Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The afterglow of the writing age once shone on Luoyuan, making him mistakenly think it was the morning glow.

Four years ago, on the summer night of the opening of the World Cup in Russia, he stayed in an office on the fourth floor of the Sigma Building in Beijing, preparing for the "big exam" with the editors who stayed on duty to write and publish the contents of the World Cup. Finally reached the eyes of hundreds of millions of users.

The opening game starts at 23: 00 on June 14, Beijing time, and most of the other departments are off duty, except for the lights on the fourth floor where the World Cup project team is located.

At that time, Luo Yuan was the head of Tencent Sports's football team, and without getting the right to broadcast the World Cup, they wanted to find another way for Tencent to benefit from the World Cup craze. On the night of the opening game, he handed out red envelopes in the group, ordered kebabs and crayfish for midnight snacks, and was busy with everyone.

Luoyuan remembers the scene four years ago very clearly: "anyone who is looking for someone will stand up and shout a goal, saying that push has pushed, whether the Gif picture has been intercepted or not, and whether the war report has been issued."

Four years later, the World Cup moved from summer to winter, from Russia to Qatar, Tencent's Beijing headquarters moved from the Sigma Building to the back factory village, and Tencent Sports moved back to Sigma after structural adjustment. Luo principle and his football team editors went their separate ways.

He lost his job this summer.

As a football editor for 15 years, the boss told Luoyuan six months before the start of the World Cup that the entire football team would be laid off. Including himself.

From youth training to rich family Luoyuan, he likes to compare his career with that of a football player.

For example, in college, writing communications for NetEase and TOM was regarded as youth training, internship in Sports Weekly was regarded as joining the reserve team, officially becoming a sports writer and editor, and entering the first team.

In his college days, newspapers were still the main media carrying sports news reports, and Sports Weekly, Football, and Southern Sports were popular goods in newsstands all over the country. In 2008, the average weekly circulation of Sports Weekly exceeded 5 million. During the Beijing Olympic Games, netizens complained in the bar: "I just went out to buy today's Sports Weekly, but I didn't get it. The newsstand said it was sold out."

Luoyuan went to the Sports Weekly for an internship. When he saw the "god" who often appeared in the newspaper, he would go back to school and show off to his classmates: "I peed side by side with Yan Qiang!" Yan Qiang was his favorite football columnist when he was a teenager. Many years later, they became friends who often asked out for dinner and chatted.

After working in the sports world for a year, Luoyuan moved to NetEase and became the head of NetEase Sports International Football team when the portal was in the limelight.

More than 10 years ago, the relationship of the editorial department was very simple. Luoyuan defined that period as the day with the strongest professional happiness, like going to college for a few more years. A group of football-loving editors, both colleagues and friends, rent together, go to work together, play football together, and pass out together. "We often get drunk one day and wake up the next day to find sleeping at the house of a brother in the same group. (when he woke up) he was no longer at home, saying he was already on duty.

At that time, NetEase was still in the "universe center" Wudaokou, did not move to the back factory village, the company is full of food and play everywhere. Every Friday at 4 p.m., Luoyuan had a weekly meeting with his editorial colleagues. At 6 o'clock, he went to a cafe in Wudaokou to play cards. After the game ended, he went to eat midnight snacks and drink, woke up the next day, and played a 12:00-14:00 game of football. Over the past few years, this has been almost a regular itinerary for a group of football editors of NetEase Sports.

In a photo taken with Yan Qiang at NetEase's annual meeting in 2013, Luoyuan and his colleagues worked the night shift for a month and stayed at the company until 8 a.m. Every day during the World Cup. At the meeting before leaving work, a group of people spoke in their mouths, unable to open their eyes, and "almost fell asleep". When the transfer meeting was over, he took his colleagues on duty to a random breakfast restaurant in Wudaokou to have some Youtiao and soya-bean milk. "when we go in, the 'hula' is full."

It was the hottest time for portals, and football editors were doing their favorite jobs, having the most compatible partners, and feeling what it was like to make their dreams come true.

NetEase Sports made a year-end planner called "Dialogue" at the end of 2013, inviting the sports editors at that time to tell you the story of the editorial department. Luoyuan recalled that he said in the video at the time: "if [football editor] can make a living, have a foothold in Beijing, and can maintain this, it will be the best condition." I'm willing to keep doing it. "

I found this 9-year-old video in NetEase to verify Luoyuan's original words, but unfortunately the video can no longer be played.

But just as players always move, it's hard for football editors to end up on the same platform. Soon after, Luoyuan left NetEase Sports and joined Letv and Tencent successively, which, in his words, "transferred from an established strong team to a big club."

