Members of K-pop group have demanded HYBE, their parent company, to bring back ousted CEO Min Hee-jin to her former position at their agency, ADOR.
In a live broadcast on YouTube on Sept. 11, NewJeans’ Hanni, Danielle, Minji, Haerin, and Hyein expressed their support to Min Hee-jin, who was removed from her position as ADOR CEO last month, and gave a Sept. 25 deadline to HYBE.
NewJeans during the live broadcast on Sept. 11 (Screenshot from YouTube video)
Former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin (HYBE)
New ADOR CEO Ju Young Kim (HYBE)
“What we want is the original form of management and production integrated under CEO Min Hee-jin. The reason we are making this request now is because this is the way to get along with HYBE. If our opinion has been conveyed well, I hope that Chairman Bang [Si-hyuk] and HYBE will make a wise decision to return ADOR to its original state by Sept. 25,” said Minji.
This is the first time that NewJeans members have directly addressed HYBE regarding its legal dispute with Min Hee-jin.
“Even before debuting as NewJeans, all of the time spent together with Min Hee-jin, all of us felt that the music we want to make and the world we want to build together, our vision, was similar in so many ways with Min Hee-jin,” said Danielle.
She added, “We were able to prepare each and every task with sincere hearts and I believe it shows in our work. Putting our sincere effort into something is only possible because of the people that we're working with have trust in each other and have that same vision.”
Danielle added, “Min Hee-jin is not only the person that produces our music but someone who makes NewJeans who we are, she discusses even the small details with us and explains them in ways that we can understand clearly. NewJeans has a distinct color and tone and this was created with Min Hee-jin. She is integral to NewJeans and we all feel that she is irreplaceable.”
According to Hanni, “Something we all find very important. Something that plays a very important role in our team’s color and image is our media content and creative production.”
“Despite saying that they would leave all the creative production to our now former CEO Min Hee-jin, through official statements that I think a lot of you might have already read or seen, and also during our personal meetings, they infringed our content,” she said.
Hanni added, “Content that not only we worked really hard on but also our staff who spent endless hours to produce and release them solely for our fans. And if they had any understanding about what type of team we are and the type of content that we create, they would have thought more deeply before crossing the line that they set for themselves.”
“Because of this incident we realized that there's not much we can do to prevent these type of issues. Personally the way that ADOR used to run was the business management and creative production was not separated and was factors that played and worked in harmony with each other,” she said.
According to Hanni, “That's how it worked and it was perfectly fine. It was our way of working and it’s our CEO’s way of producing content which a lot of you were able to enjoy and appreciate. But now that she's no longer CEO, these factors that should have continued to work together in harmony are now being seen as two different areas of work.”
During a board meeting on Aug. 27, ADOR ousted Min Hee-jin and she was replaced by Ju Young Kim, a human resources management expert at HYBE, and a member of ADOR board of directors.
NewJeans headlined the Coke Studio Ultimate Fandom Concert in Manila last Sept. 5.