Controversy as Taean County Assigns Newspaper Announcement Distribution to Newspaper Delivery Centers

A Certain Newspaper Distribution Center Has Been Assigned Newspaper Announcements for 20 Years
No Willingness to Improve Draws Criticism... "Issue That Needs to Correct Wrong Practices"

Monument of Taean County Office, Chungnam. /Taean=Photo by Choi Byungmin

It has been revealed that Taean County in South Chungcheong Province has entrusted the allocation of newspaper announcements to local newspaper distribution centers for nearly 20 years, sparking controversy.

Despite the fact that this task falls under the responsibility of the public relations teams of each administrative agency, criticism has arisen that the prolonged continuation of this practice suggests a lack of willingness to improve or even neglect of duty by the relevant public officials.

According to information disclosed by Taean County on the 20th, over the past four years from January 2021 to the present, the county has distributed a total of 51 newspaper announcements worth 94.44 million won (excluding VAT) among two to three national media outlets and three to four local media outlets.

During this process, the allocation of announcements to each media outlet was handled not by the responsible public relations team, but by local newspaper distribution centers, resulting in indiscriminate assignments to certain specific media outlets without any reasonable principles.

Upon learning of these facts, residents criticized the county for neglecting its primary duties, calling it tantamount to dereliction of duty.

A resident (age 62) living in Taean-eup said, "This is truly absurd. I have no idea what the county officials are actually doing," and added, "Whether it's been 10 years or 20 years, there should at least be a willingness to immediately fix problematic practices."

A representative from Taean County's public relations team stated, "After looking into the timing and background of newspaper announcement allocations, we confirmed that for about 20 years, a newspaper distribution center operated by a certain internet newspaper reporter has been handling the task," and added, "There may not have been any significant issues so far, but this is a wrong practice that must be urgently corrected."