In the 22nd National Assembly, a "press room" has emerged as a must-have for lawmakers and election contenders. A press room is a messaging room created by politicians to distribute schedules and press reference materials to journalists. In the past, officially arranged party press rooms were the norm, but recently, press rooms have been created at the individual politician level.
The number of participants in a press room varies widely by politician. As a result, there is even talk in Yeouido that the "number of press room participants" reflects a politician's "weight class." As politicians have recently ramped up online promotion using social media, they are paying much closer attention to their press rooms.
Looking at press rooms run by individual politicians, as of the 24th, the person with the most participants in the room was former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon. The number of participants in Han's press room was 604. After remaining quiet for a while following the presidential election, he began drawing attention again after declaring a run in the Busan Buk-gap National Assembly by-election. For reference, the official People Power Party press room has 760 participants, and the Democratic Party's official press room has 1,171.
Candidates in the Democratic Party's Seoul mayoral primary also showed differences in the size of their press rooms. Former Seongdong District Chief Chong Won-o, who was confirmed as the final candidate, had 472, and Rep. Park Ju-min, who made it to the runoff, had 471. Rep. Choo Mi-ae, elected as the Gyeonggi governor candidate, had 353, two to three times larger than other candidates. The press room of Kim Boo-kyum, seen as the Democratic Party's "sure-win card" in Daegu, had 434 participants.
Among People Power Party lawmakers, Rep. Na Kyung-won had a relatively large press room with 420 participants. Others included Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo with 392, Rep. Choo Kyung-ho with 323, and National Assembly Vice Speaker Joo Ho-young with 318. Rep. Joo Jin-woo, who ran for Busan mayor, had 221, and only 44 joined the press room of People Power Party candidate Choi Min-ho, who is seeking a second term as Sejong mayor.
Some politicians are putting significant effort into running personal press rooms. The more journalists who join a press room, the more coverage they receive. For local election campaign teams, it has also become common to assign several staffers to manage the press room.
An aide at the National Assembly said, "We tend to encourage people around us because the more people join the press room, the more media exposure we get," adding, "Naturally, journalists' interest will differ depending on the politician's moves and, accordingly, their weight class."