Alibaba to buy South China Morning Post (Photo : Reuters)
Jack Ma's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. announced that they will buy Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
The e-commerce giant agreed to buy South China Morning post as well as its other affiliated media, worth HK $2.06 billion ($266 million), Bloomberg reported.
According to SCMP Group Ltd., the agreement includes other media such the old newspaper as well as magazines. Moreover, the agreement includes SCMP's digital assets and advertising.
Because of the rising free online publication, it becomes a factor for SCMP to join other brands for advertising and to attract possible advertisers.
Meanwhile, Alibaba said that it will close SCMP's Internet pay wall, and the editorial decisions, as explained by the company, will operate in the newsroom and not in corporate boardroom.
Alibaba buying South China Morning Post will stir some implication including questions on the outlook of the media outlet's editorial independence.
City University of Hong Kong political analyst James Sung said that it will be interesting if the media employees, including reporters and editorial staff, will stay, Reuters reported.
In addition, Francis Lee, professor of School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that SCMP was already owned by business before having close ties with Chinese government.
South China Morning Post, with a circulation at 100,000, is a century-old English-language newspaper circulation in Hong Kong and was founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunninghum.
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