What does an old newspaper stand for? Through it, you can see in detail the big and small things that happened that day, the weather, the stock market and even the images at that time, and the thin page records today in history.
is located in an office building of in Jinan High-tech Zone. The area of nearly 600 square meters has been transformed into several "newspaper warehouses" by Li Guorong. Millions of old newspapers from all over the country are collected here, and they are placed on shelves in different categories. superior. Here, she can help almost everyone find the newspaper of the day they were born. The yellowed paper is carefully packaged, with the "magic" that makes people travel through time and space, incarnate as a "birthday newspaper", and send it to the "party" on the date. " in the hands. Newspapers, which were originally valuable because of their time, have now been given a new meaning.
old newspaper turned into " birthday newspaper " and felt at the beginning of life
walked into Li Guorong's "newspaper warehouse", so the smell of paper came to my face, and the strong aroma of ink made people feel as if they were in a library. It's just that the books here are not books, but old newspapers with a time span of nearly a hundred years. There are dozens of bookshelves in the warehouse, and millions of old newspapers wrapped in special cardboard casings are placed in them. These newspapers come from all over the country, including national newspapers, local urban newspapers that record social and people's livelihood, and professional newspapers such as " Sports News, " and "Popular Film Pictorial". taken back.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, in the aisle at the end of the "Newspaper Warehouse", with the bookshelves full of old newspapers as the background, Li Guorong's "Birthday News" live broadcast started on time. In the live broadcast room, netizens continued to send out the detailed date information of the old newspapers they needed in the comment area, and 61-year-old Li Guorong quickly responded to whether each date was available or not, as if he was a mature anchor with goods.
The so-called "birthday newspaper" is a newspaper published by the state on the day people were born. Li Guorong feels that the day of birth is very special for everyone, "Although you may not have a memory, the birthday newspaper records everything. Through this newspaper, you can see the big and small events that happened on the day you were born, including the above. There are weather conditions, stock quotes, flight information, and more." The thin pages of paper come through the years, taking you to see the traces of the beginning of life.
Li Guorong once gave a "birthday newspaper" to an elderly aunt who was in her 80s at the beginning of her business. The old man who received the newspaper was very happy. He flipped through the yellowed pages, which seemed to evoke a lot of memories. eye socket. The situation in that scene left a deep impression on Li Guorong, and it also strengthened her heart to start a "birthday newspaper" at that time, "There are many customers who come to me to buy birthday newspapers for the elderly at home, and they can still be preserved in that era. There are not many newspapers so far. For the older generation who love nostalgia, it should be very touching to see a newspaper issued on their birthday." "Birthday Newspaper", Li Guorong's old newspaper has many other buyers, one of which is a research scholar. Li Guorong told reporters that the most expensive newspaper she sold was a party newspaper on October 1, 1949. This newspaper of the same age as New China sold for more than 20,000 yuan, but this was actually The cost price of the newspaper.
"It's not just a birthday newspaper, it's also a precious historical material. The buyer is a scholar who studies Party history materials. The old gentleman came to me by train and bought a lot of old newspapers that recorded Party history materials. , after learning that he seemed to have purchased these materials at his own expense, I decided to sell them to him at the cost price, thinking that I could also contribute to the society." Although only one copy of the newspaper is very precious, Li Guorong still let it go. A place where value can be more reflected. The scholar later wrote a book, and after it was published, a special copy was sent to her.
In addition, many people came to buy newspapers for commemorative purposes. Li Guorong remembered that there was a customer in Tianjin who wanted to find a report about himself in the "Sports News", "That person should be a football player. With his photo, he wants to find the newspaper as a souvenir." In order to help this customer fulfill his wish, Li Guorong and his employees searched one by one.After months of newspapers, I finally found the one the customer wanted and sent it to him.
