Time flew. Two years and more than seven hundred days had passed. Everyone in the Game Church and the small group had changed quite a bit, and no one could have predicted what had changed the most. That was … the teaching journal of the Church of Games, 'Absolute Truth'.
It was a teaching journal set up by the Game Church back in the day. Isabella's ragtag team had created half a gaming journal and half a travel journal to pass time. Now, it had become one of the mainstream journals in Saul's city.
The reason? It was probably the name of 'Absolute Truth' and its accurate self-positioning.
After several incidents, chief editor Rorschach's talent for honesty was no longer a secret, and had become the selling point of the journal.
Many people had bought the journal for that selling point, thinking that it could be relatively reliable.
Some simply wanted to find faults and prove that the journal didn't live up to its name, but none of them succeeded in the end.
"Eh? It doesn't have an obvious political bias like other journals? The ridicule and criticism is quite interesting. "
In this era, most teaching journals of churches served the church, and the church of a particular god was often part of a divine system. There were many who had a God King, companions, and factions behind them, just as there were many who had mortal nations as their pillars.
If the news media itself had a stance, and if their salary and benefits were controlled by one faction, then the work they did for their salary would naturally have a stance as well.
People were already used to all kinds of provocative, half-true, and obviously nonsensical propaganda. Some journals, such as those belonging to the elven faction or the orc faction, would also limit their readership. Humans would definitely not buy the incitement and propaganda of many races … even if they accidentally bought the wrong journal and were described as worm-like creatures by the incitement, they would definitely not touch it again after being disgusted once.
"Magazines are just for show."
People were also used to getting rid of the excessive propaganda and finding the truth of events … it was actually very simple. If it was a popular event, they just had to find three to five journals from the opposing faction that reported the same event, compare them, and discuss it in a hotel or teahouse. Then, the truth would be revealed … no way.
What came out in this way was most likely not the truth, but the most horrifying, most interesting, and most unbelievable "truth" that the public loved and entertained.
Over time, the credibility of the formal media declined to the level of pure entertainment weeklies and gossip magazines. Even those periodicals that specialized in news, those that flaunted their neutral stance, often had forces behind them.
As a result, they took the money and became weak in the knees. It was inevitable that they would make reports that went against the truth. Then, they would be used as targets by the enemy camp, and their credibility would plummet.
A journal of a small church without the support of a major power? First of all, they didn't even have a name for themselves. Their promotional materials would probably have to come with toilet paper and soy oil as a complimentary gift before anyone would be willing to buy them. And even if they had the means to obtain first-hand information, without any backing … they probably wouldn't dare to report it.
When all the media outlets were "lying", this periodical that sold itself as "truth without lies" was exceptionally eye-catching.
At first, people only took it as a publicity stunt that went too far, and not many people took it seriously. However, true gold fears no fire, or it could be said that a piece of paper that was too clean was exceptionally eye-catching in the ink pool.
Most of the readers who came to try out the periodical found that not only did the periodical not have an excessive publicity slogan, the content was actually quite good.
Amidst the hubbub, Rorschach's "Absolute Truth" simply stated the facts. Moreover, most of it was first-hand information obtained from the Descenders through special channels. If it couldn't be verified, it would rather leave it blank or label it as having doubts about its authenticity.
This was crazily advocating that "what I said is the truth". In the teaching media of "We are the righteous", it was simply an anomaly … but it could be considered a clear stream.
Moreover, "Absolute Truth" dared to expose and attack people. Not only did it dare to attack people, it even attacked people regardless of their faction.
Some people pointed out that the Game Church was related to the Nature Faction. However, previously, the Game Church's "Absolute Truth" had attacked the terrorist actions of the Radical Druids, and some of the Nature Faction's bigwigs had secretly helped the Radical Druids.
Standing in a certain field and serving a certain group, although the audience was relatively stable and loyal, it also meant that they would lose a large portion of the audience that didn't belong to that group.
After giving up on the Nature Faction and the Human Faction, "Absolute Truth" gained a large number of ordinary citizens who didn't have a specific standpoint.
"Absolute Truth" didn't take sides and was completely neutral. Although there were periodical periodicals with similar positions before, there definitely wasn't one that was so thorough that it was close to being mysophobic.
After several "fair" and "neutral" reports and reprints, this was a rare "exclusive". Those neutral readers spontaneously promoted, recommended, and promoted "Absolute Truth".
It was just like selling desserts and drinks on a spicy street. Although it didn't seem appropriate, there would always be customers.
Perhaps the base wasn't large, but because there weren't any competitors of the same type, the loyalty of the readers who were cultivated step by step from scratch was relatively high. After accumulating for more than two years, it finally changed from quantitative change to qualitative change.
Now, even without a large amount of financial investment and the support of powerful figures, "Absolute Truth" still became Saul's first-rate teaching periodical. The monthly sales volume was quite impressive.
