In a new statement, HYBE refuted the accusations made by Min Hee Jin, CEO of ADOR, that the company had neglected the debut of NewJeans
Last Thursday, 25th, Min Hee JinCEO of ADOR, declared during a press conference to clarify the recent dispute against HYBE that the business group had treated the debut of NewJeans with disregard, prioritizing the debut of LE SSERAFIM.
According to the businesswoman, the initial idea was for NewJeans to debut as HYBE’s first girl group, with their career managed by Source Music. However, there was a change of plans, making the new female group centered on Sakura It is Chaewonformer members of IZ*ONE who had recently signed a contract with the company.
Min Hee Jin states that the fact made her feel betrayed by HYBE, after the company failed to fulfill its promise about the debut of NewJeans. Thus, the CEO reveals that, in order to make the group’s debut as soon as possible, she decided to create ADOR, however, it ended up being ordered by the CEO of HYBE, Park Ji Wonwhich did not promote NewJeans until the premiere of LE SSERAFIM.
“Park Ji Won [CEO da HYBE] asked me not to promote NewJeans until LE SSERAFIM made its debut. I asked him why, and he said that we needed to make the audience think that LE SSERAFIM is Min Hee Jin’s girl group. That we needed the audience to be confused between the two. Do you think this makes sense? Why are they such thugs? I’ve already welcomed the girls. I can’t give up on their debut. So what should I have done? Hit back? I just thought to myself ‘ok, it’s fine, even if you guys try to create disturbances for me, I just have to do as well as I can’. So I got some boycotts to stop me from promoting NewJeans.”
Now, this Friday, the 26th, HYBE issued a detailed statement refuting all the accusations made by Min Hee Jin at his press conference. In the note, it is also possible to see the company’s explanation regarding the case of the debuts of both girl groups. Check out!
“5. Regarding the claim that we promised to debut [NewJeans] as the first female group of [HYBE]
This is a part that we have already responded to in detail in the email sent to CEO Min on April 22nd. We suspect that the reason why CEO Min claims that she did not receive an email is because she cannot make such provocative but false claims if she has read the email. We send a detailed response as below:
‘CEO Min is making false statements based on her own distorted interpretation of the SOURCE MUSIC separation process. The reason why NewJeans couldn’t debut as HYBE’s first girl group is not because HYBE didn’t keep our promise. At the time, you strongly insisted that you would debut [NewJeans] under your own label, while requesting the formation of a team of which you would have all the responsibilities. HYBE respected your opinion and transferred the members to ADOR despite opposition from SOURCE MUSIC and provided a large amount of funds worth 16 billion won (approximately US$11.6 million) so that NewJeans could debut the way you wanted . In this process, the NewJeans debut schedule could not fail to be postponed regardless of HYBE’s intention due to the division of the company and transfer of contracts.
Furthermore, you yourself have revealed this process before. In an interview with a media outlet published on March 24, 2022, you directly mentioned that the girl group’s project will proceed according to its plan and that the launch will be in the third quarter of 2022. You further commented: ‘A rushed debut only it can be a huge burden on young members. I don’t want everyone to feel rushed, so I’ve set Q3 2022 as the release time.’.
6. Regarding the claim that he was told not to promote NewJeans at the premiere
Due to the R&R (roles and responsibilities) dispute between SOURCE MUSIC and CEO Min, NewJeans’ debut schedule was postponed and SOURCE MUSIC’s LE SSERAFIM debuted first. As there was not adequate time for the promotions of the two groups because their debut schedules overlapped immediately, it was decided that minimum promotional periods would be defined. Furthermore, in the case of LE SSERAFIM member Sakura, articles about her ‘transfer to HYBE’ had already been published before she even signed a contract with HYBE. In the midst of this situation, if we promoted ADOR’s debut group as ‘a team made up of newcomers only’, there would be concerns about Sakura joining SOURCE MUSIC, as well as information about the composition of NewJeans’ members would be exposed . We made this request to protect the news value of both teams, and yet we shortened the period in between and started promoting NewJeans early.
In this regard, we also included our response in the email as follows:
‘Also, the moment when CEO Min’s interview [com um meio de comunicação] occurred was two months before the premiere of LE SSERAFIM (May 22, 2022), so it can be recognized that you already had plenty of time to promote your new girl group.
Your statement differs greatly from the perception of team members who know how much full support and commitment SOURCE MUSIC and HYBE have provided to ADOR’s success.
7. Regarding the allegation that HYBE is neglecting to promote NewJeans only
We have already responded in detail to this complaint in the response to the email she sent.
‘The HYBE Communications Organization is making every effort to promote NewJeans. Last year, 273 press releases were written and distributed for NewJeans alone. Compared to the 659 press releases from BIGHIT MUSIC, which operated a total of eight teams, including BTS as a group and individually, and 365 press releases from PLEDIS Entertainment, which operated four teams, including SEVENTEEN, it is difficult to claim that ‘we we only neglected the promotion of NewJeans’. Our PR is promoting all labels and artists without discrimination and doing our best to promote them.’
[…]
12. Why during the comeback period…? Regarding the claim that HYBE does not value NewJeans
The side that began attacking the company via email around the time of NewJeans’ comeback is CEO Min’s side. The records obtained through forensic analysis include instructions from CEO Min since April to prepare for a public opinion battle, along with records of creating noise to plague the company. We asked whether they thought the company would accept a compensation request that was irrational if they put pressure on the company at this time.
CEO Min’s side is the one who really threatens the company by using the artist as a hostage. If the compensation request is accepted, that’s good, otherwise, they intend to use this as a pretext to end the relationship.
Over the years, our company has responded to and committed to CEO Min’s repeated requests. However, this time we realized that these requests are part of the so-called ‘construction’ process to take over management, and we had no choice but to carry out a audit to protect the value of the multi-brand, regardless of the moment. The reason we also requested that she not mention the artist in press conferences and interviews is because we value the value of the artist.”
Source: Recreio
