Digg's Gary Liu has been tapped to become the South China Morning Post's new CEO. (Photo : Twitter)
News aggregator Digg will be losing its CEO to the South China Morning Post, which was acquired by e-commerce giant Alibaba earlier this year.
According to the SCMP, Gary Liu, 33, will be joining the Hong Kong-based newspaper as its chief executive officer effective Jan. 03, 2017. Liu will be moving from Digg's headquarters in New York.
"We are incredibly excited to welcome Gary as the next chief executive officer of the SCMP. Our readers expect SCMP to maintain its editorial excellence while staying relevant in the face of technology disruption," Joe Tsai, Chairman of the SCMP Board of Directors, said.
As an influencer and innovator in digital media and someone with roots in Greater China, Gary is the perfect fit to take SCMP's vision--coverage of Greater China from an Asian perspective for a global audience--to the next level and show our readers the future of news in the age of mobile and social media."
Aside from spearheading Digg, Liu also worked as a business development executive at Spotify. He joined the news aggregator website as its CEO last year. Tech Crunch described Liu as responsible for "[nursing Digg] back to good health" by tripling its revenues and growing its traffic and audience reach throughout his post.
Digg board member Josh Auerbach will be stepping in as interim CEO, according to Tech Crunch.
This year, Alibaba acquired the SCMP for $262 million. Since then, the 113-year-old English newspaper has been boosting its digital strategy. Among its efforts to ramp up the newspaper's digital arm include improving mobile apps and plans of integrating e-commerce.
"I am delighted and honored to be the South China Morning Post's next Chief Executive Officer, joining a world-class senior team that will transform the SCMP into a leading digital media and news company, while maintaining the paper's legacy of journalistic integrity and excellence.
"We are in a contentious media world where shifting consumer behaviors and platforms are redefining how news is reported, distributed, and discovered. It is both a grand challenge and an exceptional opportunity for the SCMP," Liu said in a blog post.
