Editor's note: On January 11, China's professional publishing agency Zhaomuntong announced that its turnover reached 100 million yuan in 2010 and set a target of 200 million yuan in 2012. According to the public relations industry, the fundamental reason for the rapid development of Zhaomitong is that the change in "pay-per-article" is in line with the development trend of the public relations industry. So, what's the difference between a pay-per-article business model? What impact will it have on the PR industry? Recently, Zhawen Tong marketing director Zhawen Tong Jiang Chao accepted the fortune network reporter's interview.

Fortune: First of all, we would like to know about the traditional "pay-per-word" mode of public relations. How did it originate?

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: "Charge by word" is not to charge the number of words, but to measure the area, and then the public relations company stipulated that 1 square centimeter by the number of words. For example, to send a 1000-word manuscript, the area of publication in the print media is about 150 square centimeters, and then the PR company stipulates that 1 square centimeter of 10 words, or 12 words, a word about 3-10 yuan. The PR company charges 150cm2×10 words/cm2×4 yuan/word, and the result is 6000 yuan.

Fortune: I think this algorithm is very complicated. Why was such a charging model invented in the first place?

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: Charging per word area is probably a great invention of China's PR industry. The charging model, which originated in the 1990s, has been in place for 20 years. The reason for the area of the word charge, because different media published the area is not the same. For example, for the same article, China Youth Daily measured a larger area than the Beijing Evening News. In addition, the headline, the picture is valuable to the user, then how to calculate this value? I'm going to count it all over the area. Therefore, the "word area charge" provides both public relations companies and customers with a mutually acceptable charging standard, and provides a higher profit rate for public relations companies, thus promoting the enlightenment and development of China's public relations industry.

Fortune: What are the drawbacks of this charging model?

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: according to the area of the word charge often quoted higher. For example, the public relations company of China Youth Daily charges 8-10 yuan per word, and tens of thousands of yuan for an article. In addition, since the profit lifeline of public relations companies in the area of publication, they do not pay much attention to the content of the manuscript, in fact, the content is more important for customers. Due to the rise of network media and the decline of traditional paper media, the operation model of charging per word gradually exposed its disadvantages. And "charge by article" this mode of operation is showing strong vitality.

Fortune: What is the impact of the decline of print media and the rise of online media on the pay-per-word model?

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: In fact, "charge by word" is mainly aimed at print media. In the early 1990s, there was no network media, and print media could immediately publish an article all over the city, and the credibility and authority of print media was still high at that time. But now that information channels are diversified, print media are not as influential as they used to be.

Fortune: What is the pay-per-article model?

Zhawen Tong Jiang Chao: "Charge per article" means charge according to the number of articles, 3,000 yuan for print media, 200 yuan for network media, simple and clear.

Fortune: That's pretty cheap compared to charging by the word.

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: Yes, since the fee for sending an article is fixed, we can focus on improving the quality of the content.

Fortune: We know that a lot of companies want to brag about themselves in their press releases, which makes PR news less readable. I'm a bit annoyed by this kind of news. How do you solve this problem during the press release process?

Zhaowen Tong Jiang Chao: The enterprise is not short of valuable news, the key to see from what Angle to dig. In traditional PR firms, PR articles are mostly written by inexperienced newcomers, who are not familiar with journalism techniques and tend to write a lot of shallow, grandiose articles. Therefore, in writing, we usually invite experts and people with many years of writing experience to operate, which ensures the quality of the manuscript.

Fortune: What if the client insists on sending flattering stories?

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: Then we have another mode, is to go advertising. Asnews.com gets the lowest advertising discount and pays zero profit to its clients. We do media advertising mainly to maintain media relations, only to earn the return point of the media. Therefore, in 2010, our media advertising revenue was 30 million yuan, but the profit was only 300,000 yuan. Given our strength in publishing, writing and advertising resources, many clients see us as a long-term strategic partner.

Fortune: Do you have a lot of customers?

Jiang Chao: Yes, in 2010, the number of customers reached 10,000 and the turnover reached 100 million yuan.

Fortune: This shows that the "pay-per-article" model has been more accepted by customers.

Zhaowen Tongjiang Chao: Yes. Asomun is not only committed to being a low-cost and high-quality publishing agency, but also to provide customers with high-quality news planning and content.

Fortune: The PR industry is a highly technical industry. Asnewsprint seems to be more suitable to be an intermediary publishing agency, like PR Newswire. Providing high-quality news planning seems to be the job of professional PR firms.

Zhawen Tong Jiang Chao: The reason why we attach importance to news planning is that we should be responsible for the customer effect. Pr Newswire does not promise publication results. All they can tell you is that you have sent your story to a Fortune reporter, regardless of whether it is published or not. What we want to provide is not only high-quality news planning, but also to achieve customers' brand purpose, which is the future direction of the PR industry.

Fortune: Technically, you're more like a PR firm, right?

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: No, we are a publishing company, but we belong to the public relations industry.

Fortune: In your opinion, what is the impact of the pay-per-article model on the public relations industry?

Chao Wen Tong Jiang Chao: "Charging per article" is a major change in the PR industry. It not only reduces costs and improves quality for customers, but also helps develop the PR industry into a respectable knowledge-intensive industry.