Well, there’s some new stuff that’s been revealed from the HYBE/ADOR mess, this time after journalist Jang Hyung Woo from Seoul Shinmun went on the CBS Radio show Kim Hyun Jung’s News Show and alleged that HYBE tried to downplay NewJeans‘ achievements, blamed the injunction loss on gaslighting, and tried to curry favor from his bosses.
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Starting off, the reporter explained how the series of events got started and talked about why he came forward about it.
In the interview, Jang described himself as an industrial journalist covering sectors like shipbuilding and aviation. He stated, “I wrote an article about HYBE’s stock price while covering NewJeans’ Tokyo Dome performance on July 17th. Following that, I received a request from HYBE to amend the article. While fact corrections should be accepted, it didn’t make sense for them to try to distort and downplay the artist’s achievements,” he claimed.
Initially, Jang let the matter go. However, after watching the live stream of NewJeans members, he changed his mind. He revealed, “The person who called was HYBE’s head of public relations and the person responsible for communications. HYBE operates under a label system, but departments like accounting and legal matters are handled by the parent company, HYBE. This person is also supposed to promote NewJeans. I’ve met countless PR managers, but it was my first time hearing someone say that an artist from their own subsidiary isn’t doing well or didn’t perform as expected.”
Basically, it was HYBE saying that NewJeans didn’t sell as well as hyped in Japan.
Jang continued, “They said that NewJeans had sold 1.02 million copies in Japan, but insisted that the phrase ‘in Japan’ was inappropriate because the sales weren’t solely from Japan, but from across the globe. They then added that the sales weren’t as strong as thought and that the record wasn’t as impressive. In normal PR, they would explain any unique aspects of the distribution and emphasize that it was a significant record. That would raise the company’s value and have a positive effect on the stock market. This whole situation was quite odd,” Jang remarked.
He also provided actual audio of his conversation.
In the leaked recording of the call with HYBE’s PR representative, the individual can be heard saying, “We need to correct the facts, don’t we? It didn’t sell that well in Japan. It didn’t perform as well as expected, so we need to set the record straight.”
In response to this, HYBE said they were just trying to focus on facts.
The reporter claimed, “They made an illogical suggestion to distort and downplay the artist’s achievements.”
In response, HYBE explained, “The reporter wrote that over 1.02 million albums were sold ‘in Japan alone.’ However, at the time, only around 50,000 were sold in Japan, and over 900,000 were sold in Korea. We requested a correction because it was incorrect information.”
HYBE further emphasized, “There’s absolutely no reason for us to speak negatively about NewJeans’ achievements.”
Yeah, sorry man, but you’re on record as saying the context of this correction is the company telling the media NewJeans didn’t perform well in response to a POSITIVE mediaplay type article. There’s just zero chance you’re going to convince me that happens if there wasn’t a current conflict with NewJeans. A K-pop companies of all companies? They will lie by omission, hype up irrelevant achievements, and basically do anything to convince the public that their group is trendy to support, they even send those press releases to sites like this one, and I’m supposed to believe if this was any other company or group that they’d do the same? Nah.
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Additionally, the reporter claimed that HYBE said Min Hee Jin’s injunction victory was due to gaslighting NewJeans members,
A: Wow this is how it works in the industry. How can you bind yourself to the artist and gaslight them psychologically? She “darkened” the inside business and seized our business like that. If she’s able to do this successfully, then she’ll win the injunction.
Jang stated, “At first, I thought it was just a personal deviation by the PR representative. But later, the contents of our conversation were actually published in articles.”
He continued, “In May, HYBE’s PR representative and the head of PR came to my company and showed me private KakaoTalk messages between Min Hee Jin and others. These later appeared in online media outlets, so it can’t be seen as just an individual’s actions.”
He also said that HYBE invited his boss to play golf to win favor with the outlet.
JHW: Our chief’s mostly focuses on sales performances as a bottom line
A: Just focus on fixing this small trivial part, I’ll send in a notice for that. Ah but I feel like we should turn around the chief’s heart a little, otherwise we’ll have to keep writing detailed things like that
JHW: Right
A: You’re tired and I’m tired too
JHW: I didn’t even know who was who, I don’t know anything about this
A: Then let’s schedule a date fast, otherwise this won’t do (laugh) We’ll include you (in the event)
Jang also shared part of his conversation with the PR team. In the recording, the PR representative is heard saying, “It seems like the manager at Seoul Shinmun hates us. We need something to change his mind. Both you and we are tired. Let’s set a date to meet. We need to win him over quickly.”
When host Kim Hyun Jung asked what this meant, Jang explained, “The implication was that they would secure advertising with my company in exchange for more favorable reporting for HYBE. They even suggested going golfing with the manager. But my manager rejected it, saying it was inappropriate.”
In response to these claims, HYBE says the gaslighting comment was in context of how Min Hee Jin could take over the company, and … well, didn’t really refute the last one.
Regarding the reporter’s claim that terms like “gaslighting” were used, HYBE clarified, “In the entertainment industry, when creators and artists form strong bonds, there can be attempts to seize control of management regardless of shareholding ratios. This is where the term was used during the explanation.”
HYBE also expressed its disapproval over the leak of a work-related conversation between the PR team and the reporter, sending a certified letter of protest to the media outlet. HYBE stated, “This is a serious violation of journalistic ethics.”
The gaslighting thing doesn’t seem significant unless you actually believed that HYBE had nothing to do with leaking her messages to outlets (thought I guess some even here do), though I guess explaining it that way was the only method she could use to takeover ADOR.
It’s also kinda silly to talk about ethics when you’re on recording saying you need to get better media coverage by scratching the back of the boss of a media outlet, but alright.
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Presumably the core of exposing all this is to say that HYBE are indeed trying to shutout NewJeans, that HYBE was leaking Min Hee Jin’s messages, and that HYBE are trying to lean on media outlets to report their way.
Honestly, none of that would be all that surprising given the massive internal conflict going on at the moment, so it’s completely believable to me. I’m kinda surprised there are some corporation stans (I guess?) hard denying that they’d do this, because it sounds literally exactly like what a K-pop company would do based on … everything in K-pop’s past. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if things were worse in reality. There’s legitimate concern for NewJeans’ future, which is unfortunate situation to see the girls in.
Really though, what I am continually surprised at is how HYBE is always caught out at doing these small things that only serve to make people dislike them more. These kinds of things are completely self-inflicted, and the benefit of something so pedantic to them against the risk of exactly this kind of thing getting out seems absurdly one-side, and yet they still do it. Baffling.
Either way, the big picture situation still remains the same, as we’ll see what NewJeans does next after their livestream demands, though other than that it still might come down to Min Hee Jin’s legal outcomes as far as the injunction goes.
