Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Lam: Journalism has matured in digital space

(Dan Tri) - According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Lam, compared to last year, we have become more mature in our awareness of issues when reporting in digital space. The ecosystem needs to be regulated in the right direction for mutual benefit.

The intensive training course on journalism economics in the context of digital transformation, the topic "Technical foundation for digital business " opened on the morning of October 25 in Hanoi. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam - Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Tong Van Thanh - Director of the Department of Press and Publishing - Central Propaganda Department, Ms. Mai Huong Giang - Deputy Director of the Department of Press, along with leaders of many press agencies, experts... attended. Speaking at the opening session, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Lam said that recently, the Prime Minister approved the Strategy for digital transformation of journalism to 2025, with a vision to 2030, with very specific contents. On the basis of that strategy, the Ministry of Information and Communications has a specific strategy with a training plan, raising awareness of digital skills and a set of criteria for evaluating the digital transformation of journalism of press agencies. This intensive training course will address very specific issues, meeting the growing needs of media agencies.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Lam speaks at the opening session (Photo: Xuan Cuong).

"Compared to last year, we have matured a lot in terms of awareness of the difficult problems that need to be solved when we do journalism in the digital space. It is not only about advertising in the digital space by creating civilized, decent content with good methods, but also how to make advertising in the digital space be directed towards healthy content and filter and eliminate advertisements about products and services that violate the law, causing offense...", Mr. Lam emphasized. According to the Deputy Minister, this is not only a form of press agencies in particular but also a form of management in the digital space, making this ecosystem cleaner. Thereby, legitimate resources from products and brands that respect the law will find their way to platforms with realistic and healthy content. In particular, the expanded press ecosystem is not only the websites of press agencies but also the content and fanpages of press agencies developed on social networking platforms. This ecosystem also needs proper regulatory attention for mutual benefit in the business model of both sides. According to the Deputy Minister, in 2022, the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Press Department coordinated with Google to provide training on press economics with the main topic being the development and exploitation of advertising revenue data. More than 600 delegates from 182 press agencies nationwide participated in this training course and gave many positive feedbacks. This year, based on the wishes and needs of press agencies, the Ministry of Information and Communications organized a more in-depth course on the topic of digital transformation, the foundation for digital business.

Solving the problem of press revenue

At the expert discussion session, Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Media Development, said that in the first half of this year, a study may show some not-so-pessimistic but noteworthy signs about readership and newspaper business trends. In the world, readership trends are changing, and newspaper business is facing many difficulties. Reuters ' research shows that today's readers, especially young readers, are less, or even no longer, enthusiastic about traditional channels. Gen Z is increasingly looking for alternative channels to newspapers. Mr. Dong mentioned the story of readers' behavior changing a lot, affecting advertising revenue of world newspapers. In Vietnam, according to the Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Media Development, discussions also recorded a similar situation. He cited the sources of revenue for newspapers, including revenue from the State budget, which are increasingly being cut, and the difficulty comes from the fact that press agencies are increasingly required to be more autonomous. As for the second source, which is media advertising, the current economic situation is difficult, businesses are also difficult, so newspapers are also affected by this source of revenue. In addition, the decline in access from social networking platforms is also something he emphasized. Agreeing, Mr. Nguyen Van Ba, Editor-in-Chief of Vietnamnet Newspaper, said that readership trends are always changing, from printed newspapers to desktop computers (PCs), from PCs to tablets, from tablets to mobile phones. According to him, readers are now increasingly overloaded, overwhelmed with information, sometimes in a situation of "too much to know what to choose", and the press has difficulty in choosing how to report the news. Not to mention, in an environment where there is a lot of fake news, press agencies also need to find solutions for news that are both safe and attractive to readers. Regarding revenue sources for press agencies, he said that currently all parties must shift to new revenue sources, how to have loyal readers, long-term readers willing to spend money to read the news. Therefore, the press also raises the issue of charging fees, increasing added value for readers, but this is a long process, currently still in the testing and exploration stages for readers to gradually get used to. Each press agency has a different way of developing readers, it is necessary to find its own strengths to develop, retain readers in the context of future readers being much different. Talking about the press economy, Mr. Ngo Duc Kien, Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper , said that the current source of press revenue is still mainly from traditional readers. Citing the example of the newspaper where he is Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Kien said that there was a time when this newspaper was 100% autonomous. The leadership of this local newspaper advocates learning from colleagues' ways of doing things because each unit has its own good points, and he chooses to filter the good points to learn from. According to him, people keep talking a lot about digital journalism but "if there are machines, there is no investment". Regarding the press economy, he cited Decree 18 on the royalty regime in the press and publishing sector, while there are no regulations on paying royalties to other digital platforms and other ecosystems... Press agencies, including Nghe An Newspaper , also push revenue from other platforms, the number has grown but still accounts for a portion of total revenue. One issue is how to apply digital technologies to develop new readers when social networking platforms reduce traffic, or in other words, newspapers lose readers on social networks. Mr. Nguyen Van Ba ​​said that since last year, social networks, specifically Facebook, have reduced access to press content, so many newspapers keep Facebook channels and fanpages on this social network as channels to view reader trends. Many newspapers themselves have also determined the principles of more sustainable development. Google representative, with a lot of experience in optimizing the production and creation of content published in the digital space, also shared a lot of information related to reader development. In particular, this representative cited the example of the Financial Times in developing content based on assessing reader needs and developing readers.

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