Tuyen Quang Newspaper focuses on innovating the content and form in the presentation of its publications. For online newspapers, Tuyen Quang continues to organise research, learn and exploit equipment and technology in programme production.

After the conference on enhancing the nationwide quality of Party newspapers, held in Da Nang in 2022, Tuyen Quang Newspaper has focused on implementing the following tasks:

Firstly, it will focus on innovating ways of expressing and promoting the strengths of press information in the digital environment, with rich and diverse products; increasing images, data, and graphic data, to propagate important events and activities and easily implement policies to understand and reach people quickly and effectively through media works. The resolutions, directives and plans, issued by the Provincial Party Committee, the People's Council and the People's Committee, have all been designed in the form of an infographic with highlights, which are easy to understand and remember.

Secondly, it will continue to expand readers, and the structure of categories, and add new appropriate categories. The newspaper has built a daily radio bulletin at 6:30 p.m., synthesising daily news and current affairs both domestically and internationally; organising the implementation of the Children’s column in the online newspaper, to increase the interaction between the newspaper and young readers in the form of expression through multimedia platforms.

Thirdly, it will develop and publish official information according to the multi-platform trend of online newspapers, build the official Fan page of Tuyen Quang Newspaper on social media such as Facebook, Zalo, and YouTube, in a methodical manner; at the same time, arrange a team of reporters and technicians to carry out information products according to the needs of readers, to develop channels to attract readers and generate revenue from the number of readers watching and responding.

Fourthly, it will continue to innovate print newspapers in an in-depth direction, develop communication content for each issue to meet the requirements of current news, ongoing events and issues, and ensure timely and correct orientation of the province; and focus on selected topics of interest to readers for each issue.

Fifthly, organising events to increase revenue. Tuyen Quang Newspaper held the Bridge of Humanity Gala for the first time, more than a year after creating the Bridge of Humanity section to honour donors and philanthropists as well as meet with the disadvantaged people featured in the section. The programme was broadcast live on Tuyen Quang Online Newspaper and its Facebook page. The newspaper received funding from enterprises and philanthropists to organise the event and contribute to the Bridge of Humanity Fund.

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Following the national conference on enhancing the quality of Party newspapers, Hai Duong Newspaper continued its reform effort by repositioning its products in a way that puts current affairs news onto the online newspaper first to serve the public.

Hai Duong Newspaper has increased the number of multimedia journalism products. The editorial board’s stance is that Hai Duong Newspaper is where readers can read, listen, and watch. Products such as e-magazines, podcasts and graphics have become more frequent, more fine-tuned and more appealing. The number of news articles with audio and videos has also increased.

Hai Duong Newspaper also stepped up the development of social media pages, which not only are the information channels with hundreds of thousands of followers but also support the dissemination of information on Hai Duong Newspaper to readers.

Currently the number of people reading Hai Duong Newspaper ranks second in the Red River Delta and is among the top of local Party newspapers. Hai Duong Newspaper’s Facebook page also ranks first in the northern region and third nationwide in terms of followers among the verified pages.

Despite the digital transformation push, Hai Duong Newspaper did not downplay its print edition. The print newspaper’s focus has now shifted to high-quality products. The 2023 Tet edition saw its largest-scale publication to date. The print edition increased the number of photos, investigative reports and critiques. Its circulation is stable.

The editorial board has changed its leadership method, from qualitative to quantitative, with relevant metrics frequently updated to make coverage decisions that meet readers’ needs. The print, electronic and social media products promote and support one another.

Currently the proportion of people reading Hai Duong Newspaper through social media is around 35-40%.

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Digital transformation in press agencies must first begin from the mindset, awareness and viewpoint of individuals and the leadership collective, and then spread to the whole newsroom.

However, for most press agencies, a lack of highly trained technology personnel who have the knowledge and skills to apply technology in the production of multimedia products is a challenge. Meanwhile, recruiting and attracting such staff is not easy due to the lack of mechanisms and resources.

How to solve the problem of funding and information technology human resources when press agencies must compete fiercely with social media in terms of both information content and revenue sources to realise the autonomous roadmap, reduce the size of the workforce? These are the big questions that the vast majority of press agencies are really confused by and struggling to find the answer to.

