Online Newspaper Business Model in Vietnam: Current Situation and Solutions

Distribution channels are divided into direct and indirect channels, or owned channels and partner channels. Partner distribution channels are indirect channels, they force businesses to share profits but allow for expanded access to customers. Owned or direct distribution channels do not share profits but have overhead and management costs. The key is to find a balance between the two types of channels, combining them in a way that maximizes revenue.

- Customer relationship : is a form of connection, interaction, and emotional bond between a business and customer segments. This relationship is created using the following tools:

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Personal support: providing a personal representative for a particular customer. This is the most profound type and is usually established over a long period of time. This type of relationship can be found in businesses where managers must maintain personal relationships with important customers.

General support: a customer representative communicates with customers to support them throughout the purchase process and after the purchase. This type of support can be provided via website, email, call center or other methods.

Automated assistance: This is a combination of self-service and automated mechanisms. Automated services can recognize individual customers and their characteristics, thereby providing information related to the customer's transaction. At its best, automated services can encourage customers to buy products. This type of service is often popular in large e-commerce models such as amazon.com, where customers are automatically recommended to buy other products such as books and CDs.

Establishing communities: This tool is used to strengthen business-customer relationships and establish relationships between customers. Many companies maintain online communities that allow customers to exchange knowledge and solutions.

solve personal problems, and is also a good tool for companies to understand their customers.

Co-creation: customers participate in creating value with the business. A typical example of this type of relationship is Youtube.com's constant effort to invite customers to create content for the consumer community.

oFinancial sector: The financial sector consists of two components.

- Cost structure : describes all the costs required to operate a business. Once the core resources, core activities and key partnerships have been identified, this cost can be easily calculated.

Cost structure consists of two components: fixed costs – costs that do not depend on the volume of goods/services, including wages, rent and costs for physical equipment; variable costs – costs that change depending on the volume of goods/services produced.

- Revenue streams : are cash flows received from customer segments.

To maximize revenue, a company must understand what each customer segment will actually pay for. That understanding will enable the company to generate one or more cash flows from a particular customer segment with appropriate pricing mechanisms.

1.1.2. Business environment

While the functionality of business models is well-understood, what is often overlooked is the relationship between the starting point and the development of those business models – the relationship with the business environment. It is against the business environment that the assumptions about the model are formed. This relationship defines the legitimacy and implications for the model. Furthermore, it determines the value and usefulness of the model.

Figure 1.1 – Business model diagram

(Source: Business model generation - Alexander Osterwalder, 2004)

business. In the process of applying and developing the model, special attention must be paid to the context. Because the elements that make up a business model are only relevant in their given context, a small change in the context also requires a similar change in the model.

According to business theory, the business environment is divided into two areas: the external environment and the internal environment of the enterprise (which has actually been thoroughly analyzed in Osterwalder's business model above).

Macro environment : contains factors that have a wide impact (national, international) and often do not directly impact specific business activities. These factors include:

Nature - Infrastructure

Economy

Engineering - Technology

Culture - Society

Politics - Law

International environment.

Micro environment : contains factors that directly affect the business model of the enterprise, including many groups such as:

Supplier Market

Customer market

Competitors

Potential competitors

Alternative products

1.2. PRESS BUSINESS MODEL

1.2.1. Some basic concepts in journalism

To analyze the newspaper business model, it is first necessary to understand some basic concepts in the newspaper industry as follows:

Journalism and types of journalism

Legally, a media outlet that wants to be considered a type of press must be operated by a press agency, directly managed by a governing body and must be licensed by a competent authority. In which, the governing body of the press is the organization that applies for the license, and the press agency (radio station, television station, newspaper office) directly implements that type of press.

A press agency must have a head, an Editor-in-Chief (printed newspapers, electronic newspapers) or a General Director (television and radio). The rights and obligations of this person are clearly defined in the law. This person is the legal representative of the press agency in all relations with the public, businesses, organizations and before the court, and is also the person responsible for all content published by the press agency.

The press in general includes four basic types: print media (newspapers, magazines, news bulletins, news bulletins), spoken media (radio programs), visual media (television programs, audio-visual news programs produced using various technical means), and electronic media (produced on computer networks).