"Maybe everyone thinks I'm more reliable. People often come to me for help to find a newspaper of which day. I will try my best to help. When there is some positive energy demand, I will pay the cost price as much as I can. Before that, all over the country Aren't they all building the Party History Memorial Hall? I also provided a lot of information." Li Guorong's stock of old newspapers is relatively complete in the industry. Before, someone from a newspaper collection association in Jinan came to her, and also contributed to her collection. Quantity expresses admiration. On the Internet,
saw that her newspaper stock is so huge, and there were some skeptical voices asking whether she sold the original newspaper or a photocopy. In this regard, Li Guorong said that in the 1940s, some newspapers were kept relatively small due to their small circulation, and the collected versions were photocopied by the official national publishing house, and the rest were indeed all originals. "It is illegal to photocopy newspapers without permission. I definitely can't do such a thing." Li Guorong showed reporters a bundle of photocopies of newspapers in the early 1940s. On the last page of the newspaper, People Publishing The words photocopied by carry the traces of the years.
60 Post-technical women's e-commerce entrepreneurship road
If you want to talk about why you started a business with a "birthday newspaper", we have to go back to 2004. 43-year-old Li Guorong had just been laid off from a state-owned enterprise, and she decided to start her own business. Because her husband was studying forestry and horticulture and had some resources, she tried to start a flower business. At that time, online shopping was just emerging. Thanks to the previous work of the Internet project in my previous job, Li Guorong had a hunch that the Internet would definitely change people's lives in the future. Because it is a shopping mall that does not end, if you publish a product here, people all over the world will know, and you will definitely have an advantage over physical stores."
Li Guorong's Taobao store opened soon, but it was restricted. Due to the nature of flowers themselves, business has been somewhat tepid. It wasn't until an accidental opportunity that after a customer placed an order for flowers at her online store, he asked her if there were other novel gifts in the store to give away. The existence of "Birthday". She had the habit of reading newspapers and tried to find a "birthday newspaper" for customers to send, "It was a newspaper from the 1970s, and it was very precious, and it didn't take long for me to receive a special call from a customer. The thank you call, the person who received the gift liked it very much, at that time I felt that this thing was popular and I could give it a try."
Since then, Li Guorong's "birthday newspaper" business has gradually developed. Collecting enough newspapers became the primary problem. "In the beginning, the stock of newspapers was very small, and some customers came to place an order but did not have the corresponding goods, so they could only be disappointed. This made me feel very disappointed. Collect more old newspapers."
Li Guorong posted information about collecting newspapers on the Internet, and then took the cash to collect them all over the country. Sometimes when I go to a strange city, I often get lost. Fortunately, there are many places where old newspapers can be recycled, and you can establish a connection with the last trip, and then you can get the goods without running back and forth. From 2004 to the present, it is roughly estimated that the old newspapers she has collected in the 18 years can reach more than 10 million copies. The stock of
newspapers has gradually increased, and how to manage them is also a problem. Li Guorong told reporters that she is actually a "technical girl". She used to study automation for petroleum storage and worked in an oil company for a long time. "At that time, I participated in writing a invoicing software program, So I also tried to make one for the inventory of newspapers, so that when I get back the old newspapers, I will do a good job of statistics, and it will be very convenient to find them. You can see that the work I have done before has helped me to start a business."
step Entering the new live broadcast track, 90,000 followers in 3 months
As the dates of the newspapers are getting more and more consistent, the business is getting bigger and bigger. Li Guorong's husband, son and daughter-in-law all joined her "old newspaper" business later The store has also hired staff. In 2022, Douyin live streaming with goods will become more and more prosperous. At the suggestion of his son, Li Guorong once again opened theExploring new things. "After I learned about it, I found out that short videos may be the next outlet. Our original online store business has some bottlenecks in sales growth. It is better to try a new model."
So, 61-year-old Li Guorong entered the new competition road. Since the first live broadcast with goods on June 29th, she has continued to broadcast for more than 3 months without interruption, and with the release of some short videos, the number of fans of the account has increased from the initial few thousand to the current 90,000. many people. "I didn't know how to broadcast at the beginning, and I got zero sales. Now it's not really good at all. People are all about the routines of 321 links. I can't. There is still a lot to learn."
gifts are always exciting Something that feels happy. For Li Guorong, this career of dealing with "old newspapers" is very romantic. In addition to making a living, it also makes her life full of meaning. Whenever she receives good comments from customers on " old newspaper ", she will have a full sense of value. Li Guorong believes that the timeliness value of the newspaper itself may have passed over time, but it has also been given a new meaning with the passage of time.
New Yellow River Reporter: Wang Ruiqi
Editor: Zhao Shanshan
