On the afternoon of March 19, the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and central mass organizations organized the Launching Ceremony of the second political commentary contest on protecting the Party's ideological foundation in 2026 of the Party Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and central mass organizations and coordinated with the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to organize a press conference in the first quarter of 2026.
If not transformed in time, the press will gradually fall behind.
At the conference, Journalist Do Phu Tho - Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Veterans Newspaper acknowledged that "press life has never encountered so many difficulties as it does now".
From this reality, Journalist Do Phu Tho expressed his desire for the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Party Committee and central mass organizations to pay attention to, create conditions, and support the press through policy communication packages.
In the current context, without support, especially for print newspapers and magazines of socio-political organizations, operations will face many difficulties," Journalist Do Phu Tho affirmed.
Agreeing with this view, Journalist Nguyen Ngoc Toan - Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper said that the press is currently facing unprecedented difficulties. With more than 30 years in the profession, he believes that this is the most difficult period. In the context of streamlining the apparatus, some management mechanisms have arisen inadequacies, especially the situation of "double leadership".
Previously, the request for opinions and approval took place faster. Currently, the process must go through many levels, from lower level to upper level, superiors also request superiors, affecting the progress of work processing.
Meanwhile, the specific nature of journalism requires quickness and timeliness. If the process is prolonged, it will lose its topicality, which means missing information opportunities," Mr. Toan said.
Leaders of Thanh Nien Newspaper proposed that it is necessary to soon review and clearly define authority, strengthen decentralization, and grant proactive power to heads of press agencies within the scope allowed by law, thereby ensuring operational efficiency and timeliness of information.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tien - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tien Phong Newspaper said that the press is in a process of strong transformation, and at the same time must perform political tasks with increasingly high requirements for information speed and competitiveness in the digital environment.
According to him, if there is no timely transformation to meet social needs and the information needs of readers, the press will gradually fall behind. Reality shows that if press agencies continue to produce content in a "uniform" style, mainly based on press releases, or pure information, lacking in-depth investment and differentiation, they will become increasingly distant from readers.
Especially, with a newspaper aimed at young people, Mr. Tien emphasized the requirement to innovate the way of communication, from content to form of expression. Long articles, lacking elaborate investment, lacking attractive design and not effectively applying modern technology will be difficult to approach the new information reception trend of readers.
Mr. Tien also frankly acknowledged that the decline of print newspapers is an inevitable trend. Many major newspapers in the world, despite having a history of hundreds of years, also have to reduce circulation, even reduce publishing frequency. Meanwhile, online newspapers have not yet built an effective fee collection model because the content is not attractive enough, in-depth and valuable enough to convince readers to pay.
In addition, the fluctuations of socio-economic life, the difficulties of businesses and the complex international context also directly affect the operation and revenue of the press.
Faced with this reality, Tien Phong Newspaper is promoting innovation in the direction of improving quality, instead of chasing after quantity. The newspaper focuses on building projects to develop in-depth content, data journalism, aiming to provide valuable and solution-oriented information, thereby retaining readers.
Along with performing the political tasks assigned by the Party, State, and central organizations, Tien Phong Newspaper also focuses on organizing events to generate additional revenue, contributing to ensuring the operation of the editorial office.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tien said that one of the major concerns today is ensuring the lives of reporters and workers. According to him, only when journalists have stable income and corresponding royalties can they wholeheartedly create, improve the quality of works and maintain professional ethics. Conversely, if the situation of late salaries and long-term royalty debts will directly affect the psychology, ideology and quality of work of reporters.
There will be a seminar to remove difficulties for press agencies
Comrade Nguyen Minh Chung - Head of the Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Committee of the Fatherland Front Committee, Central mass organizations said that in the face of difficulties in the press economy, in the coming time, the Fatherland Front and Central mass organizations plan to organize a seminar to find solutions to remove obstacles.
The seminar will have the participation of leaders of press agencies, representatives of departments and units under the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and a number of related agencies.
According to Comrade Nguyen Minh Chung, organizing dialogues and direct exchanges is necessary to unify ways of doing things, thereby building specific coordination plans from the beginning.
It is necessary to have the participation of agencies with mechanisms and policies to discuss and clearly define the content of work and resources for implementation. Without a specific plan, assigning tasks will be very difficult to implement effectively," the comrade emphasized.
Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, Comrade Tran Thang - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Fatherland Front, Central mass organizations shared the difficulties of press agencies.
Comrade Tran Thang said that he will receive opinions related to the organizational structure, management mechanism, decentralization, and delegation of power to report and advise in the process of developing a project to submit to the Standing Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Party Committee and central mass organizations, in order to create favorable conditions and promote the effectiveness of press activities in the coming time.
