"This is the information about the Latin American child who drew that special thank-you letter. She is from Brazil, named Carina Rosa, and is now 11 years old. Unfortunately, she dropped out of school last year, and her family is still struggling. The news report value is not significant".
"UNICEF said that if needed, they could arrange for the person who received the donation at the time to accept media interviews".
"I don't think all this information should be released at once. It's best to leave most of it for other media outlets to actively uncover, otherwise, it's easy for the public to question it as a deliberate arrangement".
"Also, regarding Davis Condy, one of the six people, wanting to settle, according to the evidence currently held by the Santa Monica police, even if the parties involved don't admit it, it's enough to prove their guilt. However, accepting a settlement and letting them voluntarily confess the truth of the incident would make things more secure".
"..."
"..."
Malibu, in a conference room at Point Dume Manor's Seashell Villa.
The legal team and public relations team responsible for the assault case four years ago sat around the large conference table, discussing back and forth.
Janette sat in the centre of one side of the conference table, flanked by George Norman, head of the legal team, and Pat Kingsley, head of the public relations team.
After patiently listening to the discussions of others in the conference room, Janette directly ordered: "Tomorrow, arrange for the Los Angeles Times to report the ins and outs of that $500,000. However, don't completely let go afterward; continue to guide other media to dig for more detailed inside stories. If necessary, you can proactively provide them with materials".
Today is Thursday, December 27th, 1990.
These days, the investigation and public opinion regarding the assault case four years ago have completely sided with Simon, but Janette, who was thoroughly provoked, has not relaxed in the slightest.
To prevent everything Simon now possesses from being linked to the 'dirty money' Matthew Broderick used for a settlement, Janette patiently refrained from immediately announcing the truth in the face of media discussion. Instead, she had people carefully collect all information about the funds donated to UNICEF at the time, until an irrefutable chain of evidence was established, and now decided to make the matter public.
The reason for such caution was that Janette understood that if it were merely based on a 'special thank-you letter' still kept in Dume Cape Manor's Seashell Villa, once concrete evidence could not be found afterward, announcing it prematurely would only be counterproductive.
After all, few would believe that a penniless young man at the time would unhesitatingly donate $500,000.
After continuing to discuss the $500,000 matter with everyone, Janette finally scanned everyone's faces in the conference room and said, "As for a settlement, don't let me hear such suggestions again. I do not accept a settlement. I want to make those bastards lose everything and go to jail".
Feeling the cold, undeniable resolve in Janette's tone, everyone else was somewhat intimidated, and the lawyer who had just suggested accepting a settlement couldn't help but shrink his neck.
After Janette finished speaking, seeing that no one else spoke, she lowered her head to glance at the memo in front of her, confirmed that she hadn't forgotten anything else, closed her notebook, and said, "Then, today's meeting is adjourned".
Everyone in the conference room got up and left. George Norman and Pat Kingsley stayed until the end and discussed some trivial matters with Janette. George Norman finally asked with a smile, "Jenny, you and Simon shouldn't miss the Daenerys Studios party tonight, right?"
Because it's the end of the year, although it's a workday, Hollywood has various parties almost every day these days. Daenerys Entertainment also arranged a gathering tonight at Daenerys Studios to thank the filmmakers who collaborated with Daenerys Entertainment this year.
Being very familiar in private, Janette didn't maintain the seriousness from the meeting. She glanced at her watch and said, "Simon said he could make it back by seven o'clock, so we definitely have to go".
After Christmas, returning from the East Coast, Simon went to San Francisco again in the past few days to discuss the 1991 development plan with executives from Ygritte and several other companies.
As Jennifer's uncle, George Norman naturally knew about this. His niece, who had been staying at his house, also went to San Francisco with Simon these past few days.
Regarding the relationship between Jennifer and Simon, both George Norman and the Female Assistant's parents were well aware.
Before Simon and Janette got married, the Raybould couple still hoped their daughter could win Simon over. After the wedding at the beginning of the year, due to Simon's continuously increasing personal wealth and power, for various reasons, the Raybould couple almost tacitly approved of the ambiguous relationship between Simon and their daughter.
George Norman thought about these things and naturally wouldn't mention them in front of Janette. He said, "I'll also go tonight and plan to introduce some friends to Simon".
"Of course, no problem", Janette nodded and said, "If you need extra invitations, you can call Amy directly".
George Norman shook his head and smiled, "There's no need to trouble Pascal with such a small matter".
After seeing off George Norman and Pat Kingsley, Janette returned to the villa and called Simon. He said he would be boarding the plane in another hour. After a brief chat, Janette called the two assistants, A and B, who were at home to accompany her to the third-floor cloakroom to prepare for tonight's party.
