Editor-in-chief of VietnamPlus Tran Tien Duan (third, from right) gets the certificate for a press agency with excellent digital transformation maturity. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi – Two newspapers of the Vietnam News Agency - VietnamPlus and Tin tuc (News) - are among the 28 press agencies in Vietnam rated “excellent” in digital transformation maturity by the Authority of Press under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The authority has announced the results of its 2024 digital transformation maturity evaluation, highlighting notable progress in awareness, revenue models, and audience engagement among Vietnamese press agencies.

The index serves as a benchmark for monitoring and evaluating annual digital transformation efforts across press agencies. It also facilitates comparisons between agencies and tracks progress over the years, helping organisations identify strengths to build upon and weaknesses to address. This aligns with the goals of the Digital Transformation Strategy for the Press until 2025, with orientations to 2030.

It comprises five pillars, ten components, and 43 criteria, with a total score of 100. The scoring breakdown is as follows: strategy (18 points), digital infrastructure, platforms, and cybersecurity (24 points), organisational and professional alignment (20 points), audience engagement (23 points), and digital technology adoption (15 points).

Evaluations are conducted for each criterion and then aggregated for component and pillar scores. If a press agency fails to provide data for a criterion, a score of zero may be assigned. To ensure objectivity, the MIC established an appraisal council to verify and adjust scores based on provided information.

As many as 282 agencies participated in the 2024 evaluation, including 40 central newspapers, 62 local newspapers, 48 central and local magazines, 67 scientific journals, and 65 radio and television stations.

Of these, 28 press agencies achieved the “"excellent" title, a 6.27% increase from 2023. Additionally, 65 agencies were rated "good", 55 "fair", 25 "average", and 109 "poor".

The "excellent" category included ten central newspapers, eight local newspapers, and ten radio and television stations.

Although only 32.3% of Vietnam’s press agencies participated in the survey, they represent over 90% of the readership and advertising market share nationwide. Notably, the percentage of "poor" ratings decreased by 24.35% compared to 2023.

The Authority emphasised that digital transformation in 2024 exceeded expectations. The target for 2025 is to reduce the proportion of "poor" and "average" ratings to 40%, increase "fair" and "good" ratings to 50%, and raise the "excellent" rating to 10%./.