Untangling the economic bottlenecks of Vietnamese press and media in the context of digital economic development

The workshop is part of the annual event of the Vietnamese press community called the Third June Press Forum (2024), co-chaired by Information and Communication Magazine, Vietnamnet Electronic Newspaper (Ministry of Information and Communications) and the Institute of Journalism and Communication (University of Social Sciences and Humanities).
Identifying the economic picture of Vietnam's press and media
Currently, the country has 6 main multimedia press agencies, 127 newspapers, 670 magazines; 72 radio and television agencies. Although different in type, most press agencies are experiencing a decline in revenue, especially television stations and press agencies that are completely financially autonomous. Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said that the revenue of newspapers and magazines in the first 9 months of 2023 decreased by 9.4% compared to the same period in 2022; while the total revenue in 2023 of radio and television stations decreased by 23% compared to 2022. In addition, press agencies are facing the risk of a sharp decline in revenue, in the context that social networking platforms such as Facebook or Google have taken away about 70% of advertising revenue of mainstream press... Meanwhile, currently, annual regular expenditure on the press is less than 0.5% of the total regular expenditure of the State budget; expenditure on press investment is also low, accounting for only about 0.25% of the total investment expenditure of the State budget.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications hopes that agencies, speakers, scientists, and leaders of press agencies will contribute objective and comprehensive opinions on all aspects related to the current press and media economy. Thereby, proposing and recommending to the press steering agency, the state press management agency, the governing agency, the press agency and the competent authority solutions to remove the "bottlenecks" related to the press and media economy. Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong - Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, said that in the context of globalization and digital transformation, competition between press and media agencies to attract the public and advertisers is becoming increasingly fierce. The emergence and widespread spread of digital platforms (such as Facebook, Google and Apple) along with the incredible breakthrough capabilities of information technology are challenging traditional business models, which have brought success to press agencies for decades.
In the context of the State budget allocated to press agencies accounting for a low and decreasing proportion, the program production cooperation activities of radio and television stations have significantly narrowed in terms of the number of partners and programs, and advertising revenue has declined.
In early 2023, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 348/QD-TTg approving the Strategy "Digital transformation of journalism to 2025, with a vision to 2030", with specific goals that by 2030, 100% of press agencies will put content on digital platforms (prioritizing domestic digital platforms), press agencies will optimize revenue sources, of which 50% of press agencies will increase revenue by at least 20%.
Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong emphasized: “The press and media economy in the context of digital economic development is posing many opportunities and challenges for the Vietnamese press to develop strongly. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain the goal of building press agencies in a professional, humane, and modern direction; fulfilling well the mission of information and propaganda to serve the revolutionary cause of the Party and the cause of innovation of the country”. Providing an overview of the revenue of press units, Mr. Le Quoc Minh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper shared that the revenue structure of press units has now changed. So besides traditional advertising and readers, which source of revenue is the most important in 2022 compared to 2023?
There are many different forms of revenue structure of press agencies today. In which, event organization is a form of business being implemented by press agencies, revenue from event organization can account for 20% of total revenue in some press agencies. Advertising is an important source of revenue, but it has now decreased from about 90% to 40-50% of the revenue of press units due to the dominance of other electronic press services. In addition, there are new forms of revenue such as e-commerce, brand licensing is a new form of business of the world press; providing information technology services; reproducing published content, or becoming a retailer of publications, special products...
Media economics and bottlenecks
What are the bottlenecks in the current press economy? In response to this question, Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Chi Trung shared the bottlenecks in the development of the press and media economy, including: bottlenecks in awareness, in development goals; bottlenecks between the technical and technological explosion, between “supply and demand”; bottlenecks in motivation and interests, in building the overall system structure of the press and media economy and management institutions.
Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Chi Trung suggested: How can the press maintain its principles and purposes but still have a source of revenue for reproduction and investment? Is it necessary to maintain a horizontal system according to each administrative locality, according to each industry and field? The speaker emphasized that solving the problem of press and media economy must be associated with the arrangement of the national press system. The development of press and media economy does not only need to be viewed from the perspective of a few specific cases, from a single field or separate type, but also needs to be viewed on the overall, strategic and comprehensive scale of the national press system, associated with the context of strong digital economic development today. From there, there will be a breakthrough development to well perform the role and function of revolutionary press, of the professional and humane Vietnamese media system. What is the solution for the development of Vietnam's unique press and media economy?
Presenting at the workshop, Ms. Nguyen Thuy Duong - Google Group emphasized the most important factors in developing reader files and business opportunities in the digital environment. These are building differentiated products and optimizing interactions from readers; building long-term strategies and setting clear goals, quality press products and disciplined operations for innovation. Speaker Nguyen Thuy Duong gave three suggestions from Google for press agencies in developing the digital economy, which are that press agencies need to become essential to their readers; build direct relationships with readers to diversify revenue sources; and adapt to changing reader needs. Sharing about the modern press ecosystem, Mr. Le Quoc Vinh - Chairman of Le Media Group said that there are 8 basic factors such as: Dominant factors, Technology and data, Community and social networks, Customers, Editorial office, Content creators, Content consumers and feedback, content platforms. Accordingly, these factors have a relationship...
Today’s content consumers are deeply fragmented, belonging to many different groups (organizations, businesses, readers, etc.). Each group has different “media touch points”, different experience needs, different reading/viewing styles, and different interests in digital content. Therefore, press agencies need to have a strategy to understand content consumers in developing the press and media economy.
The speaker suggested current press economic models, including: Revenue from readers, revenue from businesses, revenue from self-employment sources; revenue from social projects.