Changing the way things work from reporters to editors
More than 10 years ago, Hai Duong Newspaper still maintained the practice of reporters sending news articles in paper manuscripts. Editing was done directly on the reporters' manuscripts, so for articles that needed to be corrected, many computer technicians had to strain their eyes to retype them when making the copy, and even many "untranslatable" passages had to be asked over and over again. Pagination of each printed issue was also done manually on A3 paper. Each year, the cost of printing manuscripts and making layouts accounted for a considerable amount.
To overcome this limitation, Hai Duong Newspaper has applied electronic newsroom to the publishing process. Then, it continued to use Google Drive's Document application to paginate and make layouts for printed issues. The application of this information technology has helped reduce the cost of buying printing paper by 70% compared to before; the staff for editing and editing has been reduced by 50%. The editing and layout process is also much more convenient than before. In addition to the editing and publishing process, Hai Duong Newspaper has also soon used ioffice electronic office software in managing, transferring and receiving documents and participating in the national document interconnection axis.
Hai Duong Newspaper reporters always stick to reality, promptly reflecting current events and issues.
The way of making and working in journalism has also changed towards multimedia. The Covid-19 outbreak in Hai Duong in early 2021 and the complicated developments in 2022 have forced the editorial office to change its working methods to adapt to the epidemic, including maximizing online working. Before the epidemic, online working was mainly applied to electronic newspapers, but during the Covid-19 epidemic, this also applies to printed newspapers. Along with the electronic editorial office, through Zalo groups, the editorial department can work from home, without having to work centrally as before.
Currently, newspapers set up groups on Messenger and Zalo according to the size of the agency, department, and specialized units to discuss work. Reporters and editors can work anywhere with internet access without having to go to the newsroom.
Along with the application of information technology in the management and operation of the editorial office, Hai Duong Newspaper promotes the development of electronic newspapers in the direction of multimedia. If in the past, information on electronic newspapers was mainly presented in the form of text, photos, videos, now there are many new forms such as audio, graphics, multimedia press works (emagazine).
In particular, by bringing digital audio files (Podcast) to the electronic newspaper with the sections News, Current events, Life - Entertainment, Literature and Arts, Check in Hai Duong, Hai Duong Newspaper has gained a new audience, listeners. They can easily listen and enjoy the press products of Hai Duong Newspaper or listen while doing other work. Currently, Hai Duong Newspaper is also applying artificial intelligence to convert text documents into audio files, serving readers to listen to news instead of having to read the newspaper with their eyes. Multimedia works (emagazine) are also arranged by sections, making it convenient for readers.
The newspaper has coordinated with Vietnam News Agency to put the pdf version of the printed newspaper on the electronic newspaper to serve the needs of viewing Hai Duong newspaper (printed newspaper) on the electronic newspaper platform; send pdfs of printed newspaper issues to collaborators whose articles are posted and store printed newspaper issues as pdf files to serve the needs of creating a digital data warehouse of published printed newspaper publications.
Cross-platform development
Over the past 10 years, with the strong development of social networks, the emergence of "citizen journalists" and the need to compete for information with central and local newspapers, Hai Duong Newspaper has constantly changed to keep up with the trend of modern journalism. In addition to printed publications, Hai Duong Newspaper has developed Hai Duong e-newspaper in both Vietnamese and English versions. With the motto "wherever readers are, there is the press", Hai Duong Newspaper has built a fanpage on Facebook (currently granted a blue tick, reaching more than 100,000 likes, more than 137,000 followers), set up a Zalo page (granted a gold tick), and the newspaper's YouTube and Tiktok channels.
Hai Duong Newspaper has built its Facebook fanpage to reach more than 100,000 likes and more than 137,000 followers.
Social media channels have contributed to bringing the newspaper's information to readers faster, especially through fanpages, many readers provide additional information to the editorial office, respond to inaccurate information, and reflect many current issues and hot incidents in localities. This is a useful information channel for the newspaper, and timely interactions between the editorial office and readers also help Hai Duong Newspaper improve. Currently, the number of readers of Hai Duong e-newspaper from social media sites accounts for more than 30% of the total number of visits to the newspaper.
Hai Duong Newspaper also proactively creates its own content on the social networking platform Facebook such as livestreaming some cultural, sports, and economic events that readers and the public are interested in; organizing photo series, providing information in advance about some security and order incidents, and accidents. Through suggestions on the fanpage for readers to provide information to the newspaper...
With the Zalo application, readers interested in Hai Duong Newspaper will receive daily broadcast news. This is selected information, focusing on current issues, new events that have just happened in the province and attract the attention of readers. From the Zalo page, readers can also quickly access Hai Duong electronic newspaper.
Constantly improve the quality of each journalistic work
It can be said that for many years now, the spirit of innovation has been carried out by Hai Duong Newspaper reporters. The application of new technology and the implementation of the digital transformation policy are no longer theoretical but have permeated deeply into awareness and action. Each person in their duties is united, supports each other, constantly self-study, changes the mindset of new journalism to strive for the common goal of improving the quality of each work, competing for information with increasingly developing social networking platforms.
Hai Duong Newspaper reporter live streamed at the walking street, Bach Dang night market (Hai Duong city).
From the correct policy of the editorial board, the consensus of each reporter and editor has contributed to improving the quality of press works, performing well the propaganda tasks of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee, and at the same time providing the public with fast and accurate information on many platforms and many different types of press.
Although some initial results have been achieved in the implementation of digital transformation of the press, Hai Duong Newspaper has determined that there is still a lot of work to be done. Currently, Hai Duong Newspaper is simultaneously operating many separate software to serve its work. Some software is not yet complete, leading to some steps that still have to be done manually, such as calculating royalties for electronic newspapers, uploading news articles from printed newspapers to electronic newspapers, etc.
Comrade Nguyen Quy Trong, Editor-in-Chief of Hai Duong Newspaper, Chairman of Hai Duong Provincial Journalists Association said that to promote the achieved results, Hai Duong Newspaper is developing a project to build a shared software system, a converged newsroom, develop multimedia journalism, digitize Hai Duong Newspaper data and purchase information technology equipment. The project has been approved for investment policy.
Hai Duong Newspaper will build a shared software, a converged newsroom, integrating the features of the individual software currently in use. That is an electronic newsroom that converges both print and electronic newspapers with designed modules for royalty payment, integrating electronic newspapers with a number of social networking platforms and a number of other publishing management features. Along with that, build software to manage documents, human resources, advertising; digitize Hai Duong Newspaper data...
Continue to develop Hai Duong e-newspaper in a multimedia direction, integrating with a number of new platforms such as: Spotify, improving the quality of YouTube channels, Tiktok... Upgrade the features of the e-newspaper such as sending new news to readers, personalizing users...
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