The Kyunghyang Shinmun or Kyonghyang Sinmun is a major daily newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 published in South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

. It is based in Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

. The name literally means Urbi et Orbi

Urbi et Orbi

Urbi et Orbi denotes a papal address and Apostolic Blessing that is given to the City of Rome and to the entire world, on certain occasions. It was a standard opening of Ancient Roman proclamations....

 Daily News.

History

Kyunghyang Shinmun was founded in 1946 by the Catholic Church, which explains its name. Before the Korean War, it was edited by Fr. Peter Ryang, a refugee from the North, and its circulation was 100,000. Kyunghyang Shinmun was temporarily closed down in May 1959 by the Rhee administration on grounds of having printed "false editorials", but revived after the pro-democracy revolution of April 19, 1960. The newspaper is no longer associated with the Catholic Church.

It was also formerly owned by the Hanwha

Hanwha

Hanwha Group is one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Inc. , the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosives, their original business, to retail to financial...

 chaebol

Chaebol

Chaebol refers to a South Korean form of business conglomerate. They are global multinationals owning numerous international enterprises. The term is often used in a context similar to that of the English word "conglomerate"...

. Hanwha relinquished their control of the newspaper after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, at the same time as their competitor Hyundai

Hyundai

Hyundai ) is a global conglomerate company, part of the Korean chaebol, that was founded in South Korea by one of the most famous businessmen in Korean history: Chung Ju-yung...

 gave up its own daily, the Munhwa Ilbo

Munhwa Ilbo

-History:Munhwa Ilbo was formerly owned by the Hyundai chaebol; however, Hyundai relinquished their control of the newspaper after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, at the same time as their competitor Hanwha gave up its own daily, the Kyunghyang Shinmun...

.

Current operations

In 1998, Kyunghyang Shinmun became an independent newspaper with employee ownership. The CEO is elected by the employees; the editor-in-chief, though appointed by the CEO, must be approved by a majority of the journalist-employees.

The newspaper employs 600 people, including 240 journalists and maintains foreign bureaus in Washington, D.C., Tokyo and Beijing. It reports 1.3 million daily visitors to its website and 6.2 million daily page-views. The company also publishes a daily sports newspaper (Sports Khan), a weekly news magazine (The Jugan Kyunghyang) and a monthly lifestyle magazine for women (The Lady Kyunghyang).

Like the newer daily The Hankyoreh, Kyunghyang Shinmun leans toward anti-government reporting, describing itself as "moderate progressive".