The South Korean media market is a little like the Australian one on steroids.
With fewer people reading newspapers, an increasingly engaged online audience and declining trust in journalists, major South Korean newspapers are joining with television stations to boost revenue and readers.
In December 2011, four media consortiums, as well as the public news agency, launched cable news channels.
One of them was Korean daily Dong-A Ilbo, which launched Channel A.
It meant one day journalists were filing for a newspaper, the next, they were cross-platform reporters.
“At the start we expected challenges but the journalists are working well together; they are sharing their information with each other,” Dong-A Ilbo’s Sa-Jung Kim said.
A journalist with 20 years experience in the South Korean media, he said there has been no upswing in newspaper readers.
“But that has not lead to an increase or drop in readership for the paper.”
Statistics from the Korea Audit Bureau of Certification show the circulation of Dong-A Ilbo in 2015 was 917,851.
“In the past, we used to have up to 7.3 million readers a day,” Mr Kim told SBS in Seoul.
There were over 1,300 daily and weekly newspapers in Korea in 2014, and over 2,000 internet newspapers, according to the Korean Press Foundation.
Data compiled by the Korea Press Foundation shows there has been nearly a 2000 per cent increase in internet newspapers over the past several years.
There were barely 300 in 2005 but it has now grown to nearly 6,000.
By contrast, the revenue has gradually been declining for the more than 300 Korean daily newspapers since 2012, according to the KPF.
South Korean daily newspaper Dong-A Ilbo launched Channel A. Source: Myles Morgan, SBS
“Their prospects are quite dark because compared to the rapid growth of the internet and mobile news, the print newspapers are losing their readers,” KPF’s Nang Ki Kim told SBS.
Although he said the most-read national dailies will survive for some time because of older loyal readers, there is also volatility for Korea’s internet newspapers.
“There is still some room for internet news providers but it’s going to reach saturation very soon.”
Sociologist at Ajou University Dr Myung-woo Noh said the perception of South Korea’s newspapers and television news has gone backwards since the Sewol ferry disaster in April 2014.
The sinking caused the deaths of over 300 people, mainly high school students.
The Korean media was blamed for broadcasting misleading, incorrect or insensitive information in the hours and days following the tragedy and several organisations have since apologised to the public.
Since then, Dr Noh said Koreans are turning away from traditional news institutions.
“There’s a political apathy that we cannot deny, especially among the young generations,” he said.
“The way Korean papers are meeting this challenge is a bit unique; major papers in Korea are launching broadcast businesses.”
Government-funded newsagency Yonhapnews has its own channel ‘news y’. South Korean newspapers Chosun Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo, Maeil Business and Dong-A Ilbo have been operating their own channels for nearly five ears.
In Australia, the only similar model is Seven West media operating The West Australian newspaper.
Inside Dong-A Ilbo’s newsroom in Seoul, Sa-Jung Kim said the newspaper and Channel A are serving very different audiences.
“The television viewers and newspaper readers are clearly differentiated from each other,” he said.
It means journalists rotate between the mediums.
“We have journalists moving back and forth between print and television.”
The KPF’s Mr Kim said the South Korean media market can learn from subscriber news websites in Australia like the Guardian, the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I think we can learn a lot from the models that were successful and the models that were not so successful for the paid online readership.”
Myles Morgan travelled to the Korea as part of the 2016 Australia-Korea Journalist Exchange Program. He was assisted by the Walkley Foundation, the Australian Government and the Korea Press Foundation.
