Outlet profile

Korea JoongAng Daily

South Korean center-right

Owned byJoongAng Holdings, controlled by the Hong family (Chairman Hong Seok-hyun); JoongAng Holdings is the parent company of the JoongAng Group, a large South Korean media conglomerate

FundingAdvertising and subscriptions; privately held commercial media company; print edition co-published with the New York Times International Edition under a partnership since 2000

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

JoongAng Ilbo was founded on September 22, 1965, by Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung Group, making it one of the earliest major newspapers associated with South Korea's postwar industrial expansion. Samsung owned the paper for decades, using it as part of a broader media strategy during the country's rapid economic development under authoritarian governments. Amid South Korean regulations restricting chaebol ownership of media, JoongAng Ilbo was formally separated from Samsung in 1999 and came under the control of the Hong family, who remain its principal owners today through JoongAng Holdings. The Korea JoongAng Daily, the English-language edition, launched on October 17, 2000, the same year the outlet entered a co-publication partnership with the New York Times, bundling the NYT International Edition with the Korean paper six days a week for English-reading audiences in South Korea. The JoongAng Group has since expanded into broadcasting (JTBC) and entertainment (Megabox cinema chain), becoming a diversified media conglomerate. JoongAng Ilbo is widely grouped with Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo under the portmanteau 'Chojoongdong,' a term South Korean progressives use to describe what they see as a conservative media bloc that dominates national agenda-setting. Compared to the harder-line Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo is generally considered the most moderate of the three, with a pro-business, anti-communist editorial stance reflecting mainstream South Korean conservatism. Notable controversies include the paper's coverage of the 2008 U.S. beef import protests, when it backed market liberalization while critics accused it of dismissing public concerns, and its publication of a full-page advertisement from a far-right figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-16; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record