In San Francisco, Simon stayed at the Ygritte headquarters until six in the afternoon before finally heading to the airport to return to Los Angeles.
Accompanying him this time, besides the Female Assistant, was the Housekeeper Alice Ferguson and Peter Butler, a Los Angeles Times reporter whom Simon had known for a long time.
Peter Butler will officially resign from the Los Angeles Times after the New Year and join Ygritte Company, mainly responsible for the news and finance sections of Ygritte Portal.
After America Online signed exclusive agreements with the three major operators, the number of world wide web users increased again in the last quarter of 1990. Including the growth of world wide web access users in other regions, the number of internet users relying on the world wide web has officially exceeded one million, a growth rate even better than Simon's best predictions at the time.
Therefore, Simon re-adjusted his plan and intends to officially push into the internet field at the beginning of next year.
Ygritte, America Online, and Cisco, the three core enterprises Simon has laid out in the internet field, have been discussing various plans for next year since last month. Moreover, also last month, Ygritte again began constructing two more 2 million user level data centres on the East Coast and West Coast, respectively, expected to be operational by mid-January next year.
Mid-January 1991 happens to be the time of the Gulf War's outbreak.
The Cloud Computing plan has been secretly advancing, but because it involves many technical problems that need to be solved, this matter requires sufficient time, and many of Ygritte's other plans cannot wait.
Once the two data centres under construction are completed, Ygritte's total data centre user capacity will reach 5 million, which will certainly not be fully utilized in the short term. Therefore, Ygritte will prematurely launch the one stop website solution plan proposed by Carol Bartz last year, providing server space and website solutions to commercial users interested in developing internet website businesses.
The early implementation of this business plan can not only increase Ygritte's revenue but also further enrich internet content resources.
However, this is actually just one of the development plans finalized in recent days.
In addition to Carol Bartz's plan, starting early next year, Ygritte will also make efforts in both media and social fields simultaneously. Peter Butler's joining this time is one part of it. In addition, Jeff Bezos has been recruiting excellent media professionals from various fields to join Ygritte in recent months.
After Simon's plan to cooperate with the Hearst Group failed a few months ago, Ygritte completely abandoned the plan of relying on other media platforms for information and began to build its own news media team.
In January next year, which is just a few days away, the new version of Ygritte Portal will officially go online.
At that time, Ygritte Portal will not only launch its first generation of simple Search Engine functions, which have been secretly developed for a year, but the media section will also be expanded at once into 11 channels including news, finance, sports, entertainment, fashion, and technology. Channels such as the news channel will also be divided into various sub-channels such as domestic news, international news, and photo news.
In the social networking sphere, after a year of technological accumulation, Ygritte Personal Homepage will be split into Column Blogs and Microblogs, beginning to segment its user base.
At the same time, to encourage user engagement with blogs, Ygritte will host various online activities with cash or gift rewards every month for the next year.
In addition, sections such as email, forums, and online games on the Ygritte Portal will be successively revamped. The e-commerce business, which Simon entrusted to his Housekeeper, will also undergo trials in the coming year.
Although a user base of millions still makes it difficult to achieve comparable revenue to newspaper media of the same magnitude, it is nonetheless a media platform not to be underestimated. Moreover, Simon hopes to leverage the efforts of the coming year to break the 5 million world wide web user mark in 1991.
As long as the user count reaches 5 million, with subsequent user growth, the Ygritte Portal can begin to build a complete internet business ecosystem with profit potential.
To achieve this goal, Simon simply set no budget limits for Ygritte this year.
As long as they can deliver corresponding results, Simon is willing to pay even if Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz invest $500 million or even a billion dollars in the coming year.
Many unicorn companies in the internet era in the original timeline lost tens of billions of dollars for several consecutive years, ultimately achieving nothing. In comparison, Simon's seemingly money-burning investments at this time are all worthwhile. After the internet industry explodes, these accumulated technologies and content can be quickly converted into tangible market value through an IPO.
As long as Simon is willing, he can easily recover all his initial investments by cashing out equity.
Beyond Ygritte, America Online is doing the same.
The reason Simon promised not to lay off employees after completing the Bell Atlantic acquisition was not only to lay out in the new telecommunications field of mobile communication but also to support America Online.
After acquiring Bell Atlantic, although the company will still not be involved in internet access services in the short term, it will further deepen its cooperation with America Online. The East Coast states where Bell Atlantic is located will be America Online's key expansion targets next year.
Also starting next month, America Online will launch large-scale free trial services.
Users who book internet access will not need to pay a single cent; America Online will come to install it and provide up to three hours of free internet surfing per day for a month. This initial phase of the activity will last at least three months.
