Some level of plurality of ownership is observed at a national level. Some believe that the government is rather heavy-handed with subsidies and regulations affecting management, and the government-owned news outlet is still fairly influential. Still, the news industry has a free market. Ownership and major shareholders are disclosed in annual business reports, which are available online on the public data analysis and retrieval terminal. However, some of the less visible familial and business ties may not always be apparent for someone unfamiliar with the economic geography of South Korea.
The concentration ratio differs based on how the news media market share is calculated. When news producers are considered, the CR3 is 38.2 per cent in 2018, a slight decrease from 38.5 per cent in 2015. When news consumption is used to calculate the concentration ratio, CR3 reaches 47.3 per cent, a jump from 44.1 per cent in 2015 (see Figure 4).