Another obvious fundamental challenge is that the direction and strategy of digital transformation are quite "ambiguous" for most press agencies. Still, digital transformation is an inevitable trend, but should we start with people, technology, or content?

Aware of the inevitable trend of digital transformation to survive, since 2018, Ha Tinh Newspaper has built and applied a publishing process according to the model of a converged newsroom; optimising the publishing process; taking advantage of human resources and collective intelligence; and being flexible and proactive in processing information.

Ha Tinh Newspaper also actively provided information on its fanpage, attracting more than 447,000 followers (as of May 22, 2023); setting up and managing many "satellite" fanpages and social channels on YouTube, Zalo, TikTok, with a high level of interaction.

Thanks to high determination and the implementation of multi-platform press publishing, Ha Tinh Newspaper has maintained the top position in terms of traffic volume in the national Party newspaper system in recent years (according to the ranking of Similar Web).

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Party newspapers need to take the lead in protecting the ideological foundation of the Party.

After the conference on improving the quality of Party Newspapers nationwide was organised by Nhan Dan Newspaper in Da Nang, the 10th Conference on Party Newspapers of Provinces and Cities in the Central-Central Highlands region (round 4) hosted by Quang Tri Newspaper in April 2023 continued to discuss the issue of improving the quality of Party newspapers and communicating Party building work, stressing the theme of "Party newspaper promote task of protecting ideological foundation in new situation".

Delegates from 19 Party newspapers in the region and 23 Party newspapers in the northern and southern provinces and cities discussed and agreed on the following statement: In the context of deeper globalisation and international integration, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is taking place heavily along with the explosion of the internet and social networks; problems arising from the negative side of the market economy; the impact of the world situation; taking advantage of the social networking sites of hostile and reactionary forces; and the strengthening of new tricks and tricks of the information channels of some Western countries to oppose Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought, deny the leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam, cause confusion, and incite anti-social behaviours.

It is a pleasure that over the past years, the Vietnamese press system has been aware of the plots and tricks of hostile forces, as well as spoken out against allegations undermining the ideological foundation of the Party.

However, the quick and prompt participation and public opinion orientation from the authorities and the press agencies, including the Party newspaper system, is very necessary to promote the best effectiveness of the fight against distorting statements of hostile and reactionary forces, as well as strengthen the great national unity bloc. Party newspapers need to uphold the responsibility of taking the lead in protecting the ideological foundation of the Party.

The current situation requires the press to continue to better perform the task of propagating Resolution No. 35-NQ/TW of the Politburo at a higher level; strengthen coordination between functional agencies and press agencies in providing and orienting information; create a smooth combination among types of the press; and improve the writing skills for in-depth commentators. In addition, it is crucial to improve the skills of quick access to new tools and equipment, political courage, and the working process of press workers, to create works that are unique, high-quality and attractive, meeting the increasing information demand of people from all strata.

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The explosion of digital media and social networks poses huge change requirements to local Party newspapers. We have to make double and triple efforts to deliver fast and accurate information, that does not stray from our principles but orients and guides public opinion.

Dong Nai Newspaper has changed the news processing procedure, and improved professional regulations following the direction that information must be fast, compact, modern and flexible on different platforms.

The Editorial Board has tried to encourage the staff to research and produce news and content for both online and printed newspapers. Fortunately, Dong Nai Online Newspaper currently has the highest traffic volume among the top local Party newspapers in the country.

Also due to the general trend, print newspapers gradually lost their position and their advertisement and distribution have decreased, while the shift to the development and innovation of online newspapers to become the main information channel and the main source of revenue for local newsrooms, seems to be falling behind demand.

We desire to produce quality local content and to reach a large number of readers, in the direction that "Whichever platform readers are on, the Party newspaper is present on that platform".

Dong Nai Newspaper has also been upgrading the website, renewing the interface, researching and implementing more diverse content that is closer to people's lives, on several platforms and is also considering a methodical and permanent investment in the development of Dong Nai Online Newspaper.

Another challenge facing not only Dong Nai Newspaper but also every local Party newspaper is the slow mind-changing in many sectors and positions of the newspaper.

