Newspapers Decreased but Sales Increased... More Than Half Under 100 Million Won

2019 Newspaper Industry Revenue 3.9651 Trillion KRW 4.1%↑
Number of Newspaper Reporters Down 7.0%... Regional General and Sports Dailies Continue Decline

The number of newspapers in 2019 was found to have decreased compared to the previous year.

According to the '2020 Newspaper Industry Survey' published by the Korea Press Foundation on the 20th, the number of newspapers confirmed to be published as of the end of 2019 was 4,246. This represents a 3.1% decrease from the previous year.

Despite the low growth trend, the newspaper industry's sales revenue increased by 4.1% from the previous year to 3.9651 trillion won. Of this, 85.8% (3.4028 trillion won) was attributed to print newspapers. The remaining 14.2% (562.3 billion won) was taken by internet newspapers, which saw a 13.4% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

The sales growth rate for print newspapers was 2.7%. Although sales generally increased, regional comprehensive daily newspapers (-15.4%) and sports daily newspapers (-20.5%) continued their multi-year decline. Newspapers with annual sales of 10 billion won or more accounted for 1.2% of the total, numbering forty-nine. More than half, 2,435 newspapers (57.3%), had sales under 100 million won.

The report explained, "According to the 'Enforcement Decree of the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies,' the combined sales of thirty-seven newspapers required to submit external audit data to the Financial Supervisory Service amounted to 2.7021 trillion won, accounting for 68.1% of the entire newspaper industry."

Despite the increase in sales, the number of people employed in the newspaper industry was 40,254, a 2.2% decrease from the previous year. Daily newspapers saw a 7.0% increase, but weekly newspapers and internet newspapers decreased by 6.9% and 8.2%, respectively. The number of newspaper reporters also decreased by 7.0% from the previous year to 24,384.

The report stated, "Since 2010, the number of internet newspaper workers steadily increased but growth stopped from 2015 onward," adding, "Last year, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), many newspapers even halted new hiring."

The gender composition of all employees was recorded as 65.0% male and 35.0% female. The ratio of regular to non-regular employees was 86.2% to 13.8%. Print newspapers had a higher proportion of males (67.7%) and regular employees (87.4%), while internet newspapers had relatively higher proportions of females (39.3%) and non-regular employees (15.7%). Regionally, 59.2% of all employees were concentrated in Seoul.