Women's mag suspends print edition after 34 years
The April issue of The Lady Kyunghyang / Courtesy of The Lady Kyunghyang
By Kim Da-hee
A monthly lifestyle magazine for women, The Lady Kyunghyang, has suspended its print edition. It made the announcement in its April issue.
It comes after British newspaper The Independent said it would stop its printed version. The move reflects the crisis in the newspaper industry as circulations and advertising revenue decline.
The Lady Kyunghyang has published 503 issues since 1982.
“The world’s media market is changing due to several factors, including digital media and the convergence of media,” chief editor Shin Kyung-hee wrote in the April edition’s “Editor’s Letter” section. “The domestic magazine market is also in the center of the big changes. The Lady Kyunghyang will meet readers in a different format through realignment.”
She said the magazine will focus more on online content to satisfy more readers, implying the closure of the print edition.
According to the March issue of Magazine Journal, published by the Korea Magazine Association, the Korean magazine industry shrank 24 percent from about 1.86 trillion won ($1.5 billion) in 2012 to about 1.37 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in 2014.