In mid-March 2025, a party and government delegation led by the Secretary of the Huzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Mayor went to Xiamen and Quanzhou in Fujian Province for study and inspection. After returning, the WeChat public account "89 Points" opened by the Huzhou News Media Center launched "What enlightenments did the trip to Xiamen and Quanzhou bring to Huzhou?" ” article. Unexpectedly, at the city-wide leading cadres meeting held that day, the Municipal Party Committee Office printed and distributed this document for the reference of leading cadres at division level and above who participated in the meeting. This kind of situation is rare. How can a new media article meet the intention of the municipal party committee and receive such attention?
We often say that current affairs news reporting is "hard and cold", with strict norms and standards, and it is a reporting area with less room for free play. However, with the changes in communication methods, news forms and user habits in the all-media era, current affairs news reporting must "adapt to changes" and adopt a variety of publicity and reporting strategies to effectively amplify the uniqueness and importance of current affairs news, thereby occupying a more important position in news dissemination.
Use think tank thinking to enhance value and mine “heavy mines”
Due to the information density, authority and social relevance, current political news is like a "rich mine", among which the production of news products with depth and insight is the most important.
"What inspirations did the trip to Xiamen and Quanzhou bring to Huzhou?" "The full text is more than 3,400 words. It does not simply list the inspection itinerary and more official leadership requirements, but raises the core question of the inspection: "Cities with many things in common, where is the development gap? Where is the inspiration?", and then proposed four specific aspects worth pondering around the theme: "The strategic determination of long-termism, the spiritual core of winning through hard work, the great potential of traditional industries, and the efficient transformation of cultural inheritance", as well as the "Five Profound Questions" to compare ourselves. Such in-depth, thought-provoking and point-of-view reports can easily enter the hearts of the inspection team and resonate with them.
This report is a side note of the investigation, which seems to be traditional. It is not easy to write well and thoroughly. First of all, we need to find the right tone and understand the real purpose of this study tour. Secondly, we must conduct an in-depth study of each inspection point and its background, and achieve a well-founded and comprehensive combination of points and aspects. Only then can we stand high, see far, and extract valuable and in-depth views.
In the past two years, the Huzhou News Media Center has timely followed up on important meetings, major events, and key deployments, focusing on hot topics and key points, and using think tank thinking to enhance the value of current political news reporting. For example, for the "First Party of the New Year" that is highly valued by various places, we have produced "The First Party of the New Year in Huzhou: "Hot and Hot"" for two consecutive years! "The First Meeting of the New Year | Why "Unchangeable" Breeds "Thousands of Changes"" two reports respectively used the then popular movie "Hot and Hot" to describe the new year's plan to keep track of the "hot" heat, the "spicy" intensified, the momentum undiminished and "hot" to move forward. The municipal party committee insisted on drawing a blueprint to the end and deepened the implementation of the theme of "seeing beautiful China in Huzhou" for three consecutive years, thus promoting exciting changes in various fields with the "unchanged" determination. There are many such cases. For example, in response to the upcoming implementation of the "Huzhou Urban and Rural Community Sports and Fitness Facilities Management Regulations", "A Linked Supervision Spawned a Local Regulation" was drafted to dig into the innovative practice of "People's Congress Supervision + Media Supervision"; on the occasion of the opening of the Shanghai-Suzhou-Lake High-speed Railway, "Huzhou's Persistence and Change" was drafted…
The "rich ore" attribute of current political news lies not only in its information density, but also in its depth of thought. When the media reconstructs production logic with think tank thinking, transforms news sites into research sites, and upgrades communication terminals to decision-making front-ends, a qualitative change from "information transfer" to "value smelting" can be achieved.
Reconstruct content based on user thinking and mine "fresh mines"
In addition to consolidating traditional core audiences such as middle-aged and elderly people, government agencies, public officials, and intellectuals, current affairs news reports must also expand to emerging audiences such as younger users and localized groups. For this reason, it is the best choice to reconstruct the content based on user thinking and make current political news vivid.
Starting in 2022, Huzhou City has created a Qingqing through-train and government-enterprise symposium mechanism held every Wednesday. The leaders of the city's four teams take turns to listen to opinions and suggestions face-to-face with business leaders to improve the business environment. Focusing on this theme, the Huzhou News Media Center has launched many current affairs news reports. One of the most popular ones was the article ""At this meeting, the municipal party committee secretary left us his mobile phone number and WeChat ID"" published on April 11, 2024.
