Writing for the party newspaper, is it easier to praise or criticize?

(Baonghean) - 'Writing for a party newspaper, is it easier to praise or criticize?' - that was the question that Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Dac Vinh suddenly raised and immediately attracted the attention of the members participating in the working session between the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Nghe An Newspaper on the morning of April 18. And that was also the issue that was hotly debated, opening the frank and open working session between the head of the Provincial Party Committee and the mouthpiece of the Provincial Party Committee.

Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh speaks at the meeting. Photo: Duc Anh

The working session became closer and more trusting after the question of Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh, at the same time creating a comfortable atmosphere to go straight to difficult and hot issues, challenges and demands for the press in general and Nghe An Newspaper in particular.

There were many enthusiastic comments, from the representative of the group of reporters who had just won the first Golden Hammer and Sickle Award, to the staff, Editor-in-Chief Pham Thi Hong Toan, each person had their own way of “decoding” the question of the Provincial Party Secretary. The opinions converged on the point of view that it was necessary to choose an issue to praise or criticize; whether praising or criticizing, it must be correct, honestly reflecting the truth.

And more importantly, finding a way to effectively bring the issue to a wide range of readers, creating good reactions and positive effects from readers and public opinion in general. That is a heavy and honorable task that local party newspapers must fully understand and strive to achieve.

From the above suggestions, the first key issue that the delegates attending the meeting were interested in and discussed was the issue of training and developing the provincial party newspaper team. Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh said that in the era of information explosion, with countless multi-dimensional impacts, the challenges from each citizen using social networks, from licensed and unlicensed news sources are extremely large; despite such difficulties and challenges, every journalist and reporter with knowledge and courage knows what to do.

Nghe An Newspaper was awarded the title of Labor Hero in the renovation period by the Party and State when it had a team of journalists with high mettle and fighting spirit, who knew how to promote the basic strength of solidarity and high unity in carrying out daily and regular political and professional tasks; however, the current and future challenges are enormous, requiring constant improvement.

Also discussing the issue of building and training the team, comrade Nguyen Thi Thu Huong - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and comrade Le Duc Cuong - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Chief of Office of the Provincial People's Committee both said that if a local party newspaper wants to achieve outstanding results and become a strong brand in the national party newspaper system, it must have good solutions for building and training the team, from management staff to reporters.

Over the past time, Nghe An Newspaper has implemented the above solutions. The staff and reporters are all progressive, aiming for professionalism, dynamism, modernity, and have the capacity to implement groups of solutions to create breakthroughs in innovation in content and form, and innovate in performing propaganda tasks in accordance with increasingly heavy political requirements and increasingly diverse needs and tastes of the public.

The working environment of the employees in the unit is operated scientifically, modernly and transparently. Some drastic and strict solutions, with great pressure of responsibility, high competition and elimination. Up to now, the organizational structure of Nghe An Newspaper has been basically completed with 9 specialized departments; 85 cadres, reporters and employees, of which 50 are on the payroll, 25 are on the Provincial Party Committee contracts and 10 are on short-term contracts with the unit's own budget.

Nghe An Newspaper Party Committee has 57 members, operating in 5 affiliated Party cells. With a streamlined team but good operating methods, Nghe An Newspaper is the first press unit to apply the convergent editorial model integrating the publishing process between print and electronic newspapers; it is one of the top 3 newspapers in the system of 63 local Party newspapers nationwide.

Reporters of Nghe An Newspaper working in Yen Khe orange area, Con Cuong district. Photo: Archive

Sharing about the difficulties in carrying out propaganda tasks in a large province with many complex and sensitive issues, comrade Nguyen Ba Hao - Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Information and Communications said that in recent years, the team of Nghe An Newspaper has not only met the requirements well, but has always appeared in the leading position, taking on the front line position in all propaganda fronts.

Being the “locomotive” in propagating the implementation of major tasks and events of the province; at the same time, having a pioneering fighting spirit, demonstrating bravery and sharpness in the task of fighting against hostile arguments, refuting and exposing bad plots and tricks, making an important contribution to ensuring stability and security, serving to create a favorable environment for production and business in the province.

Since 2013, Nghe An Newspaper has upgraded the interface and CMS of Nghe An Electronic Newspaper, restructured the categories, arranged the event streams, banners... the number of articles published on the Electronic Newspaper has accordingly increased to 150 - 170 articles/day; increased interaction and convenience on electronic publications (before 2012, the publishing time was only 30 - 40 articles per day, mainly pushed up from printed newspapers).

Nghe An Newspaper implements the Converged Newsroom model. Photo: Document

The number of readers accessing Nghe An Electronic Newspaper currently reaches 100,000 - 150,000 times/day. The newspaper has built many quality topics that meet the requirements of the task of propagating events and issues arising from practice, creating good social effects, being recognized and highly appreciated by readers, contributing to creating positive changes for many industries and fields.

Assessing the innovation roadmap of Nghe An Newspaper, Comrade Ho Phuc Hop - Member of the Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department said that Nghe An Newspaper has basically achieved the contents of the innovation orientation up to 2020 since 2015 and 2016. The Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department summarized 3 highlights of Nghe An Newspaper including: First is the very clear Party spirit, which is the leadership orientation in the information content; second is the timely education; third is the high fighting spirit, especially the fighting to fight to clean up the operating environment right within the press team.

In addition to the advantages and highlights, at the meeting, with a frank spirit, the Provincial Party Secretary as well as the members participating in the meeting pointed out the challenges that the collective leadership and reporters of Nghe An Newspaper need to focus their strength to overcome. That is the challenge of the increasingly large volume of news articles, information spread out, reducing the key information. At the same time, although implementing the task of shortening the update time, speeding up the speed of bringing new sources of information to readers, the requirements and pressure of information competition are high, Nghe An Newspaper must build a brand of correct, accurate, and good information, minimizing errors and haste.

Opinions also say that if we don't want to be lost in the vast world of information, there are many things to do, from changing newspaper formats, changing presentation thinking, to changing the approach to news sources, to approaching readers, and to the public.

Also from the desire for trust, the Provincial Party Secretary concluded the working session with sincere sharing, suggesting that Nghe An Newspaper reporters always remember their role and position in the mouthpiece of the provincial Party Committee, and will struggle to think, learn and find ways to express and reflect information that is beneficial to the people. The Provincial Party Secretary said that whether it is praise or criticism, if it is based on the common interest, it is easy to do.

Nghe An Newspaper reporters working at the illegal gold mining hotspot in Cam Muon commune (Que Phong). Photo: Archive

Receiving the messages, instructions and suggestions of the Provincial Party Secretary and members at the meeting, Editor-in-Chief Pham Thi Hong Toan affirmed that Nghe An Newspaper always determines that the propaganda viewpoint of a party newspaper must have a main information flow of spreading good deeds and good things; bright colors must be the main and "fight to build", so in addition to widely informing, thoroughly and convincingly, praise or criticism must create a good effect, that is the responsibility; praise or criticism must be received by readers and have the power to spread, that comes from skills and abilities.

The issues raised by the Provincial Party Secretary and members in the working session are the issues of responsibility and capacity of journalists, which are two core issues that create strength for the Nghe An Newspaper team to cultivate, train, strive, overcome all challenges, and maintain the brand of the Labor Hero unit in the period of innovation.

Ngo Kien