Le Quoc Minh, Editor-in-chief of Nhan Dan (People) Newspaper and Chairman of Vietnam Journalists' Association.

As of last November, 259 of 816 press agencies in Vietnam published an electronic version of their content.

A number of press agencies have pioneered digital transformation by using state-of-the-art technologies like AI, IoT, Cloud, and Bigdata to create new journalism trends: multi-platform, multi-media journalism, mobile journalism, social media, data journalism, and super journalism.

The Vietnam News Agency, the Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam Television, and VnExpress are a few of the press agencies that have succeeded in becoming multimedia agencies.

“Experts say digital transformation comes first and benefits will follow. Our mission is to set a direction and resolutely pursue the goal of becoming a digital press agency. Of course it will take time to reach the goal,” said Le Quoc Minh, Editor-in-chief of Nhan Dan (People) Newspaper and Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists' Association.

“News agencies around the world have been investing in technology to become technological press agencies, and vice versa – tech firms are investing in content to become media technology firms. We should focus on both expanding the size of our audience and getting them to stay loyal to our product,” Minh noted.

Journalist Nguyen Le Tan, Director of the VTC Now Digital Content Center, VTC Television, said each press agency needs to decide on a target in order to pick the appropriate resources and people for its digital transformation.

He underscored the importance of changing the mindset and perception of journalists and took an example, “When cameramen, for example, are asked to put down their cameras and learn to record with a smartphone or camera IP, they respond that they are professionals trained to use cameras. I realize that changing their mindset is something that can’t be done instantly.”

An overview of a workshop on digital transformation for the Vietnamese press in Hanoi on June 11, 2022.

At a recent workshop on digital transformation for the Vietnamese press, Nguyen Thanh Lam, Director of the Press Department of the Ministry of Information and Communications, said that many press agencies and media companies have realized the importance of digital transformation to increase efficiency and ensure the survival of newspapers. They have readily entered the race to transform digitally and change their operations model to successfully meet the new challenge.

“The Ministry of Information and Communications has a program of digital skills training for Vietnamese citizens, agencies, and organizations as part of the program to bring about national digital transformation. Some 3,000 journalists at press agencies will learn from the program how to work in the digital space, how to protect themselves in that environment, and how to build a Vietnamese digital ecosystem,” said Lam.

Workshop participants agreed that media agencies need to make digital transformation a priority because they are in charge of disseminating information.

The Law on Press and the Law on Telecommunications need to be revised and the protection of personal information needs to be legislated.

More investment in press agencies is needed so the main stream of official news agencies can dominate the information provided by social networks.