The most what I envied

During last 4 months, the most what I envied is the article totally separated from advertising. So reporters could focus on the writing and didn’t care the advertising.

But the most of Korean reporters couldn’t free from ad. Sometimes I also felt self-censorship when I wrote about big company such as Samsung or LG. Some big advertisers occasionally asked manager of newspaper to rewrite the article which contained adverse information for their company. It is very rare case that they asked to get rid of the article on the Web or newspaper. They suggest trading the article for the ad. The management of newspaper dose not refuse them easily. Especially depression makes harder.

I’m very sad to see the situation of Korean media in LA. There are about three Korean newspapers and 3 radio stations. Sometimes I can’t distinguish between the article and ad when I read the article in the economy section.

And I heard that some newspapers asked the owner of small business to advertise after reporting.

So it is not easy to cover the Koreatown. It is my personal experience when I was working on story about ‘Simulation golf’. At first the owner denied to answer my question. The reason is very extraordinary. He said “I have no money to advertise”. The article is the same word ‘ad’ for him.

After I explained I worked for American newspaper, he welcomed. It typified the Korean media in LA.

One more what I really envied is the tradition. LA Business Journal had the guideline about reception. They have prohibited receiving over 25 dollars(lunch or gift). We also had the same guideline but it was not observed. I’m very curious how to have roots this good tradition.

How to use Premiere Pro to make slide

I forcused on learning how to use multi-media tools such as 'Premiere Pro'. I really love to learn new technology. I always want to be an 'early adopter'.

I took a course 'Using Premiere Pro' which opened 'The Multi-media Institute' in Korea. My course is consisted of 40 lectures. I could take them via internet. Especially it's a free by courtesy of help of my friend. I recorded all lessons and made video files. I can share these files but you have to learn Korean before.

I finished my course just 10 days, it was not easy. Each lecture took about 30 minutes. And Ringo chu, photographer worked for the LA Business Journal, gave some tips. I also found the important skills on the Youtube.

My conclusion is that Premiere is really awesome and useful. It can be used to edit video and make photo slide.

First of all, thanks to Rodrigo. You gave me a motivation.

Let me show how to use Premiere to make photo slide.
1. Open 'New Project'
2. Maybe your program already choosen 'DV-NTSC\standard 48kHz'(It is default setting). NTSC used in US and East Asia such as Korea. PAL used in Eurpe and China(I'm not sure). It dosenot matter if you want to use your slide on the web. I follow default setting and named my project 'Memories'.
3. There is very important thing. If your photo file size over 720*480, I think most of case is over, you have to check 'customs settings\scale clips to...' If you don't, you can show a part of your photos.4. Click 'OK', start Premiere(after just P). You never forget this special tip before open your photos. You have to chose showing time each phots. If you didn't, all photos would show 5 seconds(It's a default settings). It's too long. But you can change the showing time manually, if you could spend all day. Choose 'Edit\Preferences\still image\ And then you can find 150 frames. Bear in mind '30 frames means 1 second'. So if you want to show 2 seconds each phot, you typed 60. 5. So you finished basic settings. Now open(ctrl+i) your photos. If you want to open serveral photos at once, you have to choose photos pushing ctrl key('ctrl+click'). Don't forget this one. If you choose several photos in the other folder and the file name is the same, you could open the last choosing file(P overwirtes automatically!)

For this reason, I made the other folder and copied phtos which is using slide. On this process, you could check the file names overlapping or not.

6. After choosing your photos, you can find the lists.

7. After choosing photos, drag to 'video1 track'. You can put the effect between phots.
Follow 'Effects\video2\slide'. You can find 'band slide and center merge...'. And then you drag your effect between photos. 8. You can add the music the same way. 'ctrl+i' and choose your music file and then your song added project window. Drag your song to audio track.
9. Only left final work. Choose 'File/Export/Adobe Media Encoder(for the web)'. You can find several file option, MPEG1,2 Window media....' I recommended MPEG2. And then type your file name. You've done. Try to make your own style photo slide!

