Circulation To Die For p. 36

By: Editorial Staff

WHEN LEE BONG-kon moved to a new suburb outside Seoul early this year, his first caller was a newspaper salesman with a waterproof bathroom clock as a gift.
The next day, an agent from another newspaper visited to offer free copies for at least six months if he promised to subscribe.
Under past military governments, media rights in South Korea were severely curtailed, but today, with more freedom under the civilian rule of President Kim Young-sam, newspapers are expanding in numbers and size.
The number of newspapers has risen from 28 in 1987 to 117 this year. The competition has led papers to expand to 48 pages, two to three times as many as several years ago.
Lee rejected both subscription offers, but the newspapers came anyway. So he put up a sign saying his office already subscribes, but they still came anyway.
"They are crazy," Lee said, pointing to a waist-high pile of unread newspapers at the doorstep of his apartment. "Imposing something like this is torture."
It is common to give watches, glassware, leather belts and even satellite antennas in exchange for a $10-a-month subscription.
Some papers have hired thugs to threaten and rough up rival distribution agents, the independent national Hankook Ilbo has reported.
Most agents are independent contractors not directly employed by the newspapers. They are provided with promotional gifts by the papers and take a percentage of sales.
South Korean newspapers get 70% to 80% of their revenues from advertisements, whose price is related to circulation.
The fierce competition came to a head not long ago when a distribution agent for the national daily Joongang Ilbo stabbed to death an agent of the rival Chosun Ilbo with a kitchen knife in a city outside Seoul.
The attacker, Lee Dal-young, 35, told police he was under pressure to increase circulation and had been offered $15 cash for each new subscriber.
Prime Minister Lee Soo-sung called excessive newspaper competition "wasteful" and said his government would take regulatory action unless newspapers themselves adopt rules to stop the excessive promotional practices.
The circulation war intensified after the afternoon daily Joongang, owned by the giant Samsung group, switched to the morning cycle last year, triggering cutthroat competition with national morning dailies, including Chosun Hankook and Dong-A Ilbo.
Because ad rates are tied to circulation, newspapers have an incentive to inflate their circulations and often print many more copies than they actually sell, leaving many to be given away or thrown away.
The liberal national daily Hankyoreh Shinmun estimates 3 million papers are thrown away every day, wasting about $120 million a year.