As it turned out, Bernice had no need to make any difficult decisions: the company did it for her, largely giving in to the union's demand for a better package to compensate for the extra work the journalists would be doing and the operational savings they would be making.
As the triumphant union notice, circulated after further negotiations with management, put it:
Union Solidarity and Fraternity has triumphed again. The Management of Wright's International Publishing have conceded Union demands for substantially improved remuneration as compensation for the burden of introducing New Technology in to the company's offices.
The details of the deal, subject to Union ratification, are that a one-off lump sum payment of £1500 will be made to all Union members in return for their co-operation in the introduction and exploitation of networked computers.
Union officials will be passing around offices to obtain signatures for the formal ratification.
Congratulations Brothers and Sisters on another fine victory for the Workers!
Though Kate and Terence were unable to see past the appalling writing, most of the others - apart from Yasmeen, who was away on another foreign press trip - concentrated on the monetary aspects, though they were sorry that no such generous deal existed for Janice who as a secretary was not covered by the journalists' union agreement. Not even Bernice could do anything about that injustice.
But Mowley was unhappy. Not about the money, which he was as delighted to accept as the next Brother or Sister, but about the way this had all happened, and some of the details.
"This ain't right," he kept repeating to himself, but the others were too busy planning what they were going to do with money to take much notice; or if they did, they presumed that he would have liked more and simply hated the idea of having to learn new skills so much that the whole thing appalled him. Which it did, but there was something more.
First, the specific terms of the deal: a £1500 lump sum. Another shortsighted move on the union's part, he thought: was there an epidemic raging? And why was it being paid immediately - that day, in fact? Normally companies tried to push unexpected payments into the next financial year so as not to damage this year's profits. But even more interesting was one word that had been slipped in, and that no one had mentioned at any stage before: networking.
Although vague on the details, he knew that this meant linking computers together. The crucial thing was that the computers could be anywhere: Southdon, Sulawesi or the South Pole. Provided there were links - such as telephones - to hook them up to the outside world, it didn't matter where they were. Which meant that there was no technical reason why they all had to be in one room, one building, or even one country. It was technically possible to have people working on a magazine, networked together, but all in different rooms, buildings or even countries. Networking potentially meant the death of the business environment as they knew it, and the birth of a new kind of company.
Of course, this was all theory. It was unlikely that Wright's was suddenly going to send everyone with a computer to live in California or Italy. But there was clearly rather more than met the eye in this deal. Mowley's best instincts as a journalist - and however lazy and reluctant at times he might have seemed, he certainly was a journalist to the core, as Bernice herself recognised with frustration - were triggered by this curious agreement, and he was determined to find out more. He set to work immediately, surprising those in the office with a sudden spate of activity, the like of which they had never seen from him.
The following Thursday, Media Messenger duly carried a short inside piece about the New Technology agreement. But this was completely overshadowed by the front page lead story whose headline screamed: "The Business?- That's Show Business." Chris read out the accompanying story as soon as the office copy arrived:
"'Wright's runaway launch success The Business -' that's us, folks," he added, "left its rivals in the business publishing sector to face a different kind of music recently as it announced that May's issue, due out April 14, would carry a free Compact Disc mounted on all issues. This completely unique use of the hi-tech successor to LPs and cassettes is believed to be costing the British publisher best known for its diaries a massive £500,000.' - Really? - 'Publisher Martin Davies'" - he spelt out the last name for the team's appreciation - "'refused to confirm or deny this figure, adding fuel to the speculation that Wright's is committing huge sums to fight off the imminent launch of the US giant Morgan-Janacek's New Business.' - Gosh, aren't we impressive?"
As Tim had rightly guessed, the innovative use of a cover-mounted CD was picked up not only by Media Messenger, but also by all the media pages of the nationals, and was even mentioned on TV and radio. Whether or not people liked the CD, it had already been a huge success: The Business was talked about everywhere, and the free publicity it received far outweighed the costs involved - admittedly only a tenth of the rather extravagant figure Media Messenger had quoted. The net effect was a sell-out of the May issue, which appeared the following week.
This unheard-of use of music to drown out the PR noise that New Business was in the process of generating immediately prior to its launch on 1 May had one other notable effect: several of Morgan-Banacek's marketing staff were fired on the spot for allowing the company and its new product to be upstaged so dramatically.
