Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

8th October 1660

Raya Media Corporation Headquarters, Bengaluru

Meera Nair is pacing around the large room with an annoyed expression on her face. Until now, she had no pressure in her work since she had neither a competitor nor a quota to meet, but starting a month ago, with the popularization of the new two-revolution printing press and the establishment of so many newspapers, the pressure had been mounting on her.

Arnav Sharma, the managing journalist, and Kabir Mehta, the managing editor, were both present in the office along with her, both having sombre expressions on their faces.

"Director, this can't go on. Although we still hold the dominant position in the newspaper market due to the reputation we have built up, our rich foundation, and our unparalleled resource collection ability, and we do not have to worry about direct competitors like 'The Observer' established by Puneeth Khalyan, the second son of Pawan Khayan, or 'The Times of Bharat' established by Arjan Bakshi, we are starting to lose customers very quickly in local markets," Arnav Sharma said, with sweat already accumulated on his forehead.

Kabir Mehta, who was constantly nodding his head, went on to add, "That's right, madam. Newspapers like 'Ahom Daily' established by His Highness Jayadwaja Singha, 'Nepali Times' established by Miss Mahalakshmi, 'My Hampi Newspaper' established by Miss Leila Shetty, 'Lanka Observer' established by Miss Durgavati Sena Pati, or even the newly established 'The Balochi' have all begun to gain momentum in their local states. Bharatham Daily's sales in these states have begun to slow down."

Arnav Sharma looked worried and added, "Especially the last one, 'The Balochi', established by Sardar Malik Khan Mengal, the patriarch of the Mengal tribe, has already become a dark horse in the media industry."

"Due to 'The Balochi's' grounded news and excellent internal news channels from within the state of Balochistan, the sales of Bharatham Daily have dropped drastically."

Kabir Mehta, with a cautious expression, added, "Director, if things do not change, even if we still have a very big lead over the other newspapers, it will not be long until we completely lose local markets."

Meera Nair finally stopped pacing around as she slumped back into the chair with a defeated expression because she clearly understood what Arnav Sharma and Kabir Mehta said to be true. In fact, a few days ago, even her husband Satish brought back a local newspaper saying that he found it interesting. At that moment, she already understood that Bharatham Daily's dominance would not last long if she did not change.

Even if she had not received any suggestions or expectations from General Manager Bhaskaracharya or even His Majesty Vijay Devaraya, Meera clearly understood that if she did not perform well, she would surely be replaced by someone who could.

Thinking of all this, determination appeared in her eyes, and she clenched her fist, making the sound of bones cracking.

She had made up her mind to implement all the plans she had thought of before.

"Immediately establish a separate newspaper in the media group called 'The Vedic International.' This will be the newspaper that will be focused on presenting the news of international diplomacy and international major events."

"For now, for the collection of news, let's constantly interview the merchants coming to the Bharatiya Empire and cross-verify with different merchants from the same region to figure out the authenticity of the news."

"In the future, we can recruit graduates from universities who are willing to go abroad and have them collect the news firsthand."

"This single newspaper can once again prove the absolute dominance of Raya Media Group and can once again show that we are at the top of the food chain and we cannot be shaken."

Arnav Sharma and Kabir Mehta's eyes lit up, and they frantically wrote down the orders in their notebooks.

"Simultaneously, establish 'Bharatam Business Weekly,' a newspaper published on a weekly basis, completely focused on discussing and disseminating information and knowledge related to the business field."

"For this, we can invite top business personalities in the empire like Abhijit Kumar Sen, the director of the business department at BIT Hoysala, or even ministers like Narasimha Modi, who are quite economically minded. Occasionally we can even take interviews with entrepreneurs who had risen from the bottom of society to the top and ask about their experiences so as to make the newspaper a very important part of life to the aspirational class of the society."

Thinking of something, she further added,

"From the 1st Aikyotsava festival, entertainment has become a huge part of society, already becoming a multimillion Varaha industry, so we will establish 'Entertainment Weekly,' a newspaper completely focused on entertainment news, be it from cricket games, football games, rugby games, Kabbadi games, or singing competitions, dancing competitions, novels, short stories, or essays. Everything will be found in this newspaper."

"This should be very attractive to the youth of the empire."

Meera's eyes were sharp like an unsheathed sword. "We cannot immediately compete with the newspaper companies that are focusing on micro markets, but the place we can fully cover from every nook and cranny is Bengaluru city."

"Immediately form a 'Bengaluru Daily' newspaper, only focused on reporting major and minor news that has happened in Bengaluru."

