On April 24, Dispatch shared an exclusive report, shedding light on the inner workings of ADOR and Min Hee Jin’s role in the debut of NewJeans.
As per Dispatch, Minji became a part of Source Music in 2017, followed by Hanni in 2019. Both of them joined the company after successfully passing the global auditions held by Big Hit and Source Music.
Haerin and Danielle also joined Source Music as trainees in 2020. The final member, Hyein, was discovered online, passed the audition, and signed with Source Music.
This implies that Minji, Hanni, Haerin, Danielle, and Hyein were all chosen by Source Music’s CEO, So Sung Jin. All five members trained at Source Music until late 2021.
Min Hee Jin joined HYBE in 2019. As the chief brand officer, she led the company’s rebranding from Big Hit to HYBE. During this period, HYBE announced that Min Hee Jin would be “overseeing creative direction for multiple labels and spearheading the launch of a new girl group. They were also planning to set up a new label to enhance their capabilities in discovering new talents and music production.”
Min Hee Jin was brought on board to prepare a new girl group for Source Music. However, she expressed her desire to launch the group under her own independent label, leading to the inception of ADOR.
She selected trainees from Source, including Minji, Hanni, Haerin, Danielle, and Hyein, and reimbursed Source Music for their training expenses.
While Min Hee Jin is often dubbed the “Mother of NewJeans” due to her role in producing the group, it was So Sung Jin who initially selected the girls and dedicated three years to their development. No one can deny Min Hee Jin’s efforts in shaping NewJeans into who they are today.
Min Hee Jin reinvented the Y2K look, gave it a modern twist, and completed the Korean-style easy listening with top Korean producer 250 (Lee Oh Gong).
For her contributions, Min Hee Jin received compensation. HYBE’s board of directors allowed Min Hee Jin to purchase ADOR shares at a significantly low price instead of stock options. As a result, Min Hee Jin now holds 18% (573,160 shares) of ADOR, making her the second-largest shareholder.
Dispatch highlighted a past interview of Min Hee Jin, where she said, “I received similar investment offers from other places at the time, so there was no reason it had to be with HYBE.” However, Dispatch criticized her for exploiting Source Music and taking their trainees. Dispatch pointed out, “She is the biggest beneficiary of the HYBE system. She utilized the HYBE trainee pool to select the NewJeans members. They were not discovered by Min Hee Jin but chosen from Source Music.”
Dispatch concluded, “Min Hee Jin would be able to take credit for NewJeans’ success. On the other hand, HYBE would be the one to shoulder the debt if NewJeans had failed.”
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