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Published Friday, November 20, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News

Mercury News will publish Vietnamese-language weekly
Mercury News Staff Report

The Mercury News early next year will launch a Vietnamese-language weekly publication, Viet
Mercury, that will focus on community news for the more than 100,000 Vietnamese Americans who
reside in Santa Clara County, company officials said Thursday.

Viet Mercury, a free 32-page tabloid with an expected average weekly distribution of 17,500, will
be the fourth major media product produced by the Mercury News when it begins publication Jan. 29,
1999. The Mercury News, which also produces the online Mercury Center and Nuevo Mundo, a
Spanish-language weekly, will become one of only three newspapers in the United States to publish in
three different languages, according to Editor & Publisher, a newspaper trade publication.

``The mission of our newspaper is to meet the information needs of all members of our market, and
our research indicates the majority of Vietnamese adults prefer to read in their native language,'' said
Mercury News publisher Jay Harris, who also will be the publisher of Viet Mercury. De Tran, an 11-year
veteran of the Mercury News, was named editor of the new publication. ``We're planning a heavy emphasis
on local news and news from Vietnam from the Mercury News bureau there,'' Tran said.

Michael Beebe, an analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co., said he viewed the launch of Viet Mercury as part of
a continuing trend by newspapers to target niche audiences. Viet Mercury targets a language group,
rather than a geographic area as zoned editions do, but is otherwise similar in strategy, he said.
``This is a different means to the same ends,'' said Beebe. ``I regard it as a very positive sign. Local
communities are the core audience for newspapers.''

Currently there are three daily newspapers and about a half-dozen weekly and biweekly publications in
Vietnamese offered to local readers. Can Nguyen, publisher of the Vietnam Daily News, said he welcomed
the addition of a new Vietnamese-language publication. ``Anytime there is more information for the
community -- whether it's published by the Mercury News or someone else -- that's a good idea,'' said
Nguyen. Editor Tran said he expects some articles in the 32-page tabloid to be written by Viet Mercury staff
writers, although it regularly will carry translated versions of Mercury News stories. The publication
will have a 12-member staff, including five members on the editorial side plus a part-time photographer,
he said. The weekly will be available at more than 500 news racks throughout the county.

Tran, 35, has a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and has written and reported for the
Los Angeles Times. Most recently, he served as a reporter on the Mercury News' race and demographics team,
covering the Vietnamese emigré community. Hoang Xuan Nguyen, former managing editor of Nhat Bao Nguoi
Viet, the largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in the United States, was named managing editor of Viet
Mercury. Lan Nguyen Calderon, Mercury News training and development manager and recent winner of Knight
Ridder's excellence award in diversity, was named product manager for the new publication. Ham Xuan
Nguyen was named advertising sales manager. Knight Ridder is the parent company of the Mercury News.