Affirming the mission of being the "vanguard" on the ideological and cultural front of the Party

(Baothanhhoa.vn) - After a century of establishment and development, the Vietnamese revolutionary press has affirmed its noble mission as the "flag bearer" on the ideological and cultural front of the Party. In line with the extremely proud tradition of national journalism, Thanh Hoa Newspaper (now Thanh Hoa Newspaper and Radio - Television Station) has also quickly matured to become a "trusted companion" - the voice of the Party Committee, government and people of Thanh Hoa province in the cause of protecting and building the homeland and country.

Delegation of officials and lecturers from the Academy of Journalism and Communication visited and worked at Thanh Hoa Newspaper. Photo: NGOC HUAN

In the process of leading the Vietnamese revolution, our Party, headed by President Ho Chi Minh, soon identified the important role of the press in developing revolutionary forces. Because the press not only carries out the task of disseminating ideology and political education, but is also a collective propaganda force, collective agitation, and collective organization. In particular, with the role of a pioneer on the ideological and cultural front, since its inception, the Vietnamese revolutionary press has been contributing to uniting and building the great national unity bloc, to successfully carry out the struggle to protect the independence, freedom, and national unity of the past and to build the Socialist Republic of Vietnam today.

Although it was born later, the predecessor newspapers of Thanh Hoa Newspaper, such as “Tien Len” (1930), “Hon Lao Dong” (1934), “Tia Sang” (1936), “Tu Do” (1940), “Doing the Enemies” and “Girls Going to War” (1942), “Khoi Nghia” (1945), “Chong Giac” (1946), Thanh Hoa News (around 1955, 1956)... also quickly joined the patriotic and revolutionary movements that were erupting strongly from the early years of the establishment of the Provincial Party Committee, to encourage the spirit of determination to fight of our people. From there, it created an important and fundamental premise for the birth of Thanh Hoa Newspaper (March 20, 1962) - the trusted and sharp voice of the Party Committee, government and people of Thanh Hoa province for over 6 decades.

Firmly grasping the mission of “the pioneer soldier, standing side by side with readers”, right from its inception, Thanh Hoa Newspaper has become a collective propaganda force, collective agitation, collective organization, aiming to encourage and motivate the People to unite around the Party, to successfully carry out the two strategic tasks of building socialism in the North and fighting to liberate the South and unify the country. The issues published during this period featured hot news on the resistance and national construction fronts, movements such as “All for the beloved South”, “The North is the great rear of the Southern battlefield”, “Each person works as two”, “Competition for 3 good things” to achieve achievements to wish President Ho Chi Minh a long life… Thereby, encouraging and motivating the army and people in the province to enthusiastically compete and excellently complete their tasks. In particular, due to its attention to both praise and criticism, Thanh Hoa Newspaper had 3 articles that received letters of praise from Uncle Ho. At the same time, he asked the Provincial Party Committee to verify 2 examples of good people and good deeds that were promoted by the newspaper so that Uncle could award them with badges.

Since the “country and river were reunited” with the historic victory in the spring of 1975, the whole country moved towards socialism and especially implemented the renovation initiated and led by our Party, Thanh Hoa Newspaper has seized the opportunity, quickly taken the lead in propaganda, contributing to promoting the cause of renovation, industrialization, modernization of the country and economic integration. The newspaper has increased the publication frequency, printed in large format, added publications; focused on improving the quality of content, form and paid attention to the work of distributing Party newspapers. From January 1, 2003, Thanh Hoa Newspaper increased the publication frequency from 3 issues to 4 issues. By the beginning of 2008, it increased to 6 issues/week. In December 2005, Thanh Hoa Newspaper's electronic information page was connected to the internet. In August 2006, Thanh Hoa Newspaper was published monthly. In particular, in October 2016, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee approved the Project on comprehensive innovation and development of Thanh Hoa Newspaper until 2020, with a vision to 2025. Implementing the project, in 2017, Thanh Hoa Newspaper published an 8-page Sunday issue, officially becoming a daily newspaper; at the same time, the Electronic Information Page was upgraded to an electronic newspaper. By January 1, 2018, the remaining 6 4-page daily issues had all increased to 8 pages.

In 2021, by merging the Culture - Life Newspaper into Thanh Hoa Newspaper, Thanh Hoa Newspaper became one of the local Party newspapers with a large number of publications, including 5 publications (3 printed publications and 2 electronic publications). Of which, the printed publications will maintain 8 pages for the daily Thanh Hoa Newspaper, 20 pages for the monthly Thanh Hoa Newspaper and 16 pages for the weekend Thanh Hoa Newspaper. Focus on innovating and comprehensively improving the content, form and quality of publications in the direction of strengthening columns, especially columns on issues and genres that readers are currently interested in, in order to fully, promptly and accurately inform and reflect current political events of the province and the country; the direction and administration of the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council and People's Committee; levels, sectors... on Thanh Hoa newspaper daily and organize topics, summarize models, increase entertainment issues on Thanh Hoa weekend newspaper publications, Thanh Hoa monthly newspaper. Along with improving the quality of content, Thanh Hoa Newspaper continues to improve one step further in design, approaching the trend of modern press presentation in the country and in the world.

