During a meeting held on January 14 in Hanoi, many print newspapers reported modest earnings and declining readership.
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| Many print newspapers reported modest earnings |
The deputy minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Thanh Hung, said Vietnam has around 838 print media agencies, 92 online news agencies, 67 radio and television networks, as well as one national news agency. The number of copies of newspapers in 2013 was 836 million compared to 850 million in 2012.
Hung said that advertisement revenue has not increased very much, with most going to television networks. The total revenue of print media in 2013 was VND4.1 trillion (USD195 million), a decrease of 0.8% from previous year.
Two agencies, The Gioi Moi and Khoa Hoc To Quoc, decided to stop their print editions. It is widely expected that online media will become the dominant force of most news agencies in the country. It is widely believed that the advertising revenue will go mainly to online publications.
Nhan Dan Newspaper, one journalist has already proclaimed 'death' of print media, pointing to the world trend, as giants of the industry, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post suffer from decreasing subscription numbers.
Even though Hung praised the media's efforts, he raised concerns over some issues in Vietnamese journalism, such as false or exaggerated information and a focus on violence and sex.
