- The Dong-a Ilbo
-
Dong-a Ilbo 
Type Daily newspaper Format Broadsheet Owner DongA Ilbo Co. Publisher CEO Kim, Jae-Ho Founded 1920 Headquarters DongA Media Centre
139-110/715 Se-jongro Jongno-gu, Seoul, South KoreaCirculation over 2 million Official website www.donga.com The Dong-a Ilbo Hangul 동아일보 Hanja 東亞日報 Revised Romanization Dong-A Ilbo McCune–Reischauer Tong-A Ilbo The Dong-a Ilbo (literally East Asia Daily) is one of three major South Korean newspapers with over 2 million daily circulation. Founded in 1920 by Kim Sung-soo, who undertook Korea University during the Japanese occupation of Korea and later served as the second vice-president in 1951, it was a nationalist paper but today it avows in its company motto to be critical and honest in reporting the news.
It has partnership with 6 foreign newspapers such as The New York Times of the USA, Asahi Shimbun of Japan and The Times of the United Kingdom. It also publishes global editions in 90 cities worldwide including New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt.
Contents
Company spirit
DongA Ilbo was established in 1920 with the motto of "For the people, democracy and culture." These ideas have transformed into what the company named "DongA DNA" which calls for critical view of authority, journalistic integrity in reporting the truth, humanism by sharing the pain of the neglected and being revolutionary by not fearing change.
History
Timeline
DongA Ilbo's Traditional Logo
- 1920-04-01 : Published the first issue along with the civilization policy of Governor-General of Korea
- 1920-09-25 : The first suspension for indefinite period of time: for printing the article "Discussing the Problems with Rituals" which were critical of three items sacred to Japan
- 1926-03-06 : The second suspension for printing a message celebrating the March 1 uprising (Civil Movement)
- 1930-04-16 : The third suspension for printing "The Dong-A Ilbo Plays an Important Role in Chosun's Current Situation" which was a letter sent by a press in US in support of Korea
- 1931-03-21 : Held the 1st Dong-A Marathon Games, Korea's first marathon race
- 1936-08-29 : The fourth suspension: for erasing the Japanese flag from Korean born Olympic gold medalist
- 1940-08-10 : Forced closure by the Japanese government
- 1945-12-01 : Re-opening of DongA Ilbo
- 1961-03-15 : Articles were printed criticizing the illegalness of the 3.15 election
(lead to 4.19 revolution) - 1963-03-17 : Published newspaper without editorials in protest to the continued military rule
- 1963-04-25 : Opened Dong-A Broadcasting Station. The first media company to own print and broadcast media
- 1964-07-15 : Establishment of Children's DongA
- 1967-01-28 : Establishment of DongA Annual
- 1971-08-17 : Staff reporters receive Korea Reporter's Award
- 1974-10-24 : Announced the Free Press Declaration
- 1974-11-20 : Awarded for efforts made in freedom of speech by US Freedom House
- 1974-12-20 : Published blank advertisements in protest of the tyrannical military administration's advertisement oppressions
- 1975-04-18 : DongA Ilbo President Sang-man Kim receives Press Freedom Golden Pen award
- 1980-11-30 : Dong-A Broadcasting Station closed due to the mandatory merger by the military government forces
- 1984-04-01 : Establishment of DongA Music (mag)
- 1986-01-01 : Establishment of DongA Science
- 1987-01-16 : Exclusively reported the torture and death of Park Jong-chul, which acted as a catalyst for the June democracy uprising
- 1993-04-01 : Changed from an evening newspaper to a morning newspaper
- 1994-03-21 : Established Ilmin (People's) Culture Foundation
- 1996-10-01 : Began internet news service: DongA.com'
- 1996-12-19 : Ilmin Museum of Art opened
- 2000-01-01 : Moves into Dong-a Media Centre in the Gwanghwamun area
- 2000-12-15 : Newspaper museum "Presseum" opened
- 2001-07-01 : World edition of paper printed in over 90 cities
- 2002-01-01 : Starting of Dong-a Ilbo's mobile services
- 2002-01-04 : The first Korean newspaper company to publish the weekend section, 'Weekend'
- 2003-04-01 : Introduced the Knowledge Management System (KMS), 'Genie'.
