Seoul Shinmun

Seoul Shinmun is a Korean-language daily newspaper published in South Korea.

The newspaper claims descendency from a newspaper established by Englishman Ernest Bethell in Korea on 29 June 1904 called The Korea Daily News (Daehan Maeil Shinbo). It published in both English and Korean, and soon became significantly influential due to its ability to publish critically about the Japanese government, which was rapidly encroaching on Korean sovereignty at the time. However, mounting pressure caused it to be sold in 1910. It renamed to Maeil Sinbo, and largely published along Japanese colonial government lines. After the liberation of Korea, the newspaper was seized by the United States Army Military Government in Korea in November 1945 and reorganized as Seoul Shinmun. The paper continued under this name, although it briefly published under the name Jinjung Shinmun during the Korean War and for several years afterwards.

Circulation is an estimated 780,000 issues a day.

Korea Times and The Korea Daily News
In 1904, British journalists Ernest Bethell and Thomas Cowen were sent to Korea to report for the British newspaper Daily Chronicle. This was during a time when the Japanese government was rapidly encroaching on Korea's sovereignty. After being fired from the paper, Bethell and Cowen began planning to publish their own paper tentatively called the Korea Times. The pair, along with Korean independence activist Yang Gi-tak, published the first English-only issue of Korea Times on 29 June 1904. The first non-trial issue under the new name was published on 18 July 1904, and was concurrently published in Korean as Daehan Maeil Sinbo. Newspapers were then censored by the Japanese Resident-General of Korea. Bethell, as a British citizen, was able to dodge Japanese censorship and continue publishing newspapers. However, he was frequently harassed by the Japanese. Bethell was arrested and tried by the British twice, by request of the Japanese government. He transferred ownership of the paper to his assistant editor Arthur Marnham, who carried on reporting critically of Japan.

Maeil Sinbo
On 21 May 1910, Marnham folded under joint British and Japanese pressure, secretly sold the newspaper, and left the country. Yang and others resigned and denounced the paper publicly as a propaganda piece. The paper became strictly controlled by Japan. It changed its name to Maeil Sinbo on 30 August 1910, and became subordinated to the Japanese-language paper Keijō Nippō. On 29 April 1938, it became independent from the Keijō and changed a character in its name (申 to 新; same pronunciation in Korean).

Seoul Shinmun
Korea was liberated in August 1945. The Maeil Sinbo chairman Lee Seong-geun resigned, and the employees took over operation of the paper. The U.S. military arrived on 2 October 1945, and took control of it. However, it faced pushback from the employees, resulting in the paper being suspended in 10 November 1945. It was reorganized and resumed publication on 23 November 1945 as Seoul Shinmun. Its first president was independence activist O Se-chang, who had participated in the 1919 March 1st Movement protests against Japanese rule.

In February 1946, they began publishing Shincheonji, a monthly magazine that covered various topics including current affairs, culture, and the arts. It published 68 issues over 9 years.

In 15 August 1949, the paper and others were restricted to only four pages per issue. The paper's publication froze during the Korean War. A two-page successor paper, called Jinjung Shinmun began publication in April 1951, and was the only operating newspaper service in the city at the time. Its facilities were once destroyed, but were rebuilt, and the paper continued publishing.

On 18 October 1956, the paper named its pure Hangul edition the Seoul Shinmun. It was mostly a transliteration of the mixed-script main paper, and ceased publication within a year.

On 23 March 1959, it changed its numbering system to effectively cut out the Maeil Sinbo portion of its history, by making its first Seoul Shinmun issue as No. 1, instead of its previous numbering No. 13738. During the 1960 April Revolution, a fire occurred in the building, and many of its rare records and materials were lost. The paper encountered then financial difficulties, and took a hiatus beginning on 9 May of the following year. However, after the May 16 coup of 1961, it began receiving support from the government, and resumed publication on 22 December of that year, publishing 36 pages per week in the evenings.

From 2 December 1980, it began publishing in the morning again. It began using computerized typesetting in January 1985, and moved to a larger office at Taepyeongno, Jung District, Seoul. It changed to horizontal type in October 1996.