The Korea Press The Korea Press Publisher Kim Byung-ho Editor in Chief Woo Deuk-jung Managing Editor Lee Sang-heun Tel 82-2-2001-7757 Email [email protected] Translated by Yang Sung-jin (Editor of The Korea Herald) Copyedited by Elaine Ramirez (Copy Editor of The Korea Herald) Chung Yong-kuk (Professor, Dept. of Journalism & Mass Communication, Dongguk Univ.) Published by Korea Press Foundation www.kpf.or.kr Korea Press Foundation 12-15F., Korea Press Center 124 Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea First Edition December 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Korea Press Foundation Designed by Nine Communication ISBN 978-89-5711-401-8 Content Chapter 1. 2014/2015 Korean Media Overview … 04 Chapter 2. Media Market … 22 Chapter 3. Media Workers … 30 Chapter 4. Print Newspaper Market … 40 Chapter 5. Broadcasting Market … 44 Chapter 6. Internet Newspaper Market … 55 Chapter 7. Media Audience : Pattern and Evaluation … 61 Chapter 8. Current Situation of Newspaper Industry Support … 70 Appendix 1. Overseas Branches of the Korean Media … 72 Appendix 2. Korean Correspondents Overseas … 74 Appendix 3. Foreign Correspondents in Korea … 79 Appendix 4. Directory … 86 Chapter 1 2014/2015 Korean Media Overview • Newspaper unique production practices that are formed over time. News media must overhaul the news pro- duction system to tailor it to a rapidly changing Attempt to depart from ‘exposure- media environment while preserving traditional first’ strategy news values; if not, they are unlikely to turn a profit in the fast-evolving media market. Against The “digital-first” strategy adopted by South this backdrop, it is a positive development Korean news media reflects the ongoing shift that Korean media are noticeably investing in in news consumption toward mobile media. mobile-centered news production and distribu- In the past two decades — from 1993 to 2014 tion. In particular, some news media have stood — overall media usage has steadily declined, out from the pack by adopting a mobile-friendly except for on mobile Internet. According to the online layout, marking a departure from the con- 2014 Audience Research report published by ventional front-page format. the Korea Press Foundation, respondents spent 339.9 minutes (5 hours 40 minutes) using media News outlets using social media on a daily basis. They spent 95.3 minutes read- ing and watching news, which accounted for A growing number of news consumers are opt- 28.0 percent. Compared with the figure in 2013, ing for social media. In a survey conducted in the news usage time declined by 14.4 minutes. 2014, the ratio of respondents who said they In detail, overall news usage time shrank, except used social media to read news stood at 20.7 through mobile Internet. percent, up from 11.3 percent in 2011. The rate South Korean media are pursuing a digital- of those who said they consumed news every first strategy; however, they could end up day came in at 8.6 percent, up from 2.8 percent pushing for a mere “exposure-first” strategy — in 2011 (2014 Audience Research report, Korea focused on boosting online traffic by producing Press Foundation). Given that half of media con- as many articles as possible on different plat- sumers regularly use social media, media outlets forms — unless the newsroom culture achieves are actively sharing their news on social media substantial change. Newsroom culture is an platforms. However, it is premature to say that intangible asset that cannot be changed easily, traditional media have fully adapted to the social not least because it reflects each media outlet’s media environment. After all, about half of news 4 Chapter1. 2014/2015 Korean Media Overview consumers (49.9 percent) use social media, but unpredictable. Many print papers newly founded only 20.7 percent are tapping into social media in Seoul are business papers, reflecting the to consume news. market reality in which general newspapers are For instance, the weekly paper by the Jour- witnessing a decline in revenue while business nalists Association of Korea analyzed the papers are increasing their revenue and operat- Facebook pages run by newspapers covering a ing profits. period from April 26 through May 4 in 2014. Several media companies also rushed to In the article, Kyunghyang Shinmun topped the launch online or offline business journals. News list with 238,067 fans, followed by Chosun Ilbo Tomato, an online business paper established (158,269), Segye Times (142,191) and Han- in 2008, kicked off its print version on May 11, kyoreh (141,733). As for PTAT (People Talking 2015, as part of its “strategy to expand its plat- about This), a seven-day Facebook metric that form.” Kyunghyang Shinmun launched Biz@ measures how many people are “talking” (creat- Life, a mobile Web service in May 2014, offer- ing stories) about a certain page, Chosun Ilbo ing news content in six categories (life, market/ and Segye Times recorded more than 150,000. business, real estate, automobile, technology, Kyunghyang Shinmun attracted 83,000 on the and business columns). Seoul Media Group, spe- PTAT metric. When it comes to the daily aver- cializing in magazines for women, established age PIS (Post Interaction Score), Segye Times Woman Economy, an online paper, on May 29, outpaced other media. But for the daily aver- 2014, and then launched its print version in a age page sharing index, Kyunghyang Shinmun tabloid format on Nov. 11 in the same year. A topped the ranking with 1,916, followed by major shareholder of Joongdo Ilbo, a Daejeon- Hankyoreh (1,506), Chosun Ilbo (733) and Se- based paper, founded Bridgenews, a paper for gye Times (576). both online and offline platforms, on Sept. 15, 2014. Print media enter online news; on- line media launch print papers New sections targeting young readers Some media outlets revealed their preference The newspaper subscription rate stood at 20.2 for creating more “old media” rather than em- percent in 2014, with little change from 20.4 brace the digital-first strategy. Twenty-four daily percent in 2013. But newspaper readership slid newspapers were established in 2014. Among by 3.1 percentage points to 30.7 percent (2014 them, 22 were general newspapers, 10 of which Audience Research report, Korea Press Founda- were launched in Seoul and 12 in other regions. tion). Those in their 20s and 30s spent less than Two special papers were established in Seoul. 10 minutes reading print newspapers. In detail, This move suggests that some media companies newspaper readers in their 20s spent an average are seeking to shore up their profit structure by of 4.9 minutes on weekdays and 2.5 minutes rediscovering the value of the traditional media on the weekend reading print papers, while the platform rather than investing into mobile me- figure for those in their 30s was 6.8 minutes and dia, whose future return remains uncertain and 3.4 minutes, respectively. The two age groups’ 5 daily newspaper reading time (4.2 minutes/5.8 and analyze a huge amount of data available in minutes) was less than half of that of those in the age of smart media. Thanks to data journal- their 40s (11.5 minutes) and 60s (12.2 minutes). ism, journalists can better explain what a news Those in their 50s read newspapers for 17.3 min- story really means. utes, far longer than those in their 20s and 30s. Most news media collect and utilize existing The underlying problem is that print newspapers statistical data. They identify relations between could go out of print if they continue to fail to different data sets before producing a repack- grab the attention of younger readers. Perhaps aged data product or expressing it in the form a sense of crisis has hit Korean media since a of infographics. Specifically, Newstapa runs the handful of them started developing news content Korea Investigative Journalism Center to utilize customized for younger readers. JoongAng Ilbo existing statistical data or collect previously is said to have outpaced other rivals in develop- unpublished data. The company offers not only ing news content for younger readers. The paper raw data but also analysis of trends on political overhauled its page format and content in April issues. Yonhap News Agency and Herald Busi- 2014, introducing a thematic section (Younger ness provide reporting on political and economic Tuesday) targeting those in their 20s and 30s. issues through simple tables and charts. Chosun Hankook Ilbo also drew keen interest by high- Ilbo’s “infographics” allow readers to read much lighting everyday topics of the young generation information in a small online space by adopting under the serialized feature titled “KakaoTalk an interactive infographic format with hyper- 2030.” Chosun Biz also kicked off a series of links. articles portraying workplace episodes with a comical touch. Securing paid subscribers Data journalism In 2013, Maeil Business Newspaper and Korea Economic Daily launched the Maekyung ePa- Journalism is undergoing a wave of sweeping per (September) and Hankyung Plus (October), changes stemming from new innovative technol- respectively. Chosun Ilbo started offering paid ogies such as cloud computing, smartphones and news content with its Premium Chosun (No- open-source software. Especially noteworthy is vember). While business papers attempted to the emergence of what is called “data journal- sell the PDF edition of their papers, Chosun Ilbo ism” as media companies are now capable of attempted to stand out by pursuing a higher level accommodating and processing a huge amount of online journalism to kick-start its paid ser- of data — far greater data sets than previously vice. JoongAng Ilbo also joined the fray of paid imagined. In essence, data journalism is related news services by unveiling a revamped Joins, to Computer-Assisted Reporting.