The Dong-a Ilbo () is a newspaper of record in Korea since 1920 with a daily circulation of more than 1.2 million and opinion leaders as its main readers. The Dong-a Ilbo is the parent company of Dong-a Media Group (DAMG), which is composed of 11 affiliates including Sports Dong-a, Dong-a Science, DUNet, and dongA.com, as well as Channel A, general service cable broadcasting company launched on 1 December 2011. It covers a variety of areas including news, drama, entertainment, sports, education, and movies.
The Dong-a Ilbo has partnered with international news companies such as The New York Times of the United States of America, The Asahi Shimbun of Japan and The People's Daily of China. It has correspondents stationed in five major cities worldwide including Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Tokyo, Cairo and Paris. It also publishes global editions in 90 cities worldwide including New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt.
History
Dong-a Ilbo was established in 1920 with the motto of "For the people, democracy and culture." These ideas have transformed into what the company named "Dong-a DNA" which calls for critical view of authority, journalistic integrity in reporting the truth, humanism by sharing the pain of the neglected and being revolutionary by not fearing change.
1920-04-01: Published the first issue along with the civilization policy of Governor-General of Korea 1920-09-25: The first suspension for indefinite period of time: for printing the article "Discussing the Problems with Rituals" which were critical of three items sacred to Japan 1926-03-06: The second suspension for printing a message celebrating the March 1 protest 1930-04-16: The third suspension for printing "The Dong-a Ilbo Plays an Important Role in Chosun's Current Situation" which was a letter sent by a press in US in support of Korea 1931-03-21: Held the 1st Dong-a Marathon Games, Korea's first marathon race 1936-08-29: The fourth suspension: for erasing the Japanese flag from Korean born Olympic gold medalist 1940-08-10: Forced closure by the Japanese government 1945-12-01: Re-opening of Dong-a Ilbo 1961-03-15: Articles were printed criticizing the legitimacy of the May 15 election (lead to the April revolution) 1963-03-17: Published newspaper without editorials in protest to the continued military rule 1963-04-25: Opened Dong-a Broadcasting Station. The first media company to own print and broadcast media 1964-07-15: Establishment of Children's Dong-a 1967-01-28: Establishment of Dong-a Annual 1971-08-17: Staff reporters receive Korea Reporter's Award 1974-10-24: Announced the Free Press Declaration 1974-11-20: Awarded for efforts made in freedom of speech by US Freedom House 1974-12-20: Published blank advertisements in protest of the tyrannical military administration's advertisement oppression 1975-04-18: Dong-a Ilbo President Sang-man Kim receives Press Freedom Golden Pen award 1980-11-30: Dong-a Broadcasting Station closed due to the mandatory merger by the military government forces 1984-04-01: Establishment of Dong-a Music (magazine) 1986-01-01: Establishment of Dong-a Science 1987-01-16: Exclusively reported the torture and death of Park Jong-chul, which acted as a catalyst for the June democracy uprising 1993-04-01: Changed from an evening newspaper to a morning newspaper 1994-03-21: Established Ilmin (People's) Culture Foundation 1996-10-01: Began internet news service: DongA.com 1996-12-19: Ilmin Museum of Art opened in the former Dong-a Ilbo newspaper building 2000-01-01: Moves into Dong-a Media Centre in the Gwanghwamun area 2000-12-15: Newspaper museum "Presseum" opened 2001-07-01: World edition of paper printed in over 90 cities 2002-01-01: Starting of Dong-a Ilbos mobile services 2002-01-04: The first Korean newspaper company to publish the weekend section, Weekend 2003-04-01: Introduced the Knowledge Management System (KMS), 'Genie'. 2005-07-15: On and Off-line Newsroom unifies 2005-08-17: Begins printing 32 pages of Dong-a Ilbo in color
Feminist movement
In 1933, Dong-a Ilbo launched The New Women (later to become Dong-a Women.) The publication held events such as cooking schools and wives’ picnic providing women a place to socialize outside of the home. Articles such as “The New Woman and Education”, “Liberation of Women and the Nuclear Family” and “Women and Career” were printed to stimulate women's participation in society and the development of women's rights. Dong-a Ilbo also hosted athletic events for women. “Women’s National Tennis Competition” is Korea's and Dong-as oldest contest ever to be held.