10. You can also put the title using P. It's not difficult. Try to use the title tools(T symbol), you can understand.

Golf indoors!

Golf is moving indoors. The newest gizmo pushes the game several links beyond the driving range that’s in front of a screen projection. It’s called simulator golf, and it lets golfers play an entire game – driving, chipping and putting – all in front of a screen projection.


“Indoor golf facilities such as this are rare,” said Dan Muzzey, owner of Player’s Club Golf on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, “not just uncommon, but rare. But it’s one of the fastest growing businesses in Korea.”

So it’s probably no surprise that another such facility opened in Koreatown earlier this month. It’s named Pebble Beach on 6th, and the world’s most famous courses are simulated.

“The current 42 top courses can be played,” said John Park, co-owner of the facility. A player can shoot, say, Augusta National or any other famous course, including those in Asia.

Particularly appealing to some: A customer can play tournaments via the Internet. A golfer at Pebble Beach on 6th, for example, can play with a friend in Seoul, South Korea.

In fact, Muzzey organized a Rider Cup tournament at Player’s Club against golfers in the United Kingdom.

Muzzey bought two simulators for $65,000 each and leases a third.

“The barrier to entry is expense,” said Muzzey, who opened Player’s Club in early 2008. He has 2,500 square feet at the moment, but is finalizing plans to build a 28,000-square-foot facility that will feature more simulators and other country club amenities, such as a gym, saunas and card rooms.

Pebble Beach on 6th has seven simulators.

“It’s practically the same as being on the greens with the ball’s travel distance or trajectory,” said Bob Jang, who was playing at Pebble Beach on 6th recently. “It came as a shock to me that I could play a round like this indoors on any course of my choosing.”

How to use DataJoe

This program is really awesome! But the usage is very simple.

1. Loading file what you want. And then choose the group before sending e-mail.

2. If you recieved the reply, it shows and arranges automatically.

3. It also privide printed form. This perfectly matches with our printed newspaper.

4. If you want to find the lists, you can do it on LABJ website. You can buy all the lists or the part you want.

How to make a list

I have thought that the most interesting things are ‘The company lists’. The LA Business Journal releases the lists every week. LABJ published the lists of the other 90 kinds so the company received the survey once a year. The lists classified about 16 categories - Finance, Professional Services(Law Firm and Accounting Firms), Business Services(Employee Benefits Consultants, Franchisers), Hospitality&Travel, Entertainment, Real Estate.

I really want to know how to make them. Deciding the ranking is very difficult as well as high risk for the medias. If they made a something mistake in the lists, the public trust of the media suffered a heavy blow. So Korean medias didn’t make the lists alone. Sometimes they announced the lists but they were made by special agency.

I learned how to make the lists last two weeks. First off I was surprised enormous database and cautious advance preparations. The lists were based on the survey. It started about six week ago. Because the survey was related on business performance, it needed a lot of time for the accuracy. The second reason is that the person in charge of the survey changed about 25%.

They used ‘DataJoe’ for survey. It is an amazing tool. It enable to do everything on the web. It sent the survey e-mail to the companies, the receiver filled up. No survey paper and no DHL.

If it ended to fill up, it got into shape all data automatically. After one click, we could see the arranged data. It contained the function of Excel so we could arrange ‘revenue’ or ‘net profit’.

Especially it provided the format of publishing. It is no need to copy&paste for printing newspaper. If we had to pill up or copy&paste for printing, sometimes terrible mistakes like mistype occurred during this process.

For this specialty, about 70 companies(include 16 business journals) use DataJoe. Of course it is not free, they paid about 20% of the lists’ revenue.

The most important thing is verifying. There is possibility to expand their revenue or the operating profit. Because the title, the industry’s No.1, is the temptation hard to resist.

So LABJ made an effort to verify. For example, in case of bank they compared typed number with the FDIC’s number. But sometimes there is no public information. At a time like this, they used to verify through the competitors. Most of them had a lot of information of their competitor.

