Copies of South China Morning Post are sold at a news stand in Hong Kong
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the e-commerce giant headed by billionaire Jack Ma, agreed to buy Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and other affiliated media assets as the Internet tycoon follows in the footsteps of Jeff Bezos in pursuing the revival of a century-
old newspaper.
Though financial terms weren’t disclosed, Alibaba said in a statement on Friday that the purchase will include the flagship newspaper and related businesses including the Hong Kong editions of Esquire, Elle and other magazines, and recruitment. The Chinese company also said it will scrap the publication’s Internet pay wall and that editorial decisions will be made “in the newsroom, not in the corporate boardroom.”
The SCMP, once the envy of the industry in terms of profitability, has in recent years joined other mastheads in struggling to attract advertisers amid the rise of free publications online. Control of the city’s premier English-
language broadsheet has been unchanged since media magnate Rupert Murdoch sold most of his stake to Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok in 1993.
“Jack Ma is such an innovative and visionary figure that the future of the South China Morning Post under his control may actually be somewhat brighter,” said Peter Schloss, managing partner of CastleHill Partners LLC, a Beijing-based advisory and investment company. “Robert Kuok has lost interest in it. Jack would come in and invigorate it to move it firmly in the digital space.”
For Alibaba, the purchase of the publication would raise the profile of its growing media empire. In June, Alibaba announced the purchase of a stake in one of China’s most influential business media companies and months later, helped set up a media and entertainment company called CMC Holdings.
It’s not just news. In November, Alibaba agreed to buy video service Youku Tudou Inc. to stream more content to Chinese Internet users through control of the YouTube-like site, and also invested in Paramount Pictures’ latest “Mission Impossible” movie through its Alibaba Pictures Group unit.
Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma
Alibaba’s Ma also follows Amazon.com Inc.’s Bezos – who bought the Washington Post in 2013 – among Internet tycoons snapping up storied brands at a time printed media struggles to compete with Web-based competitors for advertising. Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook Inc., bought a majority stake in the New Republic magazine in 2012. Axel Springer SE, the German media company led by Mathias Doepfner, bid for the Financial Times earlier this year, which was sold to Japan’s Nikkei Inc. for $1.3 billion.
Back at the SCMP, the sale gives the 112-year-old newspaper an owner armed with more than 100 billion yuan (USD15.5 billion) in cash and investments. SCMP Group, the paper’s listed parent, has seen three years of profit declines and had it not been for some extraordinary gains, its latest semiannual profit would have plunged more than 40 percent.
Alibaba is taking on the media business, which includes the newspaper and magazine publishing operations that generate more than 90 percent of the SCMP Group’s revenue and about 65 percent of adjusted operating profits. Besides newspapers and magazines, the SCMP also has a business segment that leases out various real estate properties.
But, the pace of Alibaba’s acquisitions has made some investors uