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유진 조는 앵커리지 코리안 뉴스의 최신 호를 손에 들고 시내의 한 상 점에 들어섰습니다. 그는 올해 1월 에 이 무료 주간 신문을 인수하였습 니다.

“안녕하세요”라고 그는 한국어로 벤 자민 김에게 인사합니다.

김은 인쇄소인 Copy Alaska의 주인 으로, 또한 조의 신문에 광고를 게재 하며 다른 한인 사업주들에게 포스 시스템을 판매하고 있습니다. 이 가 게는 도시 전역에 있는 약 100개의 신문 배포 지점 중 하나입니다.

미국 인구조사국의 추산에 따르면, 앵커리지는 약 4,400명의 한인 인구 를 보유하고 있으며, 이 도시는 여전 히 한인들을 대상으로 다양한 광고 로 가득한 두 개의 주간 한국어 신문 을 출간하고 있습니다. 두 신문 모두 올해 새로운 활력을 얻었습니다.

17년 전 한국에서 미국으로 이민 온 김은 조가 지역 한인 커뮤니티와 전 체 커뮤니티 간의 훌륭한 다리 역할 을 하고 있다고 말씀하셨습니다. “문 화를 연결한다”는 신문의 모토의 일 부이며 자주 언급됩니다.

“왜냐하면, 현재는 젊은 한국계 미국 인들이 한국 커뮤니티의 미래이지만, 그들은 여기서 태어났기 때문에 한 국어 실력이 조금 부족합니다.”라고 유진 조는 전했습니다.

조는 현재 30대 후반이며 어느 정 도 한국어를 구사합니다. 그가 신문 을 인수했을 때 처음으로 만든 변화 중 하나는 세대 및 언어 격차를 줄이 기 위해 신문을 이중 언어로 만드는 것이었습니다.

“우리가 여기서 한국 분들을 지원하 고 돕지 않는다면, 이곳의 한국 커뮤 니티는 단순히 영어를 사용하는 커 뮤니티가 될 것입니다”라고 그는 말 하였습니다.

그의 목표 중 하나는 여러 온라인 플랫폼에서 이 신문 웹사이트의 존 재감을 키우는 것입니다. 이것이야말 로 그가 전문성을 발휘하고 열정을 쏟을 수 있는 분야입니다.

“저는 온라인으로 사람들과 소통할 수 있다는 사실이 항상 흥미로웠습 니다” 라고 그는 말씀하였습니다. ” 많은 분들이 아시겠지만, 알래스카 는 상당히 외딴 곳입니다. 저는 비디 오 게임을 많이 하며 자랐기 때문에 어디서든 사람들과 연결하고 관계를 형성할 수 있었습니다.”

최근 그는 알래스카의 한국전 참전 용사들과의 비디오 인터뷰 시리즈 작업을 하고 있습니다. 그가 작업을 하면서 알게 된 사실은, 살아있는 참 전 용사들이 대부분 90대라는 사실 입니다.

“이 이야기를 통해 한국인들이 그들 이 겪은 일을 볼 수 있기를 바랍니다” 라고 조는 말하였습니다. “또한 한국 전쟁에 대해 아무것도 모르는 젊은 한국계 미국인들도, 이 분들은 한국 전쟁에 참전하셨던 분들이고 그들이 겪은 일들에 대해 알 수 있기를 바랍 니다.”

이 이야기는 원래 알래스카 퍼블릭 미디어(Alaska Public Media)에 의해 처음 게시되었으며, 허가를 받아 여기에서 재게시되었습니다.

Eugene Cho walks into a downtown business with a small stack of the latest edition of the Anchorage Korean News in hand. He bought the free, weekly newspaper in January.  

“안녕하세요” or “Annyeonghaseyo,” he says, greeting Benjamin Kim in Korean. 

Kim owns the print shop Copy Alaska. He also sells point-of-sale systems that he markets to other Korean business owners in Cho’s newspaper. The shop is one of nearly 100 distribution points for the paper around the city.

The outlook for the print news business is bleak, nationally and in Alaska. This year, the Anchorage Daily News went from printing hardcopies six days a week to two – even after winning American journalism’s highest honor in 2020. Its newsroom employees are forming a union to negotiate for better working conditions.

Yet, Anchorage, which the U.S. Census Bureau estimates has a Korean population of roughly 4,400 people, continues to support two weekly Korean language newspapers that are both dense with paid advertising. Both papers have gotten new blood this year.

Kim, who immigrated from South Korea to the United States 17 years ago, said Cho is a good bridge between the local Korean community and the community at large. “Bridging cultures” is part of the paper’s motto, and it comes up a lot. 

Cho bought the newspaper through a connection at a Korean cultural nonprofit that he’s on the board of. His professional background is in digital marketing, so reporting and putting together 700 copies a week of a print newspaper are new to him.

There was no grand plan when he bought the paper, he said. But he thinks it’s an important way to tie Anchorage’s Korean community together.

“‘Cause, we’re kind of in this phase where we’ve got younger Korean Americans who are the future of the Korean community,” he said. “But we were born here, so we don’t really speak Korean, right?”

He’s in his late 30s now, and does speak some Korean. One of the first changes he made when he took over the paper was to make it bilingual, to help bridge that generational and language gap. 

That’s one thing that distinguishes the Anchorage Korean News from the Alaskan Korean Community News, the city’s other free, Korean-language weekly. That paper is almost entirely in Korean. Coincidentally, Hye Ran Hunziker, who also goes by Helen, started as that paper’s do-it-all managing editor earlier this year. 

Cho enlists a combination of AI and someone who’s fluent to help translate and write in Korean. 

“We either need to learn Korean to help, you know, facilitate and support Koreans here,” he said, “or it’s just going to be an English-speaking Korean community.”

That intersectional gap also carries over to media habits. He said he has a different pitch for a first generation Korean immigrant to buy advertising with him, versus someone American-born. 

“You talk to them about online advertising, and it’s just like you can’t – you can’t connect, because they have no idea what that is,” he said.  One of his goals is to build up the newspaper’s website and presence on other online platforms. That’s where his expertise and passion are.

“I’ve always been intrigued by, just like, the ability to connect with people online,” he said. “You know, in Alaska, we’re kind of remote here, and I grew up playing a lot of video games, so it was nice to – you could connect with people anywhere, you know, and build relationships.

Lately, he’s been working on a video interview series with Korean War veterans in Alaska. He said the few that are still alive are mostly in their 90s. 

“I hope that by capturing these stories, Koreans can see what they experienced,” Cho said. “But also, younger Korean Americans who know nothing about the Korean War, right? who may have not ever even visited Korea, can see, like, firsthand, this is a person who fought in the Korean War, and here’s what they lived through.”

Cho’s own story begins in the late 1980s, after his parents immigrated to Alaska.

“My dad was a janitor at Romig (Middle School) and West High,” he said. “My mom worked for Sky Chefs, preparing food for planes. And then, you know, they just saved as much money as possible. In the 90s, my dad started a travel agency.” 

He said he grew up with a split cultural identity, which is common with the children of immigrants: all Korean at home, and wanting to fit in and be more mainstream American everywhere else.

His dad’s travel agency, which does its business in Korean, is still going. Cho’s office for the newspaper and his digital advertising business is inside the agency’s suite in Midtown.

After finishing up at Copy Alaska, Cho ticks another delivery of the Anchorage Korean News off his list for the week. It can be an exhausting grind and isn’t a big moneymaker, he said. 

But he’s eager to make it work. He has lots of questions about journalism. 

“Has AI impacted your work at all?” he asks. “What kind of stories do Alaskans love the most? … How do you know when a news article’s doing well?” 

He’s still learning, and excited about where the paper’s going.

This story was originally published by Alaska Public Media and is republished here with permission.