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Last year, I was writing a story on a public event held in South Jeolla Province. I called the public relations office to ask for their cooperation, but they rejected my request. I wondered why they had refused to grab an opportunity to promote their event. They said, “We helped a journalist to report our event before, and then he pushed us so hard to buy his publication. So we are concerned about cooperating with journalists on events.” I had to convince them that I’d never demand anything for the story. This is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s been a longstanding prac- tice of Korean media outlets to force businesses or events to buy their publications or take out advertisements in exchange for a story. The most high-profile example of this was a conflict between two major business newspapers, the Maekyung and Hankyung. In Feb- ruary 2013, MK ran a story on corruption perpetrated by a former HK employee. HK countered with feature stories accusing MK of threatening corporations to sponsor them. According to HK’s re- ports, businesses that rejected MK’s proposals would be ferociously attacked in stories. Most interestingly, HK practically admitted that MK’s behavior was a “business practice.” On its front page, HK wrote that it “doesn’t intend to decide which company is better. Newspaper companies in Korea have overlooked each other’s corruption.” Kim Su-chan, the head of the planning department at HK, said in an interview, “If someone asks us if we are innocent, then we don’t have much to say. What we can say is MK’s abuse has been a bit worse than the others.” Without a proper revenue model, advertisements have been the sole lifeline of the media. Asking corporations for money in ex- change for favorable coverage has become the new normal. Now- adays, it’s hard to find a news company that can survive without corporate sponsorship. According to the 2013 Survey on the Media Industry in Korea, published by the Korea Press Foundation, ad sales accounted for 56 percent of revenue in 2012, while revenue from subscriptions made up just 20.3 percent. Gross sales have also been declining rapidly. There’s one exception: business news companies. According to the Media Management & Marketing Institute, business dailies in Korea have continued to grow in the last five years. The annual combined revenue of nine business dailies increased from 59.1 bil- lion won in 2008 to 68.9 billion won in 201 3. On the other hand, the revenue of 11 broadsheets with national distribution decreased from 140.9 billion won to 131.9 billion won during the same period. How could the business dailies be so successful? The answer is simple. Most of their stories are about corporations, so they attract advertisements from them more easily. This trend indicates that the relationship between the advertising and editorial offices at newspapers is becoming closer and closer. It wasn’t like that before. “Editorial offices were far apart from those for advertising. We didn’t know each other because we didn’t need to,” said a news magazine editor-in-chief who has worked in the media for 20 years, asking not to be named. “We worked separately.” But nowadays these two departments have meetings to discuss moneymaking stories at least once a week at most media companies. Writers are also often asked to pitch stories likely to attract advertisements. The problem is a lack of a stable revenue model. Most media companies in the world charge for stories posted on their websites. But Korean companies got off on the wrong foot. Since the early 2000s, they have provided all of their stories for free. After a dec- ade, Koreans have gotten used to reading news stories at no cost. Companies are increasingly dependent on corporate sponsorship because they can’t make enough money from online subscriptions. That dependence reduces the quality of stories, in turn leading to fewer subscribers. Fewer subscribers, less corporate sponsorship. That’s how the downward spiral proceeds. Media companies have to find a way to build trust and convince people to pay for their content. Although most Korean people read news online, they don’t differentiate click bait from quality reporting. Usually, they read news through search engines such as Naver and Daum. These search engines are so full of click bait that it is difficult to find meaningful stories. People are getting sick of it. The slang word “giregi,” a portmanteau of the Koreans words for “garbage” and “journalist,” is now used to describe journalists responsible for such worthless stories with sensational headlines. Media companies need to convince the public that there’s a huge difference between click bait and an important story. This would be a first step toward better journalism. Food Magical mulled wine It’s officially the holiday season, which means you’re officially one of two things: sad to be away from your baby cousins and the cranberry sauce and the family get-togethers, or relieved –– wholly soothed, even –– to be as far from the merry madness as possible. Maybe you’re hanging winky lights all over your apartment and making decorations for your desk, or maybe you’re about to run screaming down the street with glee at the thought of missing your aunt’s bad jokes and that waterlogged stuffing (because admit it, there’s nothing good about stuffing). But no matter which side of the holiday spectrum you fall on, whether you love it or hate it, we all have one comfort to fall back on: hot spicy wine. And it’s super-duper simple. All you need is a couple bottles of booze, some spices and 20 minutes to kill, then you’ll be able to sip away all night long and make your Game of Thronesian “hot cup of wine” dreams come true. Story by Shelley DeWees next up: DECEMBER 2014 Destinations Trekking along the crumbling Great Wall My first day in Beijing was spent as a solo traveler begrudgingly tolerat- ing hordes of tourists that followed flag-waving, megaphone-toting tour guides through the Forbidden City. The very last thing I desired was en- countering anything similar along the Great Wall the following day. So for my second day, I decided to set off on an adventure to a less visited portion of that magnificent wall. Looking back, I underestimated the ad- venture that was to ensue. Rather than starting and ending a walk atop the Wall at the same location, I read it wasn’t too difficult to hike between more distant sections. I was determined to do just that. Numerous friends suggested portions of the Wall that were less touristy. The only problem was, less touristy is still touristy and I desired not touristy at all. I wanted to hike along an elegantly crumbling portion of the Wall. Story by George Kalli D o W n W a R D s p i R a l By Lee Kijun, journalist at Newsweek Korea eDitorial Traditional media’s dependence on advertising is leading to the slow death of journalism in Korea www.groovekorea.com / November 2014 4 To comment, email editor@groovekorea.com EDITORIAL