JoongAng Ilbo
The JoongAng, formerly known as JoongAng Ilbo, is a South Korean daily newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in South Korea, and a newspaper of record for South Korea. The paper also publishes an English edition, Korea JoongAng Daily, in alliance with the International New York Times. It is often regarded as the holding company of JoongAng Group chaebol as it is owner of various affiliates, such as the broadcast station and drama producing company JTBC, and movie theatres chain Megabox.
History
It was first published on September 22, 1965, by Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung Group which once owned the Tongyang Broadcasting Company. In 1980, JoongAng Ilbo gave up TBC and TBC merged with KBS. JoongAng Ilbo is the pioneer in South Korea for the use of horizontal copy layout, topical sections, and specialist reporters with investigative reporting teams. Since April 15, 1995, JoongAng Ilbo has been laid out horizontally and also became a morning newspaper from then on. In 1999, JoongAng Ilbo was separated from Samsung. As of March 18, 2007, it has produced a Sunday edition called JoongAng Sunday.The paper is considered a newspaper of record in Korea.
English and international issues
The Korea JoongAng Daily is the English language version of the newspaper, and it is one of three English-language daily newspapers in South Korea, along with The Korea Times and The Korea Herald. It runs mainly news and feature stories by staff reporters, and some stories translated from the Korean language newspaper. The Korea JoongAng Daily is currently sold together with the International New York Times.JoongAng Ilbo also publishes a United States edition, with branches from Toronto to Buenos Aires. Its parent company, Joongang Media Network holds publication rights to Korean editions of Newsweek and Forbes as well as 25% of the shares of JTBC cable TV.