HYBE-owned Weverse Magazine has confirmed that its former editor-in-chief was responsible for creating HYBE’s controversial leaked “music industry report,” but the magazine says those reports were not connected to the magazine, and the controversial report was “worked on separately.”
The revelation comes amid growing scrutiny of the entertainment giant’s internal practices.
The controversy emerged on October 24 when Democratic Party member Rep. Min Hyung-bae disclosed internal HYBE documents during a National Assembly audit by the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee.
The documents, a series of “Weekly Music Industry Reports,” included insensitive comments about certain K-pop acts and group members. The 18,000-page document included statements such as “They debuted at an age when they’re at their most unattractive,” “Surprisingly, none of them are pretty,” and “Shockingly unattractive,” the Korea Herald reported at the time.
“The document in question was something the former editor-in-chief worked on separately, so the Weverse Magazine staff were not even aware of the existence of the document.”
Weverse Magazine
Some of these appearance-related comments were made about underage individuals, and there were also comments suggesting internal tensions between HYBE leadership and some of its artists.
Additionally, there were comments about NewJeans that some interpreted as HYBE wanting to dispose of the group. Specifically, regarding the term “New-ILL-LE” (referring to NewJeans, ILLIT, and LE SSERAFIM), a comment stated they could “dispose of NewJeans and just come up with a new phrase.”
The comments made some NewJeans fans unhappy. The controversy came amid the ongoing tension between HYBE and former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin, who produced NewJeans.
Following the leak of roughly 20 pages online, HYBE CEO Jason Jaesang Lee issued an apology, saying, “I am very sorry and saddened by the situation in which innocent artists and members are being misunderstood and harmed by the allegations of [negative] virality, which are not true at all.”
Most recently, Weverse Magazine released a statement to local media outlets in Korea over the weekend, distancing itself from the scandal while acknowledging the involvement of its former top editor, who was not named.
“The former editor-in-chief was removed from his position and has been prohibited from any further involvement in Weverse Magazine.”
Weverse Magazine
“The document in question was something the former editor-in-chief worked on separately, so the Weverse Magazine staff were not even aware of the existence of the document,” Weverse Magazine said. Weverse is a superfan platform owned by HYBE.
Weverse noted that its former editor-in-chief has been removed from his position and has been banned from any further involvement in the magazine.
You can read Weverse Magazine’s full statement below:
This is the Weverse Magazine team.
We sincerely apologize for causing discomfort and concern to the users who care for Weverse magazine due to the situation that arose because of the monitoring document.
We would like to make clear several facts related to this matter:
• The document in question was something the former editor-in-chief worked on separately, so the Weverse Magazine staff were not even aware of the existence of the document.
• With the exception of the former editor-in-chief, neither the staff involved in the production of Weverse Magazine nor the external writers have ever participated in writing the monitoring document.
• The former editor-in-chief was removed from his position and has been prohibited from any further involvement in Weverse Magazine. As for the workers who were separately tasked with monitoring by the former editor-in-chief, their work has been suspended as well.
We are stating clearly that Weverse Magazine has nothing to do with the controversial monitoring document, and the members of the Weverse Magazine team are opposed to the document in question.
In spite of this, we apologize once again for being mentioned in regards to this unsavory matter and causing discomfort to users.
Weverse Magazine promises to repay our readers with even deeper and more abundant content in the future.Music Business Worldwide