This city, known as the Pearl of the North, is shrouded in fog all year round and publishes many newspapers. The university district where we are currently located not only houses most of the colleges and universities in Tobysk, but is also home to many newspapers and publishing houses, so the journey is not actually long.
The Rhodes cards obtained from Professor Manning have not been sold yet, so even though the detective's wallet has been found, Shad's options are still limited.
He certainly wouldn't have dared to think about major national newspapers like the Tobesk City Morning Post, the Terrarium River Post, and the Kingdom Morning Post, which Detective Sparrow subscribed to.
But he still took his business card to the newspaper office to inquire, and was shocked by the quote given by the accountant, so he completely gave up.
"These are the best-selling newspapers in the country, and my business is limited to Tobesk, so there is no need to place advertisements in such places."
He comforted himself in this way, and then felt that his ideas made sense and he convinced himself.
In Tobesk, the Threepenny Post or the Delarion Business Journal, which had a decent local circulation, could get a small space in the center of the newspaper or below the obituary column, where they could publish advertisements together with notices of inventors looking for investment, factories recruiting workers, or lost and found items.
The newspaper offices were busy, so when Shad visited them, his visit was not taken seriously. Editors and reporters came in and out, and in the 20 minutes that Shad stayed in the smoke-filled editorial office on the second floor of the De La Rio Commercial Daily, three people rushed in, waving their hands and shouting "Big news."
There has been new progress in the local child trafficking case, a member of the royal family unexpectedly showed up at an auction house, someone was found dead on the street in the northern district of Tobesk... Then some people rushed out following the guy with the news. This prosperous steam city will never lack new things.
The price of advertising space in this kind of newspaper is also not low, and it is charged by the number of times. Xia De considered that his office has limited capabilities and cannot receive too many customers, so he only bought the advertisements for this Sunday and next Sunday to see the effect first.
As for those tabloids that publish gossip, such as the Textile Daily and the Tobesk Citizen, the price of advertising is relatively low. However, Shad is worried that if he places too many advertisements in such newspapers, he will become an expert in the field of cheating and mistress investigation like Sparrow Hamilton.
But he didn't have much choice but to pray that other commissions would come to him because of the advertisements in these tabloids.
The good news is that when Shad took the business card and found the Steambird Daily, the newspaper with the fourth largest circulation in the city, on St. George Street in the University District of Tobesk, the middle-aged man in a black buttoned suit who received Shad in the office took a look at the business card on the imposing solid wood desk, put down the pen in his hand, clasped his hands together, and asked doubtfully behind the desk:
"Sir, who gave you your business card?"
"Miss Dorothy Louisa, she commissioned me some time ago to find material for her new detective story book. Later, when she heard that I wanted to place an advertisement in a newspaper, she directly introduced me to this place."
Xia De said half-seriously that he and other people in the same group had such "reasonable" acquaintance experiences.
"Louise... the ad is all right. I'll give you space for about thirty words in the lower margin of page two, next to the date. If you want to advertise regularly, I'll give you a cheaper price... How about ten shillings a month? Pay us at the beginning of each month, or send money by post.
"Ten shillings?"
Xia De was stunned, suspecting that he had heard it wrong, or that the gentleman behind the desk had made a mistake.
He had traveled a lot today and knew that for a high-circulation newspaper like the Steambird Daily, which was published four times a week, even a ten-shilling advertisement in the margins of the last page of the week was considered very cheap.
The advertising area at the bottom of page two cost ten shillings a month, which was almost free.
"Luisa introduced me to this place through her business card. Of course it can be cheaper."
The middle-aged man shrugged and explained.
"Does Miss Louisa contribute to your work?"
Xia De knew that the female writer also worked part-time as a journalist.
"Provide articles, but more importantly... her father, Professor Skaven Louisa, is a shareholder of the newspaper. Most of the editors of the newspaper are his students. When I was a student, I also audited the professor's classes. Since she took the initiative to introduce you, it's reasonable for her to charge you a lower price."
The middle-aged man explained and asked Shade if he wanted tea.
"this... ... "
Judging from her conversation, the female writer must be from the middle class or even the upper class, but Shade didn't expect Miss Louisa's family to be so powerful. Yesterday at Professor Manning's place, he learned that the professor knew Miss Louisa's father, but at that time he didn't expect it to be like this.
"Is this really okay?"
Shade asked a little embarrassedly.
"What's wrong with that? It's not like we won't charge you. Oh, sir, you're really funny. Are you worried that we will lose money?"
The middle-aged man said with a smile, and Shad also shook his head and laughed. As if he was afraid that the other party would go back on his word, he slammed the ten shillings on the table.
He planned to thank Miss Louisa next time. Shade already owed two favors for the copy of The Little Match Girl and the advertisement.
Because he had to reserve 20 pounds to be paid back next month and 10 pounds to Mia, Shad had limited funds to use. The cheap advertisements in the Steambird Daily greatly reduced his planned expenditure, which made the still poor stranger full of hope for the future life.
"Sure enough, everything will be fine."
After dealing with the issue of advertising, when I returned to St. Teresa's Square at noon, I unexpectedly found a letter on the foot mat. It turned out to be a reply from "that lady", who asked Shad to meet her at the club in the evening.
"That lady" successfully helped a group of five people escape after the incident at Lake View Manor, but this was certainly not free help.
"But a ring sorcerer of this level should not lack the power of a first-ring sorcerer. Is it really that I have to do something that is inconvenient for a noble?"
He didn't think that the nobles were the law-abiding guys described in the books.
The last letter that the priest passed on should have been written on paper and pen found temporarily at Lake View Manor, so the quality of the paper was very ordinary. This time, the lady used special high-end letter paper. Although there was no gold edge on the edge of the paper, the whole paper had a special fragrance. Mia was very sensitive to this smell, probably because it felt pungent, but Shade liked this smell very much.
Of course, he wouldn't be so perverted as to smell the scent of the letter.