Vietnamese press striving to offer more variety-illustration photo, freepik.com

Since the opening of a studio in March, Vietnam Investment Review has held at least one talk show on average each week with increasingly diverse and expanding topics.

Going beyond the rigid thinking that economic newspapers should only cover the economy, a number of events conducted by VIR about blockchain, plastics, empowering women, and are not only reflecting hot topics of public interest but still demonstrating human values and integrated economic factors.

VIR has already been known as one of the leading economic newspapers, producing a number of special articles and publications each year in order to remain at the top of the Vietnamese press industry.

By capturing new trends as well as utilising the foresight of generations of leaders, VIR is also associated with the success of a series of major annual events. These include the M&A Forum, the largest merger and acquisition forum in Vietnam today, special events on digital transformation events, the Swing for the Kids charity golf tournament, and a series of other small- and medium-sized forums and seminars.

The new talk shows have brought a fresh way of transmitting multi-dimensional information to loyal readers and viewers of VIR, not only satisfying them in terms of content but also images and video, creating a lively communication channel between readers, talk show panellists, and programme organisers.

At the same time, the events are also a great opportunity for various reporters in the newsroom to take on new roles such as moderating, scriptwriting, and event coordinating.

According to Le Trong Minh, editor-in-chief, the model of an expanded newsroom with new products will be further developed in the coming time to be able to offer readers new and more attractive ways to enjoy information.

Encroachment into the field of event organisation by press agencies is not new, and has long been considered a way to help newsrooms diversify their revenue sources.

This is especially true for independent press agencies in terms of revenue, in the context that the distribution of printed newspapers is on a strong downward trend and it is not easy to collect fees for reading online newspapers.

Hoang Thuy Chung, former deputy editor-in-chief of Vietnam Economic Times, said that organising events is an important area that press agencies have been trying to build on, in addition to core content products.

“Event activities help enrich the ecosystem of news agencies, make good brands, reach more readers, and bring in significant revenues. With good events, this segment can account for 40-50 per cent of the newspaper’s total revenue,” shared Chung.

Tran Dang Son, deputy editor-in-chief of Sports and Culture Newspaper under Vietnam News Agency, said the various events it has held, such as the Dedication Music Award, have also contributed to increasing the prestige of the newspaper, as well as revenues.

“Initially, we thought that organising events would only enhance the position and prestige of the newspaper, not rake in more business, especially events with the participation of well-known people or live TV shows, as they obviously cost a lot of money,” Son said.

While the expansion of the newsroom model towards a variety of products is a drastic change for some news agencies, it can help newsrooms gain more advantages when competing with other publications.