2024-07-17
Recording of HYBE Head of PR Cho ********’s Reverse-Viral Response
🔗 2024-07-17 Transcript of Counter-Viral Call from HYBE PR Director Cho S*** (TRANSCRIPT ARCHIVE)
🔗 CBS Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show | NewJeans Ultimatum D-Day: Focus on the ‘Contract’ [Hook! News]
📌 This call was received from HYBE PR after the article above was published.
🔗 Source Link (Deleted)
September 25, 2024, CBS Radio <Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show>
🔗 NewJeans Ultimatum D-Day… Focus on the ‘Contract’
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> …But we received a tip to our team. It’s a tip claiming that HYBE has been disparaging its own artist, NewJeans. This is content that former Seoul Shinmun reporter Jang Hyung-woo provided to us. Let’s listen to the interview directly now. This is a pre-recorded interview. Reporter Jang Hyung-woo, are you there?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, hello.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> Hello. It’s actually quite unusual for a current reporter from a major newspaper to come forward and provide a tip like this. What made you decide that this needed to be brought to public attention?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Actually, I’m an industry reporter covering sectors like shipbuilding, aviation, and defense. On July 17th, I wrote an article about NewJeans’ Tokyo Dome concert, their performance in Japan, and HYBE’s stock price, which was struggling to rebound.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> Because you’re an industry reporter.
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, exactly. After the article was published, I received a call from HYBE requesting corrections to the article. Of course, minor factual corrections should naturally be accepted. But HYBE’s request was only nominally about corrections—they actually made statements that distorted and disparaged NewJeans’ performance in Japan, and said things that didn’t make common sense. At the time, I just thought it was strange and moved on. But on the 11th, I saw the NewJeans members courageously speak out about their situation through a YouTube live stream, and I thought, “This can only be seen as unfair treatment.” So I wanted to share specific examples, which is why I came forward with this tip.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> So you provided us with the conversation between you and the HYBE PR team employee. Let’s listen to a portion of it and make our judgment.
★ HYBE Representative> You know that thing about 1.02 million copies sold in Japan? That’s total sales. The actual sales in Japan weren’t that high. Since NewJeans is our artist, regardless of the dispute with CEO Min Hee-jin, it’s clear and right that we should promote NewJeans doing well, but we also need to correct the facts… It’s not that many were sold in Japan… It did worse than expected… I think that part needs to be corrected.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> What was the situation here?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> The person I spoke with is HYBE’s PR Director, the communications operations manager. As you know, HYBE operates on a label system, where PR, legal, and accounting are handled by the parent company, HYBE. So this person is also responsible for promoting ADOR, meaning NewJeans. I meet countless PR representatives due to my job, but what PR representative would tell a reporter that their subsidiary’s artist “didn’t do well” or “did worse than expected”?
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> But from their perspective, couldn’t they legitimately request corrections for inaccurate figures or facts in the article?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, that’s absolutely what should happen. But while calling me to say that the expression “locally” wasn’t appropriate, they said things like “It’s not doing as well as expected” and “That’s not how many were actually sold.”
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> The expression “locally”—so you wrote that 1.02 million copies were sold locally, but HYBE was saying it wasn’t 1.02 million sold locally? They were saying it was a worldwide total, is that right?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, that’s correct. But while saying that, the natural thing for someone in PR to say would be “But it still did well.” Instead, they said “That’s not how many were sold in Japan” and “It’s not doing as well as expected.” The fact that they said that at all is strange. If it were a normal PR team, they would explain the unique aspects of the distribution method and then say that the 1.02 million sales record is very meaningful. That would help with value-up, and since HYBE is a publicly traded company, it would have a positive impact on the stock market. That was a puzzling part.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> This would affect the stock price. Individual investors could be harmed. Are you saying you wondered why they were trying to push the narrative in a more negative direction?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, that’s right.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> I see. So throughout the call, did you feel they had malicious intent and were trying to make the news negative?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, I did. There’s more to the conversation. They actually suggested disparaging NewJeans, the group they’re supposed to be promoting, to a reporter.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> Disparaging comments—can you share more specific details from the conversation with us?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes. Let’s listen to the relevant recording.