The income from the teaching periodical wasn't important … Alright, considering the degree to which the Game Church relied on itself, it was indeed important. However, the important point was that it had an independent advertising channel. Now, the Game Church had completely broken free from the control of other factions. In fact, other major factions would even take the initiative to seek cooperation and communication.
Independent, it couldn't be independent. It had three independent cores and independent legs — the Operations Department. It could do whatever it wanted.
It had an independent money bag. There was no need to expand on this point. Everyone knew that when someone got a free lunch, they would get a free lunch.
It had an independent mouth — it could say whatever it wanted, and there would be people who would listen and take it seriously … Don't underestimate this. This was actually the most difficult part.
Just like the Game Church back in the day, it wasn't enough for most small and medium-sized churches to rely on their own teaching periodical to advertise. Those medium and large media outlets were always in the hands of major factions. If they wanted to advertise a celebrity descender or a church's achievements, all they needed to do was spend money to buy a "promotional spot." Not only did they need to invest money, they also needed to have connections and connections that could be paid for … Since things were like this, how could they possibly maintain their independence?
Back in the day, in order to advertise Rorschach, the "Ghost in the Fog," the Game Church had paid a large sum of money and favors. These past events were still fresh in Rorschach's mind. This was also why Rorschach didn't hesitate to invest in this teaching periodical that had slow and difficult results.
The media's audience was always chasing after new things. Two years was more than enough for a mainstream media outlet to decline, but it was also more than enough for a grassroots media outlet to reach the peak … After all, although the competition on the advertising front was more intense and unscrupulous, it didn't require a church's true combat strength to compete. Three to five people and a sufficiently rational brain would suffice.
"In this world filled with lies, we only need to speak the truth. As long as people still hope for the truth, we'll have sales … Or to put it more bluntly, in this world filled with trash, all we need to do is not trash."
Alright, it's not that we're too strong, it's that our opponents are too trash.
Although there were many things to complain about, the editor-in-chief's original words were still engraved on the decorative screen at the entrance of the editing department.
The current editing department was completely different from the past. It was a thirty-story building with several hundred employees. The area and scale of the editing department even faintly surpassed the main church not far away. However, nobody had any doubts about it.
It could be said that in the eyes of most people, and even in the eyes of most church members, the three to five grassroots media outlets back in the day had already become the Game Church's core, most important department, or even the main church.
Yes, many Saul's people didn't even know about the Game Church. They only knew about "Absolute Truth." In fact, many people even knew about the Game Church. Due to the importance of the Game Church's periodicals, they viewed the Game Church as a neutral news church that specialized in selling periodicals.
In fact, many powerful Gods even contacted Lori of their own volition, offering ridiculous Divine Concepts such as the God of Media, the Apostle of the God King, the God of News, and so on in order to tempt her into joining the Game Church … Many Gods who knew the truth even sent their invitations to Rorschach and offered excellent conditions.
If Lori didn't truly join the Game Church, it would be tantamount to giving up on her neutral position, and the advantages of the Game Church would be greatly reduced. Faced with the excellent conditions of working ten or even a hundred years less, Rorschach and Lori really wanted to agree.
On the other hand, the strength of the Game Church's periodicals would also be a great advantage for the church's development.
In this day and age, having people listen to your words was also a kind of strength, an extremely powerful strength.
Compared to people of the same generation and strength, the celebrity Descenders of the Game Church received many more opportunities for publicity. This naturally made the outside world think highly of the Game Church. In this way, they also received enough investment from the outside world and regular distribution of benefits from the Gods' Pantheon.
This excellent foundation, good reputation, and good publicity attracted more and more excellent newcomers and veteran Gods to join. Ansorenne's Reclamation Team increased in strength, which in turn increased the content of the periodicals and allowed them to obtain more Descenders.
Not only that, just like how the Game Church had to rely on other periodicals to advertise their celebrity Descenders, when "Absolute Truth" rose to prominence, the happiest ones were the small and medium-sized churches that didn't have their own publicity channels.
For those small and medium-sized churches that struggled to maintain their independence, not having the support of a powerful God King meant that they didn't need to owe him a favor. It didn't matter how expensive the advertising fees were.
Thus, with the help of the constant business dealings over the years, the Church of Game had established very good "friendships" with many small and medium-sized churches. As a result, the Church of Game had gained quite a reputation in the large circle of gods.
This time, Lori was able to easily take the lead and gather the churches around the wasteland. She even vaguely became the leader because of this reputation.
It could be said that with the rise of the periodicals "Absolute Truth" as the fulcrum, the entire Game Church entered a virtuous cycle. In the circle of Descenders, the label that Rorschach received was definitely not the best newcomer or potential expert, but the big boss of publicity and the chief editor of "Absolute Truth".
But now, the Chief Editor had rushed into the editorial department and issued a shocking order.
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