A report from We Are Social and Kepios in February 2022 showed that the digital ad market in Vietnam had value of $812.9 million in 2022 and possibly 1 billion in one or two years.
The revenue of press agencies around the world comes typically from three sources: clients who advertise products; branding communications; readers and cooperation activities to create new value (event organization, data brokerage, e-commerce and content exploitation).
Digital communication is re-defining the cooperation between news publishers and readers.
According to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers WAN-IFRA, digital media is entering the SaaS (Service as a Story) era with new relations with readers through data, opening up the next new development direction.
In such conditions, many newspapers are considering fees from readers through long-term registration. Preliminary statistics show that about 20 press agencies in Vietnam have tried to collect data from readers for analyses. This is the first approach before the agencies begin collecting fees from readers.
According to WAN-IFRA, newspapers still depend on two traditional business models – revenue from ads and from readers.
For print newspapers, business models have been taking shape for hundreds of years, so revenue from readers is mostly from newspaper sales. As for online newspapers, the most popular business model depends on ads, including traditional and sponsored ads.
Currently, many well known newspapers such as New York Times, Washington Post and Financial Times are using a paywall scheme, while some newspapers in Asia Pacific are applying a metered paywall.
Press agencies consider fee collection as a new strategy that aims to familiarize readers with the habit of paying for information.
Tran Tien Duan, Editor in Chief of VietnamPlus, said that collecting fees is a long path that press agencies won’t be able to overcome if they don’t receive encouragement and support from management agencies.
In addition to fee collection, Duan suggested other models based on digital technology such as doing business with data or becoming business partners of digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or TikTok.
