A Study on the Competition of Newspaper Advertising since 1987

Jang Kyung Ho Major in Journalism & Publicity The Graduate School of Public Administration, Hanyang University Supervisor: Prof. Paeng Won Sun

An authoritarian regime depends on the charisma of the ruler. It is different from democratic one which, in some degree, permits political pluralism, people's society, and economic autonomy. In Korea, the authoritarian regime has been collapsed, and democracy is on the rise. In this process, a big change is going on across the society. And, in this matter, newspaper industry is no excelition.

Newspaper industry, in Korea, had been controlled and oppressed under the authoritarian regime, especially throughout the dark period of the 1980 Press Merge. The press autonomy in 1987 literally opened a new era for the newspaper industry. It could, now, meet the demands for its development, and get the basis for making its mission reaPze. On the other hand, in consequence of the collapse of the cartel, the newspaper industry had to face the free competition in which only the fittest could survive.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a few factors which are crucial to the survival of a newspaper, such as advertizement. page increase, and the question of the morning and/or evening issue. a new tendency since 1987. It, also, tries to analyse how these factors gave influence to one another, and how they cope with a new social situation. Recently, there were some important market change in the newspaper industry: the increase of the number of newspaper companies: seven-day-issue in a week; page increase: the decrease of the profit from the subsidiary enterprise: the reorganization of the morning and/or evening issue, including the Han-Kook Ilbo's morning and evening issue and the Dong-A Ilbo's change from the evening to morning issue. The social change since 1987 brought forth a new tendency in the newspaper system, and a few problems came to the fore in the competition among newspaper companies. First, there was a increase in the non-trust advertizement. Secondly, there happened incidents, in which newspaper companies which could not get their share of advertizement of a certain business industry, gave a pressure to that particular industry by putting in unfavorable articles on the paper. Thirdly, there are new threats in fair advertising business, such as excessive advertizemrnt rates and dumping. Fourthly, there is more chance for a bad quality advertizement. Lastly, the page-increase makes a newspaper company more dependent on the revenue from its advertisement. This seems to happen because capitalism media cannot overcome their commerciality, and the immaturity of Korea's newspaper industry prevents it from adaliting to social change quickly.

The failure to solve these problems will lead to the falling behind of the newspaper industry to the other social areas which are achieving democratic development and maturity. This means that the reliability of the newspaper advertizement will decrease in the middle of the saturated print media market, private broadcasting. CATV, new competition from abroad, and it is very serious in that it cannot measure up to the scientific and international advertizement standard. Therefore, Korea's newspaper industry should try to minimize these Problems by making known its circulation through ABC system, and by autonomous and legal control s and by control of consumers.