Seoul Shinmun Reporter “HYBE PR Requested Article Correction, Saying NewJeans Didn’t Perform as Well as Expected in Japan”
On Sep 25th, a telephone interview with Seoul Shinmun’s reporter Jang Hyung-woo was revealed on CBS Radio’s “Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show”.
On this day, Jang revealed, “While writing an article on July 17th about NewJeans’ Tokyo Dome concert, I also wrote about HYBE’s stock performance. Afterward, I received a request from HYBE to revise the article. Of course, I would accept factual corrections, but they made an unreasonable request to distort and downplay the artist’s achievements, which made no sense to me.”
Although he initially let it go, Jang said he changed his mind after watching NewJeans members’ live broadcast. He said, “The person who called me back then was HYBE’s head of PR, responsible for communications. HYBE operates on a label system, where the parent company handles accounting, legal matters and such. This person is also responsible for promoting NewJeans. I’ve met countless PR professionals, but it was the first time someone from the parent company said that a subsidiary artist didn’t perform well, or that they weren’t as successful as expected.“
Jang continued, “They mentioned that selling 1.02 million copies in Japan wasn’t quite accurate since the sales were global, not just in Japan. They implied that the sales weren’t as good as it seemed. A normal PR team would explain the unique aspects of the distribution method then highlight the record as a meaningful achievement. That’s how you positively influence the company’s value and the stock market. It was a puzzling reaction.”
In the actual recorded conversation that Jang disclosed, the HYBE PR representative was heard saying “We need to correct the facts. It didn’t sell that much in Japan. It didn’t perform as well as expected, so it needs to be corrected” regarding the article about NewJeans’ activities in Japan.
Regarding this, HYBE told “Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show” that they are doing their best to promote ADOR and have worked hard to promote NewJeans’ albums.
Source: Nate