To address the problem, the newspaper’s editorial board needs to make a specific request to renovate and improve human resource training, so that the staff can multi-task on multi-platforms, rather than working in the old style. Over the past years, Dong Nai Newspaper has actively sent its reporters and journalists to training courses hosted by Vietnam Journalists’ Association and Nhan Dan (People) Newspaper. Training classes have also been held right at the newspaper, making positive contributions to enhance participants’ awareness and content production. 

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Local Party newspapers are experiencing a challenging period with higher job requirements in the new situation.  They are also requested to switch to financial self-autonomy and streamlining apparatus.

In addition, newspapers are asked to increase the quality of their content and ways We are aware that streamlining the manpower and reorganising the apparatus will provide an opportunity for the Editorial Board and the staff to increase their responsibilities and improve operational efficiency to realise their tasks.

Given this, over the past three years, Dak Nong Newspaper organised regular professional training for its staff about the converged newsroom and updated methods and techniques of modern journalism.

The newspaper has invested in a new and converged content management system (including content management of various types of press and operational processes). It has also strongly innovated content through the implementation of modern journalistic products.

Normally, if you want to invest in content management system (CMS) software and equipment, you will set up a project, which may take one to three years to prepare and costs around 10 billion VND. As Dak Nong Newspaper has a scanty budget, we did not follow this direction but chose to outsource technological services.

Only three months after our proposal, Dak Nong Newspaper launched a new interface for its online newspaper and a modern multimedia content management system.

The move has brought about positive and obvious results. Accordingly, the content of Dak Nong Newspaper, both printed and online newspapers, has significantly innovated and become more attractive to readers. The number of visitors to Dak Nong online newspaper increased dramatically, ranking first in the Central Highlands region.

By the end of 2022 and February 2023, when the preparation for renovating the operation process and implementing new content management, the traffic to Dak Nong electronic newspaper was placed to the bottom group of provinces and cities nationwide

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Before 2022, Lao Cai Newspaper had employment quotas and was allocated annual financial funds, both approved by the State.

However, with the development trend of modern journalism and new requirements placed on local Party newspapers, the financial mechanism and human resource management as mentioned above have revealed inadequacies, making press agencies lack autonomy and flexibility, and they will find it difficult to promote innovation.

To overcome this difficulty, in September 2022, Lao Cai Newspaper proposed that the Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee switch its operation to the autonomy mechanism. Accordingly, the newspaper will cover its recurrent expenditure itself.

The Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee also directed the Department of Information and Communications in coordination with Lao Cai Newspaper, the Department of Finance and relevant agencies to build economic and technical standards as well as costs of information services in printing and online newspapers, to submit to the Provincial People’s Committee for approval, as a basis for the State to order information services on Lao Cai Newspaper from January 1, 2023.

As the first local Party newspaper agency to implement such a mechanism, Lao Cai Newspaper realises that this mechanism has many advantages, helping to remove problems that many press agencies are facing, especially in terms of personnel and finance. It also helps the newspaper to take the initiative in using resources to serve professional activities, thereby enhancing the quality of the newspaper. At the same time, this is also a direction in line with the Government’s regulations on the financial autonomy of public non-business units.

Some key experiences were drawn from the implementation of the new mechanism at Lao Cai Newspaper, as follows:

Firstly, there must be direction and care from the Party Committee and provincial authorities, for press activities in general and the Party press agency in particular. Thereby, there is a consensus on building an autonomous mechanism in the local press system, under which, local press agencies will not have to find revenue sources to ensure their operation, but the State will order essential information and communication services.

Secondly, there must be a scientific way of forming and promulgating economic and technical norms and prices of press products and services, following the regulations of the State, the guidance of the central agencies, and the local practice.

Thirdly, there must be unity within the press agency to switch to an autonomous mechanism based on receiving orders from the State, because self-reliance is an inevitable development direction. In parallel with the process of establishing norms and service costs, press agencies must also develop and complete their internal management regulations, to be ready for the transition to an effective autonomy mechanism, right after receiving orders from the State.

Published: June 2023
Content: Khuc Hong Thien - Tran Son Bach -
Van Yen - Bich Ngoc - Thu Trang
Design: Ngo Huong - Hung Hieu