An article by General Secretary and President To Lam states that digital transformation must be a comprehensive innovation in leadership thinking, newsroom models, production processes, data management, content distribution, audience measurement, journalism economics , and professional culture. Digital journalism is not old journalism placed on a new platform, but rather a new way of organizing in a new context.
National Press Conference 2026. Photo: Hai Hung
Near midnight, the newsroom was sparsely populated. An editor in his fifties remained, awkwardly rewinding and replaying the clip he had just edited himself. Having spent his life dealing with words, he was now meticulously framing each shot, adding subtitles, and adjusting a piece of background music, yet he still found it clumsy. His younger colleagues had finished what he had struggled with all night in a flash. At times, he silently wondered to himself, at his age, why he was still trying to learn everything from scratch.
That question, in fact, is quietly echoing in many newsrooms. Digital transformation in journalism is a comprehensive overhaul, not just buying more equipment or opening a few social media accounts. The most difficult part, and also the most easily avoided, lies in the most invisible aspect: changing the way of thinking, changing the way of doing things, and changing the very people, like the editor sitting there tonight.
The public has moved on to another destination.
The reason we can't stand still lies with the readers. Today's public has shifted its perspective. Young people waking up in the morning no longer flip through printed newspapers, nor do they frequently type in the address of a news site; instead, they let everything unfold on their phone screens, amidst videos lasting only a few dozen seconds. If journalism remains in its old place, following the old ways, then no matter how good the content is, it will easily become like a lamp lit in a room where no one else enters.
Change, therefore, must start from the root. It means rearranging the entire professional process so that an event can simultaneously be presented as a text news report, a video, a graphic, or a podcast, each format suited to a different audience. It means treating user data as a real asset, understanding what readers need and serving them effectively.
At VTV Times, this transformation is also happening every day, quietly. As a newsroom born from a merger, operating bilingually and simultaneously present on multiple platforms, VTV Times understands one thing very well: the equipment is only the easy part. The core is that each person in the newsroom, from the newly hired reporters to the editors who have been with the company for decades, is willing to step out of their familiar territory.
Deputy General Director of Vietnam Television (VTV) Dinh Dac Vinh and the VTV Times team at the 2026 National Press Conference.
Changing devices is easy, changing yourself is difficult.
Returning to the editor who stayed up all night, his difficulty, ultimately, wasn't the video editing software. Much harder was admitting that what he had mastered almost his entire life was no longer enough, and then humbly relearning it like a novice. It was the difficulty of pride, of ingrained habits, of a vague fear of being left behind. Overcoming it was often more challenging than investing in expensive equipment.
There will come a time when a reader far away sees the video clip he painstakingly created, understands it, and finds it useful. Then he will understand why he stayed up late at night. Digital transformation, to put it simply, is just a way for honest journalists to continue reaching their readers, using the same path that readers are taking today. Technology will change many more times. But the reason for someone to diligently relearn everything from scratch, almost in the middle of the night, remains the same: so that their honest voice is not left behind, and so that those who need to hear can still hear it.
Source: https://vtv.vn/chuyen-doi-so-bao-chi-doi-may-thi-de-doi-minh-moi-kho-100260621185739136.htm
![[Photo] Prime Minister Le Minh Hung presides over the thematic session on promoting science and technology development and innovation.](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/1200x675/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2026/06/23/1782207872934_ndo_br_dsc-1724-jpg.webp)