"Given that the capital has the highest population of middle class and elite class in the empire, let's make the 'Bengaluru Daily' a premium newspaper, priced a little higher than 'Bharatham Daily'."

"As for the existing 'Bharatam Daily,' it will remain the flagship newspaper of Raya Media Corporation, but in order to enrich its content, I have decided to establish a content-sharing system where the most popular news from other fields will be added to 'Bharatam Daily,' meaning the most popular international news will be added in 'Bharatam Daily' as well as the most popular entertainment news and the most popular short stories or essays. In this way, even if 'Bharatam Daily' cannot reach the ground level similar to many town-level or city-level newspapers, its overall value alone will be enough for the customers to pick it over other newspapers."

"And finally, expand the scale of 'Chitrakatha.' Until now, we only have four major artists Jayarani Janaki, Ramesh Chandra, Hemanta Biswa, and Bajirao Ganapathi, and this is putting aside Her Majesty the Empress. The number of major artists is not enough to run the 'Chitrakatha' magazine."

"Immediately publicize that we are looking for submissions throughout the empire and publicize that we will be covering 50% of the courier charges for the transport of the transcript through the Bharatiya Post."

"Finally, establish an intellectual property management department in the Raya Media Group. From now on, any IP generated by a collaborating artist will immediately undergo inspection to see if its success could be replicated in other artistic fields."

"Taking the most popular IP in the Bharatiya Empire in recent years, 'Bahubali,' as an example, it can be used as a foundation to derive music, drama, paintings, short stories, essays, or even fictional works from fans."

"All of this could generate revenue. From now on, Raya Media Group should become the first media enterprise that is capable of taking advantage of an IP and becoming a one-stop solution to any art form commercialization in the Bharatiya Empire."

Meera Nair finally took a gulp of water and stopped her back-to-back orders. In fact, a lot of these ideas she had already had before, but since she had no competition against her, she did not see the necessity of bringing her ideas to reality. Not to mention, there was a huge risk involved since she would be punished more severely for making a mistake when she was having it easy than for making a mistake when she was not.

Right now is clearly a time when she is not having it easy, so she chose to take the risk.

Fortunately, though, not all the risk was on her, since a few months ago, Her Majesty the Queen unexpectedly contacted her and told her about her idea regarding IP sharing, which she supposedly got inspired by the atmospheric steam engine of His Majesty.

Although Meera did not understand how those two were connected, she still felt like it was an excellent idea, so she agreed. But according to her plan, the idea should have only come into provision in January of 1661, the day set for the release of *Bahubali*'s third part, as according to Her Majesty's request, the novel should be released simultaneously with its derivative works.

But now that she had decided to push things forward, she did not know what Her Majesty's plans were.

Shaking off her thoughts, which had taken a tangent, Meera silently looked at Arnav Sharma and Kabir Mehta. "Is there any doubt?"

Arnav Sharma and Kabir Mehta simultaneously shook their heads, as the plan their director brought out was too complete, and they had no place to point out any wrongs in it. But Kabir Mehta had a doubt that was not directly related to the plan.

"Madam, everything looks great, and it is a brilliant plan that is bound to take Raya Media Corporation to a higher level. But from what you have said, I can tell that it would require a lot of resources, especially now, since journalists and editors are hard to find."

Meera Nair immediately became silent. She had not considered this, but fortunately, it was not like there wasn't any solution for it.

"I will talk about funds with the General Manager Baskaracharya. Meanwhile, publish an advertisement directly in the newspaper for a job offer to experienced journalists, editors, and graduates from colleges and universities. The salary will be 40% above industry standards. Poach the people from other newspaper companies if you have to." Thinking of something, she added, "I remember there is a relatively famous company called Indira Manju Human Resources, which specializes in this field. Contact them and see if they can do anything about it."
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Arnav Sharma and Kabir Mehta immediately nodded their heads and got to work.

Starting from the next day, the whole atmosphere of Raya Media Corporation changed. If it was like a tortoise before—a steady machine with stable growth—now it was like a shark that had smelled blood, swimming around, ready to kill its competitors at any time.

A Few Days Later

"God damn it, Meera!" Jayadawaj Singha cursed as he found out that more than 20 reporters and three editors had been poached away by *Bharatam Daily*.

"This bitch!" Mahalaxmi clenched her fists, gritting her teeth.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Durgavati Senapati continuously clicked her tongue, shocked by the ruthlessness of Meera Nair.

"Haha, this disciple of mine—who knew she was so fierce?" The director of Bharatiya Internal Pragya, Selvan, lamented, because as long as Meera was in the department, she had always been calm and collected—never this fierce.