| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | DongA Ilbo Co. that was a subsidiary of LG Group |
| Publisher | CEO Kim, Jae-Ho |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Headquarters | DongA Media Centre 139-110/715 Se-jongro Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea |
| Circulation | 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. The Dong-a Ilbo was owned by the Lucky-Goldstar chaebol since 1961.
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 |
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.
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.
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. Then, DongA Ilbo was owned by Lucky Goldstar Group since 1961 till present. The DongA Ilbo built DongA Broadcasting System. Under the Chun Doo-hwan regime, South Korea's media policy had changed. The regime had closed several radio and TV networks and DBS was forced to give most of its shares to the government. The DongA Ilbo, the Lucky-Goldstar Group owned, gave up DBS in 1980.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
DongA Ilbo holds annual competition of high quality as well as hosting many cultural exhibitions.
and more
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.
and more
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.
and more
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.
and more
"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.