Donga Ilbo, one of South Korea’s most long-standing news publishers, joined the inaugural DRL (Digital Revenue Launchpad) Korea programme to chart a more sustainable path for its digital future. DRL Korea is a programme offered by Google News Initiative, delivered in partnership with FT Strategies, and supports publishers in developing sustainable digital reader revenue strategies.

Founded in 1920, Donga has played a pivotal role in shaping public opinion throughout Korea’s modern history. However, like many traditional publishers, it faces urgent challenges in adapting to the digital age. Today, a majority of Donga’s revenue still comes from print. Facing the pressures of changing news ecosystem and reader behaviours, Donga wants to capture its unique position to grow online awareness, wider audiences and transform to a truly digital publisher.

Through DRL Korea, the Donga Ilbo digital team focused on diagnosing key organisational barriers, improving collaboration between departments, and deepening their understanding of digital reader needs and behaviours in order to build engagement with Donga.com

To strengthen collaboration between the newsroom and its digital strategy and operations teams, Donga Ilbo conducted an experiment with the newsroom. Previously, some articles published on Donga.com did not sufficiently reflect reader usage patterns or peak traffic hours, resulting in missed opportunities for timely updates and reader engagement.

The Digital Innovation team designed an experiment, where over a four-week period, the Digital News team received a daily digital publishing plan from the newsroom, focusing on releasing a set number of articles during Donga.com’s peak traffic windows. The target volume of articles was established at the beginning of the experimentation phase and reviewed weekly through coordination between the Digital Innovation team and the newsroom. Key performance indicators, including the number of articles published, page views (PV), and unique visitors (UV), were tracked to evaluate the impact of the experiment.

As a result, overall page views increased by approximately 50% and the number of digital articles published more than doubled. The findings demonstrated that delivering content at the right time significantly boosts reader engagement.

More importantly, the experiment contributed to a notable improvement in the culture of collaboration between the editorial and digital teams. Where content planning had traditionally been driven by internal deadlines, editorial priorities are now beginning to shift toward “what” readers want to read and “when”. The focus has also evolved from simply increasing the volume of digital content to enhancing content relevance and overall reader experience.

Beyond its positive performance outcomes, the experiment marked a meaningful milestone in Donga Ilbo’s broader digital transformation. It showed that small operational changes, paired with a shift in mindset, can strengthen cross-functional collaboration and deliver new value to readers. As Donga explores new reader revenue models, this reader-first approach will serve as a strong foundation for future growth.