I will try to make the lists of Korean company. But I’m not sure in here or in my country.

Hot July

My July is very hot like weather of California. I wrote many articles than most, especially I tried to write the long story that was related to investigating report, it is one of my goals. I had to gather more information and analyze more deeply for writing the long story. It is the same way to write investigating report.

Especially I spent this week to be worthwhile. My story is printed on the first page. Of course my colleague, Alexa Hyland, helped me a lot. If she didn’t help me, I couldn’t make a good deal.

We tried to write about economic condition of Koreatown, It is reeling from a triple bogey of economic slowdown, rising exchange rates, and the swine flu. In addition to the fall in real estate prices from the economic slowdown in the United States, sales are down at restaurants and other shops Korean-Americans are commonly known to operate. On top of this, vacancies are rife at such short-term accommodations as hotels as business trips from Korea dwindle. When it rains it pours, and adding to the clouds are concerns over the swine flue, which are causing cancellations from group tours.

At first she couldn’t understand why lots of Korean worried about swine flu. I usually wondered why American didn’t be concerned about swine flu. Korean media still reported about swine flu and Special Countermeasures Headquarter was working. But swine flu was not an issue any more in here. I had thought strange thing was not Korean media but American media.

I think swine flu is similar to nuclear weapon of North Korea. South Korean dosen’t worry about North Korea much. They feared second Korean War 5 years ago. But now only a few people do that.

Perhaps terrorism is the same thing. Middle East Asian don’t worry about the terror. But the only people who live in Non Middle East fear that. I’m not sure.

To begin with we collect the information, reservation of hotels and airlines. And the we interviewed various worker who work for tour companies or restaurant. But we met the unthougtht-of difficulties. It was very difficult to find out reasonable statistics though most of them we met said their revenue declined about 20% compared to before year. The number is very important to Economic newspaper. It used to verify and backup the fact.

Especially Charlie, my chief editor, asked to find the reliable number. After several trial, I found the number of Korean visitors in Korean Tourism Organization. KTO gathered information from ITA(International Trade Administration) in U.S. Until April in this year, the number of Korean visitors is 207,895, it declined 17.3% from the same time last year. Don’t give up, you can find. The information we try to find must be, but we don’t know where.

I never forget the memories of the Poynter. Bill and Paul got rid of my fear about coaching and then I could realize what I share with my colleagues. So I could prepare more perfectly next 2 months.

And I'm falling in love to making photo slides. Unfortunately my slides dose not work in this page. Check it out my fouth work!

How Does Your Kid Stack Up?

KoreaTown clinics offer test to gauge future height of children

by Myoung Hoon Suh

It’s the latest fad to hit the states from South Korea and it has nothing to do with tart frozen yogurt. But it has been good business for KoreanTown’s medical clinics.

It’s a test that predicts how tall children are likely to grow. With the average Korean male standing 5 feet, 8 inches – more than an inch shorter than average American – more Korean parents are having their children’s bone growth tested.

“Concerned that their children might end up getting bullied by bigger children, many Korean parents are particularly keen to know how tall their children are going to be,” said Hyungsuk Choi, chief of the medical staff at Samra Acupuncture Spinal Center on West Olympic Boulevard, where about 300 children have been tested and around 100 are now assessed monthly.

The test has been popular for 10 years in Korea and is offered by Western pediatricians when stunted growth is suspected. It involves X-raying a child’s hand to examine growth plates – the area at the end of bones at the joints where growth occurs.

Western doctors will prescribe hormones to children when stunted growth is diagnosed. But Samra, given that most of the children tested are found to be normal, the foucus is on better diet – if needed – to boost a shorter child’s height.

Justin Park took his 11 year-old son to be tested because he was one of the shortest boys in his class. But the growth plate test showed that the child was just fine and should grow substantially taller.

“He avoided playing basketball and playing outside,” sand Park, whose remarks were translated from Korean. “After the test he became more outgoing because he had the confidence he could be tall”