- 2005-07-15 : On and Off-line Newsroom unifies
- 2005-08-17 : Begins printing 32 pages of Dong-a Ilbo in color
Feminist movement
By creating “Women’s Section” in its regular production of the paper, DongA Ilbo worked to liberate women who had long been forced to stay at home and abide by traditional rules of obedience from the very beginning. Articles such as “The New Woman and Education”, “Liberation of Women and the Nuclear Family” and “Women and Career” were printed to stimulate women’s participation in society and the development of women’s rights.
In 1933, DongA Ilbo created the very first women’s magazine called “The New Women” (later to become “DongA Women”) For the female readers at the time could only read Korean characters (not Chinese characters), all the articles were written purely in Korean. The publication held events such as cooking schools and wives’ picnic providing women a place to socialize and a reason to get out of the house. DongA Ilbo also hosted athletic events for women. “Women’s National Tennis Competition” is Korea's and DongA’s oldest contest ever to be held.
Forced closure: Erasing of Japanese flag
In 1939 when World War II erupted, the Japanese government began a campaign to unify Korea and Japan as a culture. This meant the effacement of much of Korea's cultural identity.
After four attempts to close DongA Ilbo and other numerous occasions of inspection, censorship, seizure and deletion, the Japanese government succeeded in August 1940.
The event that made forced closure possible was DongA Ilbo's deliberate obscuration of the Japanese flag in a photograph of the first ever Korean Olympic Gold medalist.
Sohn Kee-Chung won the gold medal in marathon at the 11th Summer Olympics in Berlin (1936); however, because Korea was under Japanese rule, his uniform featured the Japanese flag. The article showed pride for the Korean athlete and featured a smudged Japanese flag to promote nationalistic ideas.
Awards and recognition
- Receives Korea's Best Brand Award (2006)
- DongA 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)
Today
Readership
The Dong-a Ilbo Building in downtown Seoul- Circulation: over 2 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 world-wide 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:
- New York Times
- The Times (UK)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- People's Daily (China)
- Izvestia (Russia)
- Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Publishing
DongA 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 DongA (Current events magazine)
- Women's DongA (Women's magazine)
- DongA Science (Popular science magazine)
- DongA Science KIDS
- Weekly DongA
- Weekend
- DongA Annual
- DongA Books: (examples)
- 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
DongA 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, DongA aims to add multimedia services to its methods. With raw video feeds from Reuters which DongA has the right to edit for its own use, DongA.com aims to reach its readers through text, images and video.
Community service
DongA Ilbo has always recognized its responsibility as a public corporation. As stated in DongA DNA, humanism is a great part of DongA 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
DongA Ilbo holds annual competition of high quality as well as hosting many cultural exhibitions.
- International Music Concours
- DongA Theatre Awards
- DongA-LG International Animations Competition
- Rembrandt and 17th Century Netherland Painters Exhibition (2007)
and more
Sports
DongA 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
- Highschool Baseball Tournament
- DongA Swim Meet
and more
Education
DongA holds annual competitions to help the brightest students. Other sectors such as DongA Science has its own educational program which also holds competitions to award the talented.
- National English Competition (University & Highschool division)
- National Scientific Essay Contest (hosted by DongA Science)
and more
Charity
DongA 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.
- DongA 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
Criticism
Main article: ChojoongdongSources
"New Digital Leader: The DongA Ilbo". DongA Ilbo. 2006. http://www.donga.com/docs/ilbo/html/01_company/company_01.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
"Top 100 US Daily Newspapers" (pdf). Burrelles Luce. 2007. http://www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2007_Top_100List.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-11.See also
- Presseum
- Ilmin Museum of Art
- List of newspapers in South Korea
- Communications in South Korea
- List of Korea-related topics
- Cho-Joong-Dong, 조중동
External links
Categories:- Companies established in 1920
- Jongno-gu, Seoul
- Korea under Japanese rule
- Korean-language newspapers
- Newspapers published in South Korea
- Newspaper companies of South Korea
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
