TTLV: Organizing and managing a dual-version editorial office for Vinh Long Newspaper

1. Student's full name: Cao Thi Huyen 2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: August 18, 1987

4. Place of birth: My Thanh Trung commune, Tam Binh district, Vinh Long province.

5. Decision No. 3617/2018/QD-XHNV dated December 4, 2018, of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, recognizing the student.

6. Changes in the training process: none

7. Thesis title: Organization and management of a dual-version editorial office for Vinh Long Newspaper.

8. Major: Journalism (Applied Orientation); Code: 8320101-01-UD

9. Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Quang Hao - Lecturer at the Institute of Journalism and Communication Training.

10. Summary of the thesis results:

The topic consists of 3 chapters:

- Chapter 1: Some theoretical issues concerning the organization and management of a newsroom producing two versions.

- Chapter 2: Organization and Management of the Editorial Office producing two versions at Vinh Long Newspaper today.

- Chapter 3: Proposed Model for Organizing and Managing a Dual-Version Newsroom for Vinh Long Newspaper.

- The thesis clearly outlines relevant issues, such as: the continuous development of communication technology; the information needs of the modern public; the competition among media outlets in the digital age; and the need to enhance the competitiveness of local Party newspapers.

- How to use the convergence program to increase interaction between departments, and between reporters and the editorial board. Interaction between departments and the editorial board helps reporters receive and utilize information from multiple perspectives; and ensures a rigorous process for handling and editing information.

- In addition, the editorial office has trained a number of versatile reporters who can work for both versions. The Vinh Long newspaper editorial office also has certain limitations in its organizational structure, and cooperation between departments is not yet truly close. There is overlapping and conflicting work among reporters from both versions when producing news articles. Meanwhile, the editorial office is facing a shortage of personnel, which is a significant waste.

- A shortage of management personnel and reporters is a major problem for the Vinh Long Newspaper editorial office today. The severe lack of management staff puts pressure on the organization and administration of the editorial office. Simultaneously, the leadership and management of the editorial office are not flexible enough to meet the needs of a converged newsroom. Although the reporting team has many years of experience, they are still heavily focused on print journalism, and most have not received proper specialized training, which somewhat limits their operational capabilities, especially when working on both print and electronic versions simultaneously.

- For the two versions of the newspaper to operate effectively and provide high-quality service to readers, the most fundamental aspect is the tight organization and management of the newsroom. This includes innovative and open management and operation, as well as training of personnel to serve both versions. Given the shortage of personnel and the lack of a unified workspace, all reporters at Vinh Long Newspaper must be dedicated to both versions: print and online.

- According to this model, individual newsrooms will be eliminated, and all forms of journalism, whether print or online, will be reorganized into a single newsroom with unified positions and processes for information input, content output, and a common development plan for the entire newsroom.

11. Practical Applicability: The proposed solutions are based on the practical situation at Vinh Long Newspaper. The author references and learns from the experiences of two successful news organizations in building their newsrooms: Binh Duong Newspaper and Quang Ninh Media Center. As a result, these solutions can be applied to building a dual-version newsroom for Vinh Long Newspaper. This is also a useful resource for other newsrooms to refer to when building and developing dual-version newsrooms, moving towards a converged newsroom.

12. Future research directions: Based on this research direction, the author plans to conduct further research in the future on the issue of building a converged newsroom for other local press agencies.

13. Published works related to the thesis:

“Organization and management of the editorial office producing two versions for Vinh Long Newspaper” - scientific journal, Cuu Long University.

INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS

1. Full name: Cao Thi Huyen 2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: August 28, 1987 4. Place of birth: Vinh Long

5. Admission decision number: 3617/2018/QD-XHNV. Dated: December 4, 2018

6. Changes in academic process: None

7. Official thesis title:An Investigation on the Organization and Management of the Newsroom which can publish two versions for Vinh Long News.

8. Major: Journalism Code: 8320101-01-UD

9. Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. PhD Vu Quang Hao

10. Summary of the findings of the thesis:

The thesis is divided into three chapters:

- Chapter 1: Some thesis issues about the Organization and Management of the newsroom which can publish two versions.

- Chapter 2: The Organization and Management of the newsroom which can publish two versions in the current Vinh Long News.

- Chapter 3: Proposing the Organization and Management of the newsroom which can publish two versions for Vinh Long News.

- In the thesis, including such issues as continuous development of communication technology; public's strive for credible information; media competition in the digital age; the need to improve the competitiveness of the local newspaper.

- How to use the convergence approach to increase interaction among departments, between reporters and the editorial board is a matter of interest. Interaction between departments and the editorial board helps reporters receive and make use of multi-dimensional information; the process of editing information is highly managed.

- In addition, the newspaper office has trained a number of reporters who can work for both versions. Vinh Long newspaper office also has certain limitations on its structure. Departments are not closely coordinated. Reporters' jobs overlap, causing difficulties in carrying out their duties.

- A shortage of management staff and reporters is a major problem of Vinh Long newspaper, putting high pressure on organizing and administering the newspaper office. At the same time, its leaders and managers are not flexible enough to meet the demand of convergence. Having many years of experience, reporters are still interested in print newspapers. Most of them are not properly trained, making them find it harder to work for print and electronic versions at the same time.

- The author believes that for two versions to be effective, with high quality to meet the needs of readers, the most fundamental thing is to organize and manage the newspaper office closely, from renovating the management process to training human resources for two versions. With the shortage of manpower and conditions to implement convergence workspace, all Vinh Long newspaper reporters must be ready for two versions, ie print newspaper and electronic newspaper.

- Under this model, each separate newspaper office will be eliminated, all types of newspapers, print or online, will be reorganized. A common newspaper office is responsible for all, including guarantee the input and output information, building future development plans./.

11. Practical applicability, if any:

Based on the actual situation at Vinh Long News, we propose solutions to design the Vinh Long News with 2 versions. In which, the author has a reference to learn about this model in Binh Duong News and Quang Ninh Media Center. As a result, it can be applied to establish Vinh Long News with 2 versions. This is also a useful document for other press agencies to refer to to set up the 2-version newsroom, towards the converged newsroom.

12. Further research directions, if any: From this research result, the author will study more deeply on the issue of building converged newsroom for local newspapers.

13. Thesis-related publications:

“Building a newsroom which can publish two versions at Vinh Long News”, Scientific Journal, Cuu Long University.