AI: Personalizing experiences, driving revenue.

According to Ms. Nguyen Van Hien, Secretary General of the Vietnam Blockchain Association, the application of AI and Blockchain in paid journalism brings many benefits, from personalizing user experience and optimizing content production processes to protecting copyrights and enhancing transparency.

AIBaochi
AI helps journalists personalize the experience and boost revenue. Photo: iStock

Despite remaining challenges such as high costs, complex technical requirements, and user acceptance, the potential and impact of these two technologies are enormous and entirely feasible. “For example, The New York Times has used AI to personalize the reading experience for users, helping to increase the number of paid subscribers. They also use AI to optimize their content production process, from suggesting headlines to analyzing reader data,” added Ms. Nguyen Van Hien.

Analyzing the flexibility of AI, Ms. Hien cited the example of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) of Switzerland, which has developed an AI-based "dynamic payment gateway" system to predict the likelihood of a reader becoming a paying subscriber, thereby adjusting the number of articles they can read for free. According to the Secretary-General of the Blockchain Association, applying AI to paid journalism offers many benefits.

First, content personalization is possible, as AI can suggest articles that match readers' interests and needs, encouraging users to subscribe and maintain paid plans. Second, paid plans can integrate intelligent interactive applications through AI chatbots to answer readers' questions. This provides two-way interaction (even with a machine), allowing readers to discuss and engage in interactive experiences.

Thirdly, AI will help optimize content production processes and automated translation to reduce operating costs and optimize expenses, giving newsrooms more options for paid programs. In particular, AI can analyze content and sources to detect misinformation or fake news, helping to improve the credibility of the newspaper.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Dang Hai Loc, CEO & CTO at AIV Group, also believes that AI will improve the quality of paid journalistic content by helping journalists reduce their workload, thereby increasing content quality. In addition, AI can help create new products, serving a group of paying readers that newsrooms previously couldn't reach. For example, foreigners in local areas currently do not have their information needs fully met.

According to Mr. Dang Hai Loc, AI chatbots trained with journalistic data to deliver news and charge fees directly to foreign readers are worth experimenting with. The important thing is that the application must be quick, easy to use, and reporters can deploy it themselves without complex investment. For example, articles about changes in foreign labor recruitment policies would certainly be of great interest to Korean and Chinese businesses, but newspapers cannot maintain a separate section dedicated to them.

So, the newsroom just needs to provide training content for the AI ​​chatbots, then embed the chatbot's link into the article to process the information. The newsroom can also set its own pricing for these readers, for example, selling a package of 50,000 VND/10 questions, with automatic payment via QR code and bank card. This chatbot must be able to automatically answer in the language of that country. AIV Group currently has this platform and is ready to support news organizations.

Adding another solution, Mr. Dang Huu Son, Vice President of the Vietnam Digital Human Resources Development Alliance (AIID) and founder of LovinBot AI, shared: Currently, AI can "consume" large amounts of input content from long articles, then summarize the content concisely to suit readers. For example, the startup Perplexity has a feature that summarizes content from existing articles and charges a fee through a monthly subscription package.

For example, Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro, the latest version, can read the context of up to 2 million tokens (meaning it can understand 232,000 words) and then summarize the entire content in a style requested by the reader. "The three main areas where AI excels at supporting newsrooms are: Automated news recommendations; Upgrade package recommendations based on user habits; and Content production support for newsrooms," Mr. Son said.

Elaborating on AI's "optimization" capabilities, Mr. Son stated that AI can fundamentally address current problems in the online publishing sector; providing basic information content tailored to readers' needs and behaviors. Firstly, one reason current newspapers are unappealing to readers is that news is not personalized to suit individual preferences and work schedules.

"Although the amount of news available today is enormous, individuals don't have enough time to read and find what they're interested in, as it's overshadowed by so much other news that's less relevant to them. This reality leads them to view newspapers merely as a place to 'surf the news,' rather than as loyal readers. If newsrooms can use AI to analyze and 'capture' this reader group, they will succeed."

For example, The Globe and Mail (Canada) is using an app called Sophi to personalize the reading experience and encourage digital subscriptions. The AI ​​tool Sophi analyzes reader information and article content to determine which articles should be placed behind a paid wall (only for subscribers) and which should be free to access.

Sophi also helps create a personalized homepage, displaying content tailored to each reader's interests. This not only increases the likelihood of readers finding engaging articles but also frees up journalists' time to focus on producing high-quality content. This is a trend being adopted by many other publishers, such as L'Avenir and Kölner Stadt Anzeiger, to attract and retain readers.

Blockchain: Protecting copyrights, ensuring transparent payments.

Regarding the application of Blockchain in paid journalism, according to Ms. Nguyen Van Hien, Secretary General of the Vietnam Blockchain Association, the first benefit is managing copyright and digital content by storing information about the author, publication time, and other related information of the article, helping to prevent unauthorized copying and distribution, and avoiding content loss.

Blockchain magazine
Blockchain helps the press protect copyrights and ensures transparent payments. (Illustrative image)

Blockchain technology also makes payments more transparent and secure, promotes expansion, and increases community interaction through NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) that reward loyal readers or journalists with outstanding contributions.

Similarly, Lynn Hoang, Country Director of Binance in Vietnam, also believes that applying Blockchain to paid journalism will enhance credibility and transparency. Specifically, Blockchain can verify sources and the identities of journalists, helping to combat the spread of misinformation and fake news. Furthermore, this technology can also protect the intellectual property rights of authors and their works.

Blockchain can also help improve payment models. Specifically, by empowering journalists (allowing them to monetize their content directly), Blockchain can help writers reduce their reliance on traditional advertising models. With micro-transactions, Blockchain can help readers conveniently pay for individual articles or content they are interested in, instead of buying content they are not interested in!