We won’t stop here

The Korea Times has conducted a major renewal changing its whole appearance ranging from design and typeset to size of font and layout.

It is a beginning of a journey we are inviting our readers to take with us ― our journey of perpetual change and constant reinvention.

The overhaul, implemented from our New Year’s Day edition, is primarily aimed at enabling our readers to better enjoy the paper.

We have introduced thicker and rounder fonts for our flag, the heart of our paper, to make it feel more accessible; rearranged the number of columns from seven to six with a wider gap in between for easier reading and are using our corporate color of green prominently to cherish our founding philosophy of accuracy, boldness and fairness.

It carries a message to us, those who make the paper of maintaining the humble mind of a beginner and striving for a constant fresh start.

More changes will come ― diverse content, acute analyses and reliable opinions. The facelift has taken months so internal change will take longer. But we promise to do our best to get it done as soon as possible.

This effort is also being made in the same context that we are trying to make our online and mobile services better and easier to use. Last year, we overhauled our website and the launch of our mobile version will come soon.

The purpose of our changes may sound self-serving.

We believe change is not a matter of choice but one of survival.

Many claim that the first death knell was sounded for the print media a long time ago with the doomsday prophesy being translated into reality.

Some newspapers are trying to adapt to a new changing situation by branching out into the cable television market. Although this effort has so far shown mixed results, it appears to be inevitable in this sink-or-swim environment. Others have given up their print version to devote themselves to an online presence. This captures an unstoppable juggernaut of change that forces us to adopt or perish.

We can’t pray that this call for change will disappear if we bury our heads in the sand.

The changes we are introducing are our way of meeting the challenges head on.

We believe that, with you on our side, we can not only survive this storm but prevail.

I am not asking for your help. I ask you to enjoy our changes.

If you have ideas and suggestions, let us know. We will have them reflected in charting our path because it is as much for us as for you, our readers.

You may feel we are taking our design change out of proportion.

Or you may tell us to deliver first what more changes we have promised.

I won’t ask you to give us more time. It is you who should decide. But I will explain what we have been doing for the past several months.

On Dec. 13, we hosted the First Korea Multicultural Youth Awards.

We organized the awards because we believe cultural diversity is the inevitable destination for our society.

There are many similar awards but ours are unique because they focus on children from multiracial households. It attracted a large number of applicants in a short period of time. Concerned dignitaries from all walks of life as well as many students attended the ceremony.

What surprised us was how positive the multiethnic children we met were, contrary to our expectations that they were somewhat less forthcoming and positive than their peers.

We appreciate the role our paper can play in formulating the future of our society.

It was a moment that helped us realize our call of duty and boosted our confidence that we can do more as a member of a great family. In the process, we have found a great pool of talent among ourselves ― for example, one who could organize the awards ceremony from A to Z.

We also found a level of dedication from our photographer who lay for hours on the pavement for the best shot of an athlete with a multicultural background.

Our realization about our abilities and duties is one engine of our efforts to change for the better, while you, our readers, are the other. When the two engines work in harmony, we can make our paper a joint enterprise that meets double requirements as a reliable information provider and a contributor to social causes.

We believe that this is our ticket to the future, surviving the gloomy outlook for print media and finding a new market paradigm. It may sound as a long-shot but there can be no knowing, unless you give it a go.

Let’s give our venture an unbridled go and see where it will take us to.

Happy New Year! <The Korea Times/Oh Young-jin>