★ HYBE Representative> So this is how it works in this industry. If you just bind the artist well, if you just psychologically gaslight the artist, this is how it turns out. An insider goes dark side and attempts to seize the company, and such an attempt is possible, and they can even win in the injunction case.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> This is also supposedly said by HYBE’s PR representative—which part surprised you when you heard it?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> This was the answer I got when I asked during the call, “How can CEO Min, who holds less than 20% of the shares, attempt to seize management control? It doesn’t make common sense.” HYBE’s PR operations manager—the person responsible for promoting ADOR and NewJeans—answered this question by saying that the NewJeans members were “gaslighted by CEO Min.”
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> But couldn’t this just be viewed as the personal opinion or individual misconduct of this particular employee you spoke with?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> I initially thought that too. But most of what this person told me on the phone actually became news articles. Also, in May, this person’s superior—the PR chief—and this person came to my company and showed me captured screenshots of CEO Min’s KakaoTalk conversations. Those captured screenshots later appeared as exclusive articles in online media. Overall, this can only be seen as the company’s position. If it were individual misconduct, I wouldn’t have come forward with this tip.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> So you’re saying that to consider it individual misconduct, you’ve witnessed similar behavior from others in the field as well?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, that’s correct.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> I see. Do you happen to have any recording of this part as well?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, I do.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> Then let’s listen to this part as well. So this is the conversation between the HYBE PR team employee who handles ADOR’s PR and Reporter Jang Hyung-woo.
★ HYBE Representative> Ah, I guess (Seoul Shinmun) Deputy Editor Joo doesn’t like us.
★ Jang Hyung-woo> Our deputy editor basically thinks in terms of revenue, so…
★ HYBE Representative> We’ll request minor fact corrections and leave it as is, but separately, I think we need something to change the deputy editor’s mind. Otherwise, we’ll have to keep writing in detail again, right? It’s tiring for you and tiring for me.
★ Jang Hyung-woo> I didn’t even know who was who, I don’t know what’s going on.
★ HYBE Representative> Let’s set a date and meet up soon. This won’t do. We need to win you over quickly. This is hard.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> The last part says “This won’t do, we need to win you over quickly.” Does “winning over” mean winning you over, Reporter Jang?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> It means making the reporter who writes and covers the news into someone on their side. That’s basically what it means. “Winning over”—you see, HYBE is also a large corporation that places advertisements and sponsors media companies. In the case of Seoul Shinmun, we’re a general daily newspaper that doesn’t cover entertainment much, so we didn’t have much business exchange with HYBE before. So they’re saying they’ll use this opportunity to place newspaper ads. Then your company will lean toward a narrative favorable to HYBE—that’s what they’re expressing as “winning over.” Actually, after that, HYBE’s PR chief—the one who came with the KakaoTalk screenshots—asked our deputy editor to play golf. Usually, they build rapport through golf first, then offer advertising or sponsorship deals. Of course, our deputy editor refused, saying it didn’t seem appropriate…
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> When did you receive the golf invitation? The proposal?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> After July 17th.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> After July 17th means it was quite recent?
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Yes, that’s right.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> I understand. Reporter Jang Hyung-woo, thank you for the tip today. I listened well.
◆ Jang Hyung-woo> Thank you.
◇ Kim Hyun-jung> That was former Seoul Shinmun industry reporter Jang Hyung-woo. We played a pre-recorded interview, an interview with the tipster. Did you also hear HYBE’s rebuttal by any chance?
◆ Kim Gwang-il> Yes, HYBE’s rebuttal to our production team was: “HYBE’s PR organization has done its best for ADOR. Even during the ongoing management dispute, we widely publicized the results and significance of Single 2 and Single 3. When necessary, we are also actively making requests for article corrections or amendments.”