Media Moguls’ New Year Message

The CEOs of the Korean media companies forecast that both crises and opportunities will come and go in 2012 due to a radically changing media environment. General election in April, presidential election in December, appearance of Kim Jong-un, global economic recession, unpredictable development of SNS and a wide variety of platform will all help transform the media industry of Korea. On the other hand, they stress the importance of objectivity, balance and impartiality which can be easily neglected by new media in order to obtain trust of the public.

The most important part of their new year messages are as follows:

Hankyoreh
“This year, we must be successful in establishing all-in-one content production system in order to have the balanced development between print media and digital media”

Chosun Ilbo
“Someone said as follows: Any democracy depends on a free, healthy press. Some of these papers – news and editorial gathering organizations – are really important. I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers. This is not something a journalist in the print media had said. This is what Steve Jobs said.”   

KBS
“New media keeps evolving shaking the whole media market. Smartphones are now called 6 and a half minutes media because users keep logging in every 6 and a half minutes.”

YTN
“We will not be reluctant at all to have the best manpower for the highest quality news. However, a bulky organisation will only be an obstacle to the future development so we will be careful to manage our manpower effectively.”

The Korea Economic Daily
“Let us change anything. Our achievements last year were only possible with the changes we tried. This year, let every department change working practices.”

Maeil Business Newspaper
“We must be fully prepared to communicate with mobile natives who accept multi-content as media, not just text.”

JoongAng Ilbo
“Let us contribute to the future of society and nation dealing with both right-wing and left-wing perspectives. A total media group full of creativity based on trust – this is a model of JoongAng Medial Nework.”  

Yonhap News
“We must cover all the important issues thoroughly and impartially with depth mobilizing everything we have such as traditional texts, photographs and broadcasting. In doing so, we can attract public attention and that attention is the only condition for survival in a hostile media environment.”  

Hankook Ilbo
“DRAGON is the keyword for this year: D for dedication, R for renewal, A for agility, G for globalisation, O for optimism, and N for new thinking and new solution.”

news@theasian.asia