Publishing online news when internet was largely blank
Today the internet is a world of massive information, which is even richer than the real world, but 25 years ago, this cyberspace was a new information superhighway to many newspapers. With the launch of its online version in June 1998, Nhan Dan Newspaper was one of the pioneering news agencies to take their first steps on the internet, opening a new and modern form of journalism.
Nhan Dan Online went through the most rudimentary period in the development of online newspapers when the internet was available in Vietnam not long ago. The cyberspace was like a blank sheet of paper; the people involved in publishing online news in the early stages were those who made the first brushstrokes. Even the giant search engine Google and the social networking site Facebook were both born after this period.
The "online newspaper village" at that time was just the online magazine Homeland of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which published one issue each month. In a virtual world that had never contained data, everything produced and published by Nhan Dan Online every day was the first data.
Politburo member Nguyen Phu Trong, who was then responsible for culture, science and education matters, witnesses the launch of Nhan Dan Online on June 21, 1998.
Pioneering journalism in cyberspace is a big challenge. There was no previous online newspaper model to learn from, Nhan Dan Online's reporters at that time searched for themselves to create a path of their own.
For readers who are overseas Vietnamese living far away from the country, Nhan Dan Online has determined that the information on the newspaper must be official information. The data source must be "clean" to help guide readers in a network environment that is expected to contain a lot of malicious and reactionary information. To date, this criterion has not changed.
Everything produced and published by Nhan Dan Online every day was the first data.
In the early period of lack of facilities, computers were prioritised for technical staff, while reporters and editors only had a few shared computers.
The daily task of reporters and editors is to review newspaper pages, select the best and most interesting articles for editing and pass them on to the typist. Before 6p.m - the publication time of the newspaper, they took turns sitting at the computer to review the demo page of the newspaper that they were in charge of, before the leader approved the publication.
In its early days, Nhan Dan Online built a database of articles and authors to serve readers. Hundreds of poems and short stories as well as their authors were selected to be introduced on the internet by Nhan Dan Online. To date, data journalism has also been an important direction of the newspaper, but at higher requirements.
General Secretary Le Kha Phieu inspects preparations for the publishing of Nhan Dan Online.
It can be said that during this period, Nhan Dan Online successfully completed its historical mission. The newspaper provides the richest and most up-to-date information channel for people abroad to read hot news about their homeland every day.
As the internet developed, the types of information transmission on the internet also developed strongly. Many domestic online newspapers were born, and social networks also took form and flourished. The initial advantage of Nhan Dan Online has gradually disappeared, requiring the newspaper to constantly innovate, otherwise it will be left behind.
Growing from timely and bold steps
Over the past 25 years, Nhan Dan Online has continuously innovated both contents and forms, changed its interface, developed specialised pages, and brought various types of multimedia communications to serve readers.
Criteria to reach readers have also gradually expanded to match new trends. The newspaper still maintains a relatively fast development speed thanks to proactively catching up with modern journalism technologies, but still inheriting and promoting the strengths of a political newspaper that has been present on the internet for a long time.
In mid-2021, Nhan Dan Newspaper’s Board of Editors put forward a digital transformation plan with a roadmap to develop Nhan Dan into a major multimedia media agency, focussing on promoting innovation and development as a media-tech agency and taking structure as a multi-platform, multimedia content production and distribution agency. Under this roadmap, Nhan Dan Online is placed as a centre of innovation.
Nhan Dan on different platforms.
Accordingly, Nhan Dan Newspaper accelerates the implementation of the multi-platform strategy and prioritises digital-first communication theory. Information is prioritised to appear on online newspaper wherever there are readers, and the newspaper actively delivers news to readers, instead of the traditional approach in which readers search for information.
In the next step, Nhan Dan Online partners with Chartbeat application to measure and analyse behavioural data and readers' needs in order to help the newspaper provide the right information on demand and optimise readers’ time on site and increase pageviews. As a result, readers’ time on site on Nhan Dan Online has improved significantly, higher than many other online newspapers.
Along with technological innovation, Nhan Dan Online has received considerable investment from Nhan Dan Newspaper in human resources by recruiting many young reporters who are proficient in both journalism skills and technology, and training on-site staff to meet job requirements.
Photojournalist Tran Thanh Dat works at the earthquake epicentre in Turkey in March 2023.
Besides the experienced reporters and editors, is the dynamism and creativity of new generations of reporters and editors. They supported each other, covered each other's work, and created a united team, ready to accept new challenges and tasks and complete them excellently.
For the first time at Nhan Dan Online, reporters and editors can proficiently use tools such as Flourish, and Infogram, to make their infographic interactive in just a few minutes, instead of waiting for the technical department to draw it by hand for hours like before. Many Infographic products have been published immediately, receiving good feedback from readers.
In particular, Nhan Dan Online is the first domestic newspaper to cooperate with an international partner to bring the Shorthand tool into the production of e-Magazine and long-form articles. Many political and difficult contents designed by reporters, editors, and technicians, have attracted several readers. Thanks to this tool, Nhan Dan Online has produced thousands of multimedia articles published in both Vietnamese and foreign languages: English, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
Nhan Dan's in-depth knowledge section in Vietnamese.
Inheriting massive data built up over the years, Nhan Dan Online once again leads the domestic press in developing an in-depth knowledge section. This is a radically different creation from the columns already published in newspapers in Vietnam, bearing the characteristics of data journalism, one of the main trends of modern journalism, providing an overview, comprehensive and in-depth information.
Many topics providing in-depth knowledge are quickly built but still rich in content, thanks to the systematic and scientific recovery of old data, which is convenient for the search and study of readers.
To implement the multi-platform development strategy, Nhan Dan Online promotes the development of the Nhan Dan Newspaper fanpage on Facebook, with nearly 300,000 followers, especially since the index of reader reach and interaction (like, share, comment) is very high, compared to fanpages of other press agencies. In addition, Nhan Dan Newspaper also boosts information dissemination on other social networks such as TikTok, Zalo, YouTube, Lotus, Podcast, and others.
New experiments, new tasks and new challenges are still waiting for Nhan Dan Online reporters and editors, but the 25-year experience on the internet is the strength that helps Nhan Dan Online confidently overcome challenges and reach new successes.