Speaking of which, America Online's timing for this activity is just right.
Because next month, the Gulf War will break out.
Inside the cabin returning to Los Angeles, Simon had been discussing this matter with Peter Butler.
"Although the internet media platform has just been born, its advantages are actually very obvious compared to newspapers and television. For major events like the upcoming war in the Gulf region, daily newspapers cannot provide real-time information. While 24-hour news channels like CNN can report instantly, they cannot preserve information, and users cannot stay in front of the TV 24 hours a day.
Relatively speaking, portal websites can largely solve these two problems.
We can be both instant and preserve news information for a long time. Users can log on to the network at any time to see current news and browse other past events. Moreover, the content that portal websites can provide is much richer than newspapers and television. As long as we seize this opportunity next month, the media business of Ygritte Portal will definitely resonate deeply with people".
In the history of media, many news platforms emerged in response to the times.
Just as the Hearst Family used its media network to incite the Spanish-American War, the sales of its newspapers also increased significantly during that period. In the original timeline, Fox News also broke CNN's dominant position among American news channels by comprehensively and timely reporting on the 9/11 incident.
The upcoming Gulf War is an excellent opportunity for the development of the Ygritte Portal.
Peter Butler is still teased for his article about Simon a few years ago, accused of excessively praising Westeros, but his promotions within the Los Angeles Times newspaper during these years have been evident.
However, for the century-old Los Angeles Times, climbing to the highest position in the company is ultimately not just about having sufficient personal ability.
Therefore, after receiving Simon's personal invitation to join the Ygritte Portal, Peter Butler quickly decided to give up his already promoted position as Deputy Editor of the Department and join this new media platform to be responsible for the two core information sections: news and finance.
As a media professional, Peter Butler clearly understood the importance of these two sections, news and finance. Although he didn't get control of more channels, he knew that Simon's invitation was full of sincerity. Moreover, Peter Butler did not believe that his previous article about Simon got him this job.
This young man, who has created a series of miracles, fully deserves that report, and to achieve his current accomplishments, he certainly wouldn't hire someone just because of an article praising him.
After Simon finished speaking, Peter Butler said, "Simon, I've considered it. Around the middle of next month, I plan to personally go to Saudi Arabia to follow up on this event".
Simon showed an appreciative expression when he heard Butler say this and said, "No problem, but you need to arrange things here in North America".
As the two continued to discuss, the plane soon landed on the runway of Los Angeles International Airport.
Outside the cabin window, dusk had already fallen.
After parting ways with Peter Butler, Simon rushed back to Point Dume Manor, changed his clothes, and then hurried with Janette to the party at Daenerys Studios. It was already past 7:30.
The couple's appearance in the studio's activity centre hall naturally made them the focus of everyone's attention.
After some socializing and small talk, they finally joined the small circle where the heads of various film studios gathered. Just after greeting them, Columbia Pictures CEO Peter Guber couldn't help but say, "Simon, the box office for 'Home Alone' is truly unexpected".
Upon hearing Peter Guber mention this topic, everyone looked at Simon with varied expressions.
In the week that was about to pass, the biggest box office dark horse in Hollywood was undoubtedly 'Home Alone', which premiered on December 21st.
This children's comedy, perfectly suited for the festive atmosphere, grossed $26.15 million in its opening three days from December 21st to December 23rd. This was initially nothing, but as the weekdays began, 'Home Alone's popularity and box office momentum continued to climb.
After a brief dip on Christmas Eve, Monday, the single-day box office figures for 'Home Alone' on Tuesday and Wednesday far exceeded expectations. Although today's box office data will only be released after 12 o'clock, the industry generally predicts that 'Home Alone's first-week box office will definitively surpass the high mark of $40 million.
By careful calculation, this will be the second film in 1990, after Die Hard 2, to break the $40 million mark in a single week.
However, Die Hard 2's box office curve, which plummeted by over 50% in its second week, clearly cannot compare to 'Home Alone', which continues to gain momentum.
Before this, based on John Hughes's past box office performance, many people thought that 'Home Alone's total North American box office might only be $40 million. Therefore, a first-week gross exceeding $40 million was a figure that no one, except for Simon, even within Daenerys Entertainment, could have predicted.
Hollywood had generally believed that 'Ghost', which opened in the Summer Box Office Season and successfully closed with $217 million in North American box office, would secure the 1990 box office championship and be the only film to break $200 million domestically in 1990.
Now, the sudden emergence of home alone, given its current public popularity, is very likely to break 'Ghost's box office figures and claim the top spot on the 1990 box office chart.