The report did not cover the meeting process, leadership speeches, representative speeches, etc. as usual. Instead, it captured a detail before the end of the meeting and amplified it as the theme of the report. At the meeting that day, the main leader of the Huzhou Municipal Party Committee read out his contact information three times at the end of his speech: "This is my mobile phone number and WeChat ID. You can add friends. I can communicate with you at any time and listen carefully to the opinions and suggestions of entrepreneurs and experts!" This move moved the entrepreneurs and experts from scientific research institutes present, and also deeply touched the reporters present. After discussing with the editorial team behind the scenes, the reporter decisively wrote this report on this theme, and added details such as two QR code links printed on the meeting materials: "Enterprise Matters Code Handling" and "Dial 12345 Hushangtong Complaint", and "incidentally" added the main content of the day's meeting and the results of previous meetings. In this way, the full text is not only vivid, full of stories and details, but also highlights the sincerity of the party committee and government towards enterprises and improving the business environment.
Reconstructing the content of current political news reports based on user thinking requires the reporting team to always think about a question: What do users care about more? What content is more attractive to users? Current affairs news contains a huge amount of information, so we must break away from the old "reporting formula" and promote a systematic project of rediscovering news value and reconstructing communication logic. Journalists should not only be observers who make good use of their "news eyes" and capture emotional resonance points through details; they should also be decoders who understand the "user's heart" and use storytelling to break down communication barriers; they should also be leaders who grasp "timeliness and effectiveness" and establish communication fulcrums at the intersection of policy agendas and public concerns. This deep transformation from communication-oriented to user-oriented not only reconstructs the narrative paradigm of current political news, but also creates a space for benign interaction between government discourse and civil discourse.
Use integrated thinking to break through scenarios and mine “colorful mines”
Since current political news is a "rich mine", if you want to mine it well, you must prepare various tools and "mining" it in a targeted manner for users to choose from. "What inspirations did the trip to Xiamen and Quanzhou bring to Huzhou?" "The first draft was placed on a new media platform, which was also the result of comprehensive considerations. On that day, it was already evening when the municipal party and government delegation returned to the lake from their inspection, and a study and exchange meeting was held that night. In the past, such manuscripts would usually be published in the municipal party newspaper the next day, in conjunction with the investigation news release, and the introduction of side notes on the investigation, with narratives and discussions to deepen and discuss other insights. However, affected by objective factors such as newspaper production time and page capacity that night, there were many inconveniences in arranging manuscripts. However, new media platforms are less restricted, and the writing can be easier, the use of length, pictures, etc. can be more flexible, and forwarding and dissemination can be more convenient. Therefore, the editorial team finally decided to focus on the WeChat official account.
The above-mentioned responses and flexible choices are directly due to the recent two years of news reporting on current affairs. All regions are using integrated thinking to break through communication scenarios and explore the construction of an all-media publicity pattern. As far as the Huzhou News Media Center’s current affairs news reporting is concerned, in addition to consolidating the traditional party newspapers, radio, television and other important pages and important time periods, all-media distribution is “unstoppable”. WeChat public accounts such as “Huzhou Release” and “89 Points” have become the “main and auxiliary” platforms for current affairs news promotion. Nan Taihu APP and Huzhou Online News website have also become important positions for publicity and presentation of current affairs news.
The comprehensive advancement of media integration from concept to practice has brought qualitative changes to current affairs news production. The integrated media team, composed of traditional party newspaper text reporters, photo reporters, and TV cameramen, has become an all-media reporter team that undertakes multiple tasks, cooperating with each other to organize the production of news products such as text, television, pictures, and short videos. Change the original single path in product distribution and build a timeliness-oriented mobile-first distribution process. Such changes internally promote the transformation of single-ability journalists into multi-skilled talents, and externally promote the variety of current affairs news products to become more and more abundant.
Practice has shown that by reconstructing production logic with user thinking, breaking through scene restrictions with fusion thinking, enriching product forms with innovative thinking, and building a distribution system of "mobile first, all-media linkage, and differentiated presentation", the dissemination efficiency of current affairs news can be effectively improved, and the narrative voice and presentation method can achieve a qualitative leap. The multi-dimensional product matrix of "short videos with golden sentences + in-depth interpretation + interactive communication" can also reconstruct the communication ecology of current political news. By explaining the depth of policies, conveying the warmth of governance, and enhancing audience stickiness, mainstream voices can achieve effective reach and value leadership in the main battlefield of the mobile Internet.
