Building on a rich history

Looking back at the development history of the Vietnamese press, publications are associated with various political or economic trends. VIR was born at a time when the country was focusing on attracting foreign investment to create momentum for the doi moi journey. Back then, the newspaper worked as a press agency of the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment.

VIR’s publications are available on PressReader and all flights of Vietnam Airlines

In the economic press, VIR and its sister Vietnamese-language newspaper Dau tu had to compete with rivals such as Vietnam Economic Times, Saigon Times, Banking Times, and Financial Times. After more than 20 years of competition, with relentless efforts to report on hot economic issues, VIR has won a string of press awards, both at home and abroad.

Today, VIR can also be found in the cabins of Vietnam Airlines flights, at international conferences, and at important meetings of the government, ministries, and state agencies. Readers have long rated VIR as the leading newspaper in the Vietnam.

In addition to periodicals in Vietnamese and English, special publications and features covering many fields such as real estate, mergers and acquisitions, banking, finance, and securities are invariably both attractive in content and design, proving a magnet for the good communication of economic activities.

However, consecutive years of revenue growth (including advertising and distribution) do not guarantee the long-term growth of VIR as a whole due to the rapid growth of various types of information on the internet.

Online newspapers do not depend on periodical publication, while their production process is simpler than printed newspapers by skipping the printing and distribution stages.

Online newspapers also have high interactivity, which can overwhelm the traditional printing press system. Accordingly, many researchers have made predictions about the rapid demise of the printed newpapers.

When smartphones became indispensable and the internet increasingly complex and colourful, people have not needed traditional information providers such as radio, television, or printed newspapers. The digital era has changed the way the public access information.

In Vietnam, most newspapers have been following the trend of combining print and electronic newspapers, depending on the development strategy of each newspaper. This transformation has reduced the appearance of print newspapers on the streets. Instead of buying a newspaper every morning, people now use smartphones to read information everywhere, anytime.

For VIR, we started online newspapers, including tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn in 2007 and baodautu.vn in 2009. Since its establishment, VIR has had a website to post articles online, and was the first newspaper in Vietnam that users could read on the internet.

With a solid background in content, various topics, and the vision of generations of leaders, VIR and all of its sister publications are ready to enter into a fair competition, as we have found our own development direction for publications by partnering with PressReader – a digital newspaper distribution platform with more than 12 million monthly users.

Since August, VIR and Dau tu have been made available in the catalogue of PressReader. Users can access the newspapers directly within the app or save the publication to a personal device.

In PressReader’s digital platform, readers can search for articles by topic, save issues to read later, or choose between the original print layout or an optimised text view.

Through this partnership, millions of airline passengers, hotel guests, and other readers using PressReader’s services can access our daily business and economic analysis and reports. PressReader boasts more than 7,000 world-leading publications published on the same day as the original publication, and has over 14,000 business partners in 130 countries.

Besides signing up for unlimited access, readers can also get a free PressReader experience when using the services of one of its brand partners, including Vietnam Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Air Canada, Marriott Hotel, Princeton University, or the New York Public Library.

It is impossible not to participate in the harsh competition of the press, but VIR’s leaders, reporters, and editors have always thought keenly about how to keep VIR not just afloat, but flourish.

Now, through its great efforts and prestige, VIR has found a feasible way to help readers maintain the habit of turning each page of the newspaper, but in a more digital environment.

VIR added to PressReader’s catalog In an effort to go green while reaching business readers around the world, VIR is excited to join PressReader’s growing global newspaper and magazine platform.