The Joong-ang Ilbo

The JoongAng, formally known as JoongAng Ilbo, is a South Korean daily newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in South Korea, and a newspaper of record for South Korea. The paper also publishes an English edition, Korea JoongAng Daily, in alliance with the International New York Times. It is often regarded as the holding company of JoongAng Group chaebol (a spin-off from Samsung) as it is owner of various affiliates, such as the broadcast station and drama producing company JTBC, and movie theatres chain Megabox. History It was first published on September 22, 1965, by Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung Group which once owned the Tongyang Broadcasting Company (TBC). In 1980, JoongAng Ilbo gave up TBC and TBC merged with KBS. JoongAng Ilbo is the pioneer in South Korea for the use of horizontal copy layout, topical sections, and specialist reporters with investigative reporting teams. Since April 15, 1995, JoongAng Ilbo has been laid out horizontally and also became a morning newspaper from then on. In 1999, JoongAng Ilbo was separated from Samsung. As of March 18, 2007, it has produced a Sunday edition called JoongAng Sunday. The paper is considered a newspaper of record in Korea. English and international issues