news. Mr. Qiao has this ability and does a good job. "Jin Yong did not hide his appreciation: "This reminds me of myself when I first started Ming Pao."

After leaving Ta Kung Pao, Jin Yong founded Ming Pao in 1959. At that time, Ming Pao's distribution was entirely driven by Jin Yong's publishing of martial arts novels in newspapers to drive sales. Even though Jin Yong's martial arts novels were the top at that time, Ming Pao had no force at that time.

It is entirely the citizens’ tabloids. In addition to martial arts novels, there are also horse scriptures, film and television reports, etc. It can be said that they are absolutely entertainment tabloids. They are basically ordinary citizens, and the elite class basically do not read them. Not to mention that they are the most important newspapers in the Chinese world like now.

Objectivity and loyalty are Ming Pao’s labels, which not only attracted much attention from the Hong Kong and British authorities, but also received attention from the mainland and Taiwan.

The reason why Ming Pao has changed from a citizen tabloid to a high-profile newspaper that is now highly concerned by government, business and domestic and foreign countries is because Jin Yong can seize the opportunity and dare to seize it.

Ming Pao editorial on June 6, 1959: "The five words 'support' fairness and kindness' can be said to be our position."

Jin Yong directly distinguished Ming Pao's positioning from the citizen tabloids. Ming Pao is not going to entertain the public, but to take a serious, objective and faithful path.

The editorial on October 16 of the same year said again: "This newspaper claims to be neither left nor right, absolutely neutral, ... The only one who is truly neutral is the Ming Pao." Editorial on February 21, 1960: "We are not ** people, nor ** people, ... We hope that the whole Chinese people can enjoy true democracy and freedom, and the people have the right to choose their own government and elect government staff." The second anniversary editorial stated again: "Our goals are as follows: 1. Strictly abide by a fair and selfless position, support the interests of the Chinese and the interests of the Hong Kong people... believe that China is more important than the Communist Party or the national, and more worthy of our care than the United States or the Soviet Union. ... Although the Ming Pao is a tabloid, it is broad and tolerant, not afraid, and does not reject any opinions."

The real rise of Ming Pao was in May 1962.

It was the "three-year natural disaster" period when there was no natural disaster at all. A large number of people fled to Hong Kong, and by May, tens of thousands of people poured in every day. On the 8th, Kim Yong decided to let Ming Pao break the position of not reporting on illegal entry and start reporting on this incident on a large scale.

The front page headline of that day was: My grandparents and children cried and saw the dust without seeing Luohu Bridge. The subtitle was "More than 500 smuggled into the country were collectively deported to the mainland yesterday, and they saw off relatives and friends cry and cry in the wind."

Since then, influenced by Ming Pao, other Hong Kong newspapers have followed Ming Pao's footsteps and followed this sensitive topic. Ming Pao's position in this incident is to agree with the Hong Kong government's approach from a humanitarian perspective, that is, to concentrate refugees on Wutong Mountain due to the huge influx of people and it is difficult to digest. At the same time, they call on Hong Kong people to provide assistance and provide water and food to the victims.

After this incident, the circulation of Ming Pao increased rapidly, becoming one of the major newspapers in Hong Kong.

Ming Pao really became a big newspaper because it later fought with Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao and others. On October 20 and 24, 1964, in response to the mainland's successful detonation of atomic bombs, Ming Pao editorial "The Evaluation of Exploding the Atomic Bomb" and "Nuclear Bomb is a Crime", and also opposed the Foreign Minister's view that "you have to build a nuclear bomb even if you are a pants", believing that this was a sacrifice of the interests of most people. This triggered the siege of the left-wing newspaper in Hong Kong.

(It's hard to write in detail, otherwise it will be blocked again)

The counterattack against the left-wing newspapers' encirclement and suppression of Ming Pao is firm and powerful, but the language is rational. For example, in the editorial of "Everything to the Party", I directly asked the Ta Kung Pao: "Why do we criticize the editorial of the People's Daily as an anti-***? Is the People's Daily the "China"? Have you ever made rumors about the news reports about the Great ***? How many times have you made rumors?"

After the debate, Ming Pao's circulation reached more than 70,000, exceeding the Ta Kung Pao.

During the subsequent turmoil, Ming Pao published Jin Yong's editorials more frequently, and the return was that the circulation of Ming Pao still increased to 200,000 copies.

It can be said that Ming Pao's rise is entirely a grasp of all kinds of wrong reports, evaluation and predictions in that special period in the mainland, which led to the rise of Ming Pao and the establishment of Ming Pao's forced improvement.'

Thinking about himself back then, looking at Qiao Feng now, Jin Yong feels that the two of them are very similar. He seized the opportunity to make Ming Pao rise to become one of the three major newspapers in Hong Kong now. Qiao Feng seized this Hillsburg tragedy, which allowed Ming Pao's influence to expand outside Hong Kong, and its influence exceeded that of the Chinese community.

Now even among non-Chinese people in Europe and the United States, Ming Pao has a certain influence. Although most foreigners did not know what Ming Pao was, after the recent follow-up reports of the Hillsborough tragedy, many foreigners, especially real fans, have understood Ming Pao, a newspaper that adheres to neutrality and is loyal to the most concerned about objective facts, and has a great impression of it.

This is something that Jin Yong has not been able to do in more than 30 years of running the newspaper.

"I can finally step down as president with confidence." Jin Yong said to Qiao Feng with great sigh and gratitude.

....................................
Chapter completed!