Electronic newspapers, also known as online newspapers, online newspapers, etc., are the most recent type of journalism, essentially a combination of printed newspapers (paper newspapers) and information and communication technology. This type of newspaper is presented in the form of a website designed and applied on the Internet. Electronic newspapers include two basic forms: pure online newspapers and online newspapers, which are other versions of printed newspapers (can be called extended electronic newspapers or dependent electronic newspapers).

Organizational structure of a press agency

A news agency consists of two basic links: the management link, which manages the publication of the newspaper, and the implementation link, which is responsible for collecting, processing information, and directly producing the newspaper.

Management link

The management chain includes the positions of Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief (in the Editorial Board), Editorial Secretary (in the Secretariat) and Head of the Executive Committee. They are responsible for selecting and arranging staff, creating conditions, planning, calculating, checking and promoting the activities of the editorial office. The Editor-in-Chief and the Secretariat operate within the framework of the entire agency, and the Head of the Executive Committee operates within the framework of the Committee.

Editorial Board – The Editorial Board consists of the editorial board’s leaders, the Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors-in-Chief and editorial members. This is the department that sets out the editorial board’s plans, controls the overall implementation, and resolves personnel issues such as accepting, transferring, and dismissing reporters. The Editorial Board is responsible for approving basic documents and approving decisions to publish important documents.

Secretariat – As part of the management chain, the Secretariat plays a leading role in the implementation of journalism operations, specifically: planning work for the editorial office; directing the work of special correspondents and specialized reporters; directing the technical aspects of the editorial office; organizing work and coordinating the activities of the departments.

The Secretariat is headed by the Editor-in-Chief, assisted by Deputy Editors-in-Chief. The staff in the Secretariat are called editors. Due to the volume and importance of the work, the Editor-in-Chief and his deputies must be the most experienced journalists.

Implementation link

This link includes the team of reporters (the majority), technicians and other staff. These people are divided into several departments called

are the Departments and the Boards. The number and division of the Departments depends on the organization of each press agency.

Departments – Departments are mostly divided according to news content such as Economic Department, Law Department, Culture – Arts Department, International Department… The team of reporters in the Departments is both a source of information and the people who directly produce content for the issues.

Departments – Departments are responsible for performing stages other than the content of the newspaper, according to their functions, with names such as Technical – Presentation Department, Advertising Department, Distribution Department, Personnel Department, Finance Department, etc.

In the market economy, the sales department (often called the Sales Department) occupies a particularly important position. It undertakes two main roles: advertising business - including the production of advertising products, contacting advertising agencies and businesses - and marketing - including the research of information markets, conducting distribution campaigns, and promoting the newspaper's image.

Collaborator

This is an indispensable part of the operating system of any newspaper. Contributors are also people who write for the newspaper but are not directly managed by the editorial office. They may be working for another newspaper or not be official reporters of any newspaper.

Contributors are divided into three basic categories:

+ Contributors are experts in a particular section of the newspaper. Each of their articles is paid a very high royalty, and the press agency directly contacts them to get the news. These contributors are often economic experts, scientists, writers or musicians whose names are mentioned by the newspaper as an advertisement to readers/audiences/listeners. A newspaper has a contributor

This type is considered a lucky one. Many newspapers always try to invite such a prestigious contributor but it is also very difficult.

+ Contributors are people who are asked to organize news articles for the newspaper. They can write articles directly or look for articles from others. Usually, they are experienced journalists with wide relationships, assigned to be in charge of entertainment or arts sections in the weekend and Sunday newspapers.

The two types of collaborators above are very few in number and belong to the high class in the journalism world.

+ Finally, there are the regular contributors. They can be a first-year student majoring in journalism or another major, or a high school student or a retired journalist. They always have to try to actively go to the press agency to collaborate. In fact, newspapers always lack good articles, so even though they have a large number of reporters, they still need articles from contributors.

Press information

Information provided by newspapers is subject to the Press Law and is therefore considered by society to be mainstream information. This information is divided into three basic types:

+ Announcement genre: includes short news, reports, interviews. Announcements are quick, cite the entire event and consider these events separately.

+ Analytical genre: includes commentary, investigative articles, analysis, criticism, news reviews, etc. This genre has a wider time limit. It requires journalists to research, analyze the system of events, situations, summarize and conclude.

Online Newspaper Business Model in Vietnam: Current Situation and Solutions - 2

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