The Dong-A Ilbo

The Dong-A Ilbo () is a daily Korean-language newspaper published in South Korea. It is considered a newspaper of record in the country, and was founded in 1920. The paper has been a significant presence in Korean society and history, especially during the 1910–1945 Japanese colonial period, when it was seen as a forerunner in the Korean independence movement.

The Dong-A Ilbo is the parent company of Dong-a Media Group (DAMG), which is composed of 11 affiliates including Sports Dong-a, Dong-a Science, DUNet, and dongA.com, as well as Channel A, general service cable broadcasting company launched on 1 December 2011. It covers a variety of areas including news, drama, entertainment, sports, education, and movies.

The Dong-A Ilbo has partnered with international news companies such as The New York Times of the United States, The Asahi Shimbun of Japan and The People's Daily of China. It has correspondents stationed in major cities worldwide, including Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Tokyo, Cairo and Paris. It also publishes global editions in 90 cities worldwide including New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt.

History

Background

thumb|200px|One of the newspaper's early logos

Many of the earliest modern Korean newspapers flourished during the early Korean Empire period. However, concurrently, the Empire of Japan was rapidly encroaching on Korean sovereignty. Japan increasingly pressured Korean newspapers to close, and by the time of Korea's official colonization in 1910, only a handful were left. This included the Korean-language Maeil sinbo, which was de facto operated by the Japanese colonial government. Colonial restrictions on the Korean press and freedom of speech were initially tight; by 1915, the last remaining Korean-owned newspaper Gyeongnam Ilbo was pressured to close, which left the Maeil sinbo as the only Korean-language newspaper allowed in Korea. It announced that it would allow a limited number of Korean-owned newspapers to be established. Pak Yŏnghyo served as the paper's first president, and Yang Kit'ak and Yu Kŭn () as its editorial directors (). Much of the printing equipment and staff for the Korean-owned papers was transferred to either the Maeil sinbo or the de facto official Japanese-language publication Keijō nippō.'

Liberation of Korea and interwar period

On August 15, 1945, Japan announced that it would surrender to the Allies, which signaled the liberation of Korea. Printing equipment was still held by the Maeil sinbo and Keijō nippō; the remnants of the colonial government protected the equipment from being seized by Koreans even weeks after the surrender. In September, the United States arrived and established the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) south of the 38th parallel, which encompassed Seoul. The U.S. allowed for greater freedom of the press for Koreans, and facilitated the closure of the Japanese-owned papers and transfer of printing equipment to the Koreans. On October 24, 1974, one of their issues was censored by the government, and prevented from being published. In protest of this, The Dong-A Ilbo published a public statement demanding more press freedom. The Park Chung Hee administration then contacted various companies that advertised in The Dong-A Ilbo, and pressured them to break their contracts with the newspaper. This led to the December 1974 , where no advertisements were published in a number of issues of the paper for months. By the time the unrest largely ended, almost half of the paper's staff had been fired or left.

Awards and recognition

Receives Korea's Best Brand Award (2006)
Dong-a Ilbo President Sang-man Kim receives Press Freedom Golden Pen award (1975)
Awarded for efforts made in freedom of speech by US Freedom House (1974)
Staff reporters receive Korea Reporter's Award (1971)

Company

Readership

Circulation: over 52 million
About 51% of the readers are in their 30s - 40s
Over 50% of the readers live in metropolitan area
55% of the readers are university educated or higher

International partnerships

Dong-a Ilbo has partnered with internationally acclaimed news companies such as the New York Times and Reuters. They share information including articles and video clips. Dong-a Ilbo also prints global editions in 90 cities such as Washington DC, London, Paris, Frankfurt, etc., and has 22 branches worldwide including LA, Vancouver, Osaka. It also has international correspondents stationed in 6 cities with New York, Tokyo, and Beijing among them. Also, the digital edition of the paper is available in English, Japanese and Chinese.

Partnership:
The Times (UK)
Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
People's Daily (China)
Izvestia (Russia)
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Publishing

Dong-a Ilbo also has an active publishing sector which produces magazines and books. There are four monthly magazines, two weekly magazines and one annual magazine. The literature sector concentrates on translating and distributing foreign material and also creating domestic content. DongA Books has brought to Korea many international bestsellers and award-winning literature as well as creating million sellers on its own.

Magazines:
Shin Dong-a (Current events magazine)
Women's Dong-a (Women's magazine)
Dong-a Science (Popular science magazine)
Dong-a Science KIDS
Weekly Dong-a
Weekend
Dong-a Annual
Books
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (a Pulitzer winning fiction)
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (an international bestseller)
Sponge series (Korean content) has sold over a million copies

New and multi-media services

Dong-a Ilbo has been investing in many ventures that integrate technology into the method of spreading the news. First was the establishment of DongA.com which is the online version of the paper with much more content. It provides space for discussion and submission by the readers. From the success of the on-line content, the company also started its mobile services allowing readers to seek out the news wherever and whenever they are. With recent partnership with Reuters, Dong-a aims to add multimedia services to its methods. With raw video feeds from Reuters which Dong-a has the right to edit for its own use, DongA.com aims to reach its readers through text, images and video.

Community service

Dong-a Ilbo has always recognized its responsibility as a public corporation. As stated in Dong-a DNA, humanism is a great part of Dong-a Ilbo.

It has a Culture & Sports Operations department (New Project Bureau) that works to raise awareness of different areas in arts and sports as well as promote healthy lifestyles.

The company also has many foundations and scholarships for the less fortunate students in the country.

Arts

Dong-a Ilbo holds annual competition of high quality as well as hosting many cultural exhibitions.

International Music Concours
Dong-a Theatre Awards
DongA-LG International Animations Competition
Rembrandt and 17th Century Netherland Painters Exhibition (2007)

and more

Sports

Dong-a Ilbo hosts annual competitions for various sports of different levels. It first began its program to raise awareness and help promote areas in sports that were less popular.

Seoul International Marathon
High School Baseball Tournament
Dong-a Swim Meet

and more

Education

Dong-a holds annual competitions to help the brightest students. Other sectors such as Dong-a Science has its own educational program which also holds competitions to award the talented.

National English Competition (University & high school division)
National Scientific Essay Contest (hosted by DongA Science)

Charity

Dong-a Ilbo has established many foundations and scholarships for students and children of less fortunate circumstances. It has also established a foundation which promotes peace and culture.

Dong-a Dream Tree's Foundation: Scholarship foundation
Inchon Foundation: Founded in celebration of Kim, Sung-soo. Scholarship foundation.
21st Century Peace Foundation: Promotes peace and harmony between North and South Korea through various means of communication and more