The first feeling of entering the "rich family" is that the platform is not short of money. When he first arrived at Tencent, the boss asked Luoyuan to do a budget. He finished it according to the previous standard in NetEase. The boss asked him: "is there a few zeros missing?"

There is no shortage of money, no lack of resources, and the company is willing to invest wholeheartedly. Luoyuan felt for the first time in the Russian World Cup cycle that he could do it as long as he dared to think about it. "for me, I never dared to think that one day we could arrange an interview with Ronaldo and Messi together." When he talks about this experience, his face is brimming with a different look, which is quite different from the warmth he used to talk about NetEase's international football team.

The peak of happiness comes before the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

In order to create momentum, Tencent decided to invite many internationally renowned retired stars to host the Super Penguin Masters in China. Luoyuan was the main person in charge of the reception and interview. He received the visiting stars one by one at Man Va Hotel in Shanghai and arranged interviews for them. Maldini, Rivaldo, Materazzi, Ballack, Toldo. Those who galloped on the green field on the TV screen stood in front of him, shaking hands, greeting and introducing each other. For a moment, he felt a little in a trance, standing in front of the people chatting, whether or not he grew up to see those people.

At the 2018 Super Penguin Football Masters, when the interviewees took a photo with Maldini, Luoyuan sighed: "you can only really come into contact with football in such a big platform."

From joining Tencent in 2017 to leaving in 2022, there are many similar stories. At that time, everyone thought the 2018 World Cup was a brilliant starting point, but in fact, they did not wait for the next World Cup.

The footballer's last report was that his favorite player was Paolo Maldini. Maldini, 41, announced his retirement in 2009 and has played for only one team, AC Milan, in his long career.

Either way, this is close to a fairy tale. Owe allegiance to the first team, end up in the same city, fulfill your dream, and retire with success.

But fairy tales can become fairy tales because of their scarcity. As Luoyuan did not expect, free from injuries, no physical restrictions, as a football editor, he will end his career earlier than his idol.

Previously, he has always been able to choose a "transfer" at the right time, such as leaving Sports Network to join NetEase in 2009, NetEase to join Letv in 2014 and Tencent in 2017. But this time, Luoyuan smelled danger a year ahead of schedule, but he didn't expect the change to come so thoroughly that he didn't have time to get out.

As a team leader, he knew that the news of layoffs was only two hours ahead of team members. Two hours later, he told the team through office software that the football team would be disbanded from now on. I can't even say goodbye face to face, at a time when the epidemic is severe, and employees are working from home. Extremely cruel, extremely thorough, Luoyuan does not need to worry about who to cut, who to leave, he just told everyone: "We are going to get out of here together."

It is difficult to accept that the history of a team is broken in your own hands. Luoyuan tries to communicate with department leaders, trying to keep the "blood" of the football team going. He asked the boss, "Don't we need us for this year's World Cup?" The boss replied, "No need."

"these are the people who know the most about football in the company."

"I don't need it."

After hard communication, two members of the original football team were eventually left behind and merged into other teams, and the serial number was removed, but there were at least the last two people who did football content.

There are traces of all changes.

Last summer, Luoyuan felt the crisis after the adjustment of the internal structure. This crisis cannot be blamed solely on a new boss, but on the changing environment as a whole. On the one hand, the platforms are suffering from the fierce impact of headline products, on the other hand, the entire content system has also changed. So he thought long ago: "Adjustment is imperative."

The career of football media people often takes the World Cup as the key point, and four years is regarded as a cycle. Referring to the past, Luoyuan will say what the cycle was like in Brazil and how it was in Russia. When it comes to the Qatar cycle, he said, this World Cup is probably a sign that sports media has entered a so-called new stage.

In the new stage, the recommendation algorithm completely replaces the previous manual screening and becomes the main mechanism of content distribution. Once upon a time, editors had to choose headlines, select covers, and produce high-quality content on the front page; now, these are no longer needed.

Some people around him complained to Luoyuan about how this year's World Cup looked deserted. He explained that it was because there were many platforms creating momentum ahead of time. " In the previous media form, the headlines were artificially set, and they were placed in front of you. "he is used to comparing the situation four years ago." at the 18-year World Cup, you can see how lively we were at that time, and there were so many people. take the initiative to do some planning around the World Cup to create momentum. So far, the list of the top 32 has come out, and we can't see a map of the world that can click on different participating countries, read the list, interpret, predict and analyze. Not even now. "

In the new stage, video content is also fully replacing picture and text content, which is particularly fatal for the production of high-quality sports content. Luoyuan asked me, "it's OK to look at interesting or spoof short videos. Make a quality football analysis short video. Who will watch it?"

When he first left Tencent, Luoyuan could feel the care of his family when speaking, lest he might say something wrong and make him sad or anxious. On the contrary, he is quite calm, sad, for the dissolution of the department, for the members of the separate things, for the changes of the industry.

