Hai Duong Newspaper meets retired cadres on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the first issue.

On the morning of November 29, commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the first issue (December 1, 1961 - December 1, 2024), the Editorial Board of Hai Duong Newspaper organized a meeting with retired cadres, editors, reporters, and staff of the newspaper.

In a warm and friendly atmosphere, Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Quy Trong briefly introduced the results and achievements of Hai Duong Newspaper in 2024 on 3 pillars: Innovation and development of publications and digital products; building facilities, policies and mechanisms; building a team of journalists.

Accordingly, the printed newspaper maintains its quality, with some improvements in specialized pages such as focusing on one issue and improving the presentation. The electronic newspaper has made great strides: There are some new columns, standardizing SEO. The number of readers of the electronic newspaper has increased from 1.2 - 1.3 million reads/month to about 2 million reads/month. In particular, in September 2024, it increased to more than 2.4 million, ranking third for the first time in the party newspaper system of provinces and cities nationwide.

The newspaper is currently developing 4 social media channels, including: Facebook Fanpage (currently has more than 108,000 likes, more than 166,000 followers, and has been given a blue tick since 2022); the newspaper opened a new YouTube channel, currently has more than 2,700 followers, and has started generating revenue; the TikTok channel has been restored, currently has more than 313,000 followers; the Zalo platform maintains daily news posting.

Hai Duong Newspaper is an official and important information channel for leaders and cadres to promptly grasp information, serve leadership and direction, and is an important bridge between the people and the Party Committees and authorities in the province.

The position and prestige of Hai Duong newspaper have increased significantly. 2024 is the first year the newspaper won all three of the most prestigious press awards in Vietnam: National, Golden Hammer and Sickle, and Dien Hong.

Facilities, policies and mechanisms have made significant progress. The newspaper is implementing the Headquarters Repair Project. The living standards of workers have improved. Attention has been paid to training and building a team of journalists, such as promptly supplementing missing personnel; recruiting people specializing in social networks; rotating staff and reporters; strengthening on-site training of the team, inviting lecturers, and going on field trips.

Hai Duong Newspaper is building a system of cultural values: "Respect discipline - Love readers - Always be creative".

Comrade Nguyen Quy Trong affirmed that the above results have an important contribution from the leaders, cadres, editors, reporters, and retired employees, who have regularly cared, encouraged, shared, and contributed ideas to build the newspaper.

Emphasizing that these results are just the beginning, comrade Nguyen Quy Trong said that the team of Hai Duong Newspaper staff will always try to meet the requirements and tasks set forth and hopes that the cadres, editors, reporters, and retired employees will continue to pay attention to contributing their intelligence, enthusiasm, and opinions to the agency.

Speaking at the meeting, the staff, editors, reporters, and retired employees together reviewed the glorious tradition of the newspaper over the past 63 years; expressed excitement at attending the traditional meeting; acknowledged that the newspaper has developed, innovated, become more attractive, and provided timely and responsive information, serving many readers on many different platforms.

Journalist Nguyen Huu Phach, one of the people who published the first Hai Duong newspaper on December 1, 1961, said that the newspaper is an indispensable spiritual food in daily life. Every morning at around 9am, journalists wait for the post office staff to deliver the printed newspaper to read. Although the content of the newspaper still has some issues that are not really as expected, the content and form are basically good.

Journalist Vu Dinh Khan, former Editor-in-Chief of Hai Duong Newspaper, expressed his joy at the newspaper's continuous growth and hoped that the newspaper's staff, reporters, and editors would continue to promote the tradition of Hai Duong Newspaper, building a newspaper that increasingly better meets the needs of readers.

Expressing his joy at the development of Hai Duong Newspaper, journalist Nguyen Ha Cu, former member of the Provincial Party Committee and former Editor-in-Chief of Hai Duong Newspaper, suggested that both print and electronic newspapers should be given importance. These two publications should maintain their traditional columns, reflecting the thoughts and feelings of readers. The newspaper must always reflect the truth, contribute to social progress, and hope that the newspaper will have more new and better works.

Regularly following Hai Duong newspaper, especially the political articles, journalist Nguyen The Truong noted that the Hai Duong newspaper team is increasingly developing comprehensively. For example, in the past, only a few people could write political articles, but now there are quite a few writers, with many good quality articles.

Journalist Tran Anh Tuan assessed Hai Duong Newspaper as one of the leading agencies among local Party newspapers in applying digital technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI), to the journalism process.

After encouraging working journalists to try to overcome the difficulties, journalist Dang Thi Viet Anh hopes that Hai Duong Newspaper will continue to improve the quality of its work and find solutions to overcome the decreasing trend of print newspaper circulation.

Many retired officials expressed their hope that social media channels should continue to receive investment; measures should be taken to make the electronic newspaper version on mobile phones more attractive and easier to read; and they wished the officials, editors, reporters, and employees who are working good health, happiness, and positive contributions to Hai Duong Newspaper's further development, affirming its position and prestige.

Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Quy Trong sincerely thanks the sentiments, enthusiasm and accepts the opinions and contributions of the staff, editors, reporters and retired employees.

Comrade Nguyen Quy Trong emphasized that he would consider the comments as demands, requests, and suggestions to continue to innovate and develop the newspaper further; at the same time, he sent his best wishes to the retired cadres, editors, reporters, and staff to always have good health and continue to contribute to the development of Hai Duong Newspaper.