Possibilities Of Paywall Model For Electronic Newspapers In Vietnam

The development of Vietnamese newspapers is currently facing great problems.After the severe impact of the Corona virus,advertising revenue fell sharply,and the state budget was cut,causing many newspapers to go bankrupt.In order to find new and alternative sources of income,the Vietnamese party and government have proposed many ways,the most feasible way is the paid news model.The paid news model,or more specifically,the "paywall" model has been around for a long time internationally and has been successfully applied in many wellknown newspapers.But because this is a brand new model in Vietnam,it has only begun to emerge in the last two years,and there is almost no research on paywalls in Vietnam at present.This can be said to be an important topic,and there is a lot of room for further research.The purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of electronic newspapers in Vietnam,thereby analyzing the feasibility of developing this model and how to advance it to go further in Vietnam's newspaper economy.To achieve the above goals,this study looked at three electronic newspapers that are testing this paywall model,namely Vietnamplus,Ngay Nay Magazine,and Vietnamnet.The challenges they face include: the special relationship between the political system and Vietnamese journalism,the issue of news piracy,challenges to journalists' professionalism and ethics,challenges to electronic payment methods,and the willingness of Vietnamese news audiences to pay.In particular,recognizing the important role of news audiences in developing the economic model of newspapers,because audiences are the media's customers,researching target customers is the most effective and urgent way to test new products(in this case news products with paid content)one of the steps.This study conducted an online survey of Vietnamese news audiences to better understand their perceptions and attitudes towards paid journalism and paywall models.The results obtained show that the Vietnamese people are still largely unaware of the importance of the paid journalism model and the willingness to pay is still weak due to the free culture that existed very early in the electronic age in Vietnam.Although there are still many challenges to be solved,the most important is how to change the habit of the audience to read newspapers for free,but developing a paid news model in Vietnam is no longer an unattainable dream,and a concrete path has gradually formed.The best way is to try it step by step.The research suggests that efforts can be made to promote the development of paid journalism from the following aspects: improving the management and training of journalists,improving the legal system related to the protection of news copyrights,building news brands,and attracting news audiences.