Every day, media companies produce millions of similar news articles for the same issue. Most of them use the abusing method, where they would edit the articles to be caught more frequently on the search filter. Most of the articles have no excuse for being branded as yellow journalism. With the abusing method, the media companies make people to click their site, and to be exposed to the advertisement banners. This way the companies earn profit, especially smaller internet-based media companies. 

However, for the bigger media corporations, increased internet traffic cannot be an alternative for the significant decline in their original profit source, which is newspaper. The time when people would bring newspapers on public transportations is long gone. Now, it is the mobile phone that everyone looks into. According to the research by the Korea Press Foundation (KPF), the percentage of people who read newspapers has declined from 82.1 percent in 2002 to 25.4 percent in 2015.

 

As part of their fight for survival, media corporations are passively making changes. Most major media companies run their own Social Network Service (SNS) accounts and internet sites to maintain their consumer level. Several new search algorithms, data journalism and designs are being applied to these new approaches. Some of them have been successful, such as the Facebook pages of Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) that produces timely card news, or Yes! Top News (YTN) that uploads videos reported by ordinary people. 

 

The success in the mobile area does not mean constant profit. In fact, most of the services are yet mere attempts that the companies have taken, not a proper original market that the companies can harvest from. In order to cope with their current fiscal situation, companies half-mandatorily host conferences, events, forums with their sponsors. Some major companies have even produced completely independent brands such as a noodle restaurant, a café or a food company. 

Speaking of such reality, are there possible solutions for the dying old media industry in Korea? The most original yet adventurous solution would be the payment model. Many foreign media companies, including the Financial Times, have been quite successful with a payment model in which readers pay for online content. However, there are some criticisms that for the payment model to succeed, the originality of the particular media as well as its authority are important. To ask whether there are any Korean media holding this position, the answer would be unclear. 

Since the image of Korean digital media degraded over time through the misusage of the abusing method and yellow journalism, it seems reasonable that the payment model might not be an answer for many companies in the status quo. Korean media corporations first of all need to produce quality content that gives in-depth information or research to the consumers in order to gain trust. Trust and reliability are the pillars that make a media to stand strong—without the basic change, no other changes will be truly successful in a long-term. 

Some media companies have decided to focus on certain groups of readers, special journalism. They would produce in-depth research articles or slow-news that are carefully selected. This way the payment model easily works. Mediapart, a French online investigative and opinion journal created in 2008, for instance, has attracted more than 120,000 paying subscribers in just four years. It is probably impossible for a Korean media corporation to change overnight, but such a model could possibly work in Korea as well. 

 

Other than adopting a payment model, some companies have diversified as a means of survival. According to Professor Chung Dong-woo (Media and Communications, Graduate School of Konkuk University) in The Effects of Newspaper Companies’ Survival Strategy on Their Journalistic Values (2009) there are two ways of diversification, related and unrelated. Related diversification means that media companies would expand their businesses in media-related areas, such as developing new media technologies. Unrelated diversification is an expansion into areas unrelated to the media, such as CNN cafés. 

 

Chung writes that when a media company undertakes unrelated diversification, it should be careful not to negatively influence its core business, journalism. According to his research, many media company employees, especially ones in the progressive media, express concerns regarding reckless diversification. The lines cannot be clearly drawn, yet when proceeding, the companies should always first consider the public’s response. 

Native advertising, a type of disguised advertising that is usually found online, can also be a source of profits. Although it is highly controversial, native advertising can be an effective method for selling advertising and attracting readers at the same time. Just like Product Placement (PPL) that is often seen in dramas and movies, native advertisements pretend to be articles, but are actually clickbait that take readers to advertisements. Due to Internet user complaints, they are now identified as sponsored content in very small print. 

Nobody can be sure about the future of the media companies. The situation is aggravating ever since the dominance of the mobile. Those who adapted to the changes may survive, and those who could not would fail. It is difficult, but if each Korea media corporation clearly realizes its own strengths and develops it into a profitable new media model, changes can be possible. The dying old media needs resuscitation—change is the only constant.