For electronic publications, ensure all current news, politics, socio-economic information, new and hot issues happening daily in the province and important current and political events of the country, becoming a fast information channel, early orientation, fighting against distorted arguments, protecting the ideological foundation of the Party. Accordingly, for Thanh Hoa electronic newspaper, strengthen the implementation of television news, online television dialogue programs, photo reports, video clips, E-Magazine, Infografic. At the same time, develop new journalism genres such as "magazine-style articles" or "journalistic masterpieces", considering this as one of the competitive advantages, attracting readers, catching up with the development trend of electronic newspapers in the world. For the Culture and Life electronic page, focus on improving the quality of pages on ethnic and mountainous affairs; cultural nuances of Thanh land; tourism; sports; urban life; digital life; family - school - society; culture, literature - art of Thanh Hoa to provide readers with an objective, multi-dimensional, accurate view of the beauty of Thanh land and people, the potential, advantages and development of Thanh Hoa.

In particular, to meet the revolutionary requirements in the new situation, Thanh Hoa Newspaper always focuses on building a team in both quantity and quality. The team of cadres, reporters, and editors has a firm ideological and political stance, pure ethics, dedication to the profession, dynamism, and creativity, contributing to creating a new driving force for the newspaper. From the increasingly strong team, the Editorial Board has focused on directing the implementation of press works to participate in the national press awards and specialized press awards launched by central departments, ministries, and branches. As a result, from 2022 to present, Thanh Hoa Newspaper has continuously had works winning the Central Golden Hammer and Sickle Award, the Political Contest to Protect the Party's Ideological Foundation... and won many A, B, C prizes of the provincial Golden Hammer and Sickle Award, and the Tran Mai Ninh Press Award.

Today, the press is facing many opportunities and challenges in the digital age. The press public has gradually shifted from a passive recipient role to an active one. Technological devices and the diversity and richness of social networks have helped users create their own content, creating "citizen journalists", and the press cannot compete in terms of information speed on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok... every second, every minute. In that context, the urgent requirement for press agencies and journalists is to fully identify the difficulties and challenges to overcome, as well as seize the opportunities and advantages of modern media, in order to adapt and maintain information sovereignty in cyberspace. This has also posed a vital question for Thanh Hoa journalists about innovation.

Thanh Hoa Newspaper visited the soldiers of Da Tay C island (Truong Sa island district, Khanh Hoa province). Photo: Linh Ha

Grasping the trend of modern journalism, the Editorial Board of Thanh Hoa Newspaper has identified digital transformation as an inevitable trend, the path that press agencies "must take" to affirm their role, position, and dominate the information market and readers in the context of flourishing digital media and fierce competition. Accordingly, Thanh Hoa Newspaper has put into operation a converged newsroom model, built a scientific content management system (CMS), built the interface of Thanh Hoa electronic newspaper and the Culture & Life page compatible with all smart mobile devices, user-friendly. Built and operated 2 fanpages of Thanh Hoa electronic newspaper and the Culture & Life page, 2 zalo Official accounts; distributed videos on Thanh Hoa Newspaper Youtube channel, tiktok... All important content on Thanh Hoa Newspaper publications is widely spread on social networking infrastructures. Thanh Hoa Newspaper has also built a Thanh Hoa Newspaper reading application on App Store and Google Play, helping readers access Thanh Hoa Newspaper's content in the fastest way. Thanh Hoa Newspaper has also invested in building a studio system and specialized equipment to produce daily video news, organize monthly online dialogue programs; build news filtering software and apply social networks in publishing work. In addition, Thanh Hoa Newspaper builds a content data warehouse, especially photos and video clips, gradually implementing data journalism. In addition, Thanh Hoa Newspaper boldly invests, gradually applying artificial intelligence (AI) to the content production process, such as converting text to speech, investing in Shorthand software, coordinating with partners to optimize and distribute content on social networking platforms, promoting brand promotion through community activities...

With strong innovation efforts, the publishing process of Thanh Hoa Newspaper has been digitized to the maximum. In addition to 2 electronic publications, the publishing process of 3 printed publications, namely daily newspaper, weekend newspaper and monthly newspaper, has also been digitized. The number of readers on Thanh Hoa Electronic Newspaper has always been maintained at 80,000 - 100,000 reads/day. However, more importantly, many cadres and reporters have changed their traditional working methods to multi-skilled working. Specifically, a reporter can independently produce different types of journalism from news articles for printed newspapers, electronic newspapers to video clips, infographics, E-Magazine, Mega Story... Thereby, improving the quality and increasing the attractiveness of electronic publications.

On June 1, 2025, implementing the Decision of the Provincial Party Committee, Thanh Hoa Newspaper and Thanh Hoa Radio and Television Station merged to become Thanh Hoa Newspaper and Radio - Television Station. The achievements on the journey yesterday will be the foundation and solid tradition for today's generations of journalists to cherish, make more efforts and be more responsible with their pens, always worthy of being the shock troops on the ideological - cultural front of the Party.

Journalist Nguyen Viet Ba

Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Hoa Newspaper and Radio - Television Station

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/khang-dinh-su-menh-la-ngon-co-dau-tren-mat-tran-tu-tuong-van-hoa-cua-dang-252393.htm