Worthy of professional and humane journalism

In particular, the Party newspaper system, as the voice of the Party Committee, government and people of localities, is always a pioneer in the digital transformation process, creating attractive multimedia press products with strong influence, contributing to orienting public opinion and strengthening people's trust in the leadership of the Party and State.

Seize the opportunity for comprehensive digital transformation

The strategy for digital transformation of journalism to 2025, with a vision to 2030, approved by the Prime Minister on April 6, 2023, affirms: “Digital transformation of journalism aims to build press agencies in a professional, humane, and modern direction; fulfill the mission of information and propaganda to serve the revolutionary cause of the Party and the cause of national innovation; ensure the role of leading and orienting public opinion, maintaining information sovereignty in cyberspace; effectively innovate readers' experiences; create new sources of revenue; promote the development of the digital content industry”.

Member of the Party Central Committee, President of the Vietnam Journalists Association , Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper Le Quoc Minh.

Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association Le Quoc Minh said that digital transformation is not just a trend but needs to be spread and deployed to press agencies from the central to local levels, to serve readers best and fastest.

Digital transformation in journalism is no longer limited to digitizing content or expanding distribution channels through digital platforms, but is delving into the application of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and user behavior analysis to optimize content, personalize information, and enhance interactivity.

According to the report of the Press Department (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), by 2024, nearly 70% of press agencies had initially implemented digital transformation, of which more than 30% had developed a systematic, long-term strategy. Also according to the results of measuring the maturity of digital transformation of the press in 2024 provided by the Press Department, with 282 units conducting assessment and measurement (including many large newspapers and radio stations - accounting for more than 90% of the market share of readers, viewers, listeners and 90% of the advertising market share on newspapers and radio stations nationwide), there were 28 press agencies achieving excellent level, 65 units achieving good level, 55 units achieving fair level...

Some press agencies such as Vietnam News Agency, Nhan Dan, Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam Television, VnExpress, Vietnamnet, Thanh Nien... have pioneered and succeeded in applying typical digital technologies such as AI, IoT, Cloud, Big Data... Many press agencies also promote the construction of the newsroom into a multimedia press with many digital contents deployed on social networking platforms Zalo, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok..., thereby expanding the readership.

Party Newspaper is pioneering, proactive and progressive

The Party newspaper system is identified as the main force in protecting the Party's ideological foundation, fighting against false arguments, and orienting public opinion. In the process of digital transformation, the Party newspaper plays a key role in maintaining the "information battlefield" in cyberspace.

In recent years, many Party press agencies have made strong changes in this field, typically Nhan Dan Newspaper. Most impressively, in 2024, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory, Nhan Dan Newspaper built a panorama supplement and an interactive exhibition of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, which resonated throughout the country. In particular, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the country's reunification, by organizing an interactive exhibition and distributing a free supplement on the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising with integrated digital technology, Nhan Dan Newspaper created a "fever" attracting the public, distributing more than 100,000 copies of the supplement, bringing thousands of people to participate in the exhibition, becoming a bridge connecting today's generation with the heroic history of their ancestors.

“As the leading press agency of the Party, the State, and the Vietnamese revolutionary press system, Nhan Dan journalists always keep in mind that they must make worthy contributions to propagating important events of the country. More importantly, they must be creative and attract readers,” said Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper Le Quoc Minh.

Learning from the experience of Nhan Dan Newspaper, some local Party newspapers such as Ha Noi Moi Newspaper, Khanh Hoa Newspaper, Lao Cai Newspaper, Nghe An Newspaper, Hai Duong Newspaper... have promoted innovation, shifted to a converged newsroom model, and produced synchronous content on many platforms: print newspapers, electronic newspapers, social networks, mobile applications... As the largest local Party newspaper in the country, Ha Noi Moi Newspaper is also a pioneer and proactive in producing multimedia content, integrating videos, podcasts, infographics and optimizing search capabilities through SEO tools.

Journalist Nguyen Minh Duc, Editor-in-Chief of Hanoi Moi Newspaper, said that the strong flow of the digital revolution poses an urgent requirement for the Vietnamese press to strongly and comprehensively innovate, constantly improve the quality of content and form, and meet the increasingly high and diverse information needs of the public. "The Party newspaper system, as the voice of the Party Committee, the government and the people of localities, must be a pioneer in the digital transformation process, strongly applying information technology and artificial intelligence to press activities, creating attractive, multimedia press products that spread strongly, contributing to orienting public opinion, and strengthening people's trust in the leadership of the Party and the State" - journalist Nguyen Minh Duc emphasized.

Synchronous deployment of many solution groups

Journalist Le Quoc Minh, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper and Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, stated that the biggest challenge for press agencies is the issue of mindset: “Digital transformation is not purely a change in technology but a change in mindset. When the leader changes his mindset, it will create changes in the entire newsroom, reaching each reporter and editor.” According to the Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, there is no common model for newsrooms and whether digital transformation is successful or not depends on the efforts of the press agencies themselves.

From the perspective of local Party press agencies, journalist Nguyen Minh Duc, Editor-in-Chief of Hanoi Moi Newspaper, said that journalists in the digital age must face three problems: content, technology and journalism economics. If there is content and technology but it does not bring about journalism economics, it cannot survive. For Party press agencies, in the process of digital transformation, it is necessary to maintain its principles and goals while innovating the method of transmitting information to attract readers, especially the younger generation.

According to the experience of press agencies that are strong in digital transformation, to promote digital transformation in the press system in general and the Party newspaper in particular, it is necessary to synchronously deploy many groups of solutions. The State needs to build a specific legal framework for digital transformation of the press, including a flexible financial mechanism to hire technology services, socialize investment in digital infrastructure, etc. There needs to be a policy to support training of human resources for digital transformation, encourage digital content creation, clearly regulate content ownership and revenue sharing with cross-border platforms. Press agencies, especially the Party newspaper system, also need to build a digital data warehouse (data hub), apply AI in analyzing fake news, suggesting headlines, and personalizing user experience. In particular, press agencies need to focus on improving the quality of political content, suitable for the psychology and language of readers in the digital environment.

Along with that, journalists themselves, especially at Party press agencies, must always improve their political and ideological awareness, proactively participate in training and self-training in professional skills, quickly access new technology to create journalistic works that are standard in content, professional and attractive in presentation, thereby contributing with agencies and units to continue building a professional, humane, modern, and worthy revolutionary press.

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The 30th expanded conference of Party newspapers of the Northern provinces and cities with the theme "Promoting the tradition of Vietnamese revolutionary journalism, pioneering digital transformation, accompanying the country into the new era" hosted by Hanoi Moi Newspaper from May 15 to 17, in Hanoi, with the participation of more than 30 Party newspapers of the Northern provinces, and a number of typical provinces and cities across the country, along with representatives of the Central Party newspapers. This is an important forum for press agencies in general, and Party newspapers in particular, to exchange, learn from each other's experiences, and share good practices in journalism and the digital transformation process.