Because he knows very well that an era is coming to an end. The 2022 World Cup no longer requires the deliberate arguments in the editorial department, the all-night planning, or the shouting of racing against the clock.

The glory of the print media is over, and the portal has to find a new way out. The afterglow of the writing era once shone on Luoyuan, making him think it was the morning glow, but now he watched the sun go down.

Love never call a curtain call before leaving this time, Luoyuan did not have a long rest.

The professional nature of a football editor means that he has to face breaking news at any time, sometimes from home, sometimes from Europe, sometimes from America. He has been woken up by phone calls for countless nights. "when Maradona died and Wu Lei infected COVID-19, the editor on duty would call me in such an important emergency."

After leaving his job, he suddenly became idle, just like when a professional player retired, he suddenly didn't have to train for the game and had a lot of free time. He began to pick up his wife and children every day, eat on time, and get used to a life where he didn't need to pay attention to mobile phone messages anytime and anywhere.

As for the football industry, of course he is reluctant to leave.

After leaving office, Luoyuan set up a "re-employment team". There are more than a dozen people in the group, all of whom used to work in the football media. During the pre-World Cup preparation cycle, they worked together to provide relevant content for some platforms. "these people in the group are all former professional editors, but they have all left the industry, not that they do not want to do it, but that there is no room for them to live." He said that these "retired" editors to become writers is a reduced-dimensional blow in terms of content quality.

When the manuscripts were submitted for the first time, a total of 18 manuscripts from 5 different teams were up to standard, of which 12 were from Luoyuan's team. But because other teams offer low prices, they can only get the same standard of remuneration.

On the one hand, Luoyuan feels very lost because the content has become extremely cheap; on the other hand, he feels lucky that at least in this way, everyone can stay in the industry. in the "re-employment team", some retired football editors have changed careers back to their hometown, some have gone to take the civil service examination, some are working in the media, or doing some other work. In short, no longer do football-related professions.

For the first publication fee of "re-employment", each editor of the "team" received income according to his work, and more than 20 writers were paid. It's about the same as when Luoyuan was a part-time writer 15 years ago. At that time, thousands of yuan was a huge amount of money for college students to prove that "hobbies can be eaten"; now, for football editors who return to their hometown, it is pocket money earned by their old profession.

This year, the new media platform that won the live broadcast of the World Cup is Migu and Douyin, and the Central Radio and Television head Office specially issued a copyright protection notice. except for China Mobile Migu, Douyin, Shanghai five-Star Sports Channel, Guangdong Sports Channel, Guangzhou South Metropolis Channel and Guangzhou Competition Channel, no other organization is authorized to broadcast Qatar World Cup programs.

Most of the platforms of the Tuyuan network are no longer as "extravagant and wasteful" as they used to be, and everyone is shouting to reduce costs and increase efficiency and keep their wallets tight. Luoyuan helps those friends who are still on the platform to prepare online programs for the World Cup and invites some friends in football circles to chat and watch the game together. "this is a thing in line with the current market environment," he said. "

Four years ago, when Maldini were invited to China, the day of hosting the Elder Competition seemed to be in sight, but everyone knew that such days had passed and it would be difficult to do so again.

During the unemployment period, Luoyuan and his partner successfully completed the "Strategic Edition of the three Kingdoms" game and the cooperation of Argentine star Batistuta as an agent channel. From negotiation to filming, there were many difficulties all the way, but fortunately, the "final kill" was completed at the last minute.

Having experienced a glorious moment and a gloomy exit under the changing times, Luoyuan said that football brought him far more than he lost. "my wife and children, my career, my income, most of my friends, the connection point is football."

With their families, the respondents' contribution to playing football is still Luoyuan's most important hobby.

No matter where he went, he was the one who booked the court and gathered together the players. The day before, he had to "beg his grandfather to sue his grandmother" and repeatedly confirmed with the players that "you must come tomorrow." He worked for more than ten years because of the tedious affairs. Originally, the old editors of the Old International FC had a regular team, but later, some members left Beijing and were unable to gather people together. Luoyuan brought in other media friends who loved playing football and formed a new team.

I asked Luoyuan whether he would still choose this industry if he knew everything that happened later and went back to 2006.

However, he gave me popular football travel novels, such as going back to a certain year and opening a Golden finger to lead the Chinese men's football team to the World Cup. "sometimes I fantasize about whether it is possible to buy a 1000 yuan lottery ticket for the Champions League final back to a certain year with memory." At the end of the professional story, the orange juice in Luoyuan cup also bottomed out.

"I can't wipe it off all my life. The imprint of football is too deep."

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: hedgehog Commune (ID:ciweigongshe). Article: Chen Meixi, edited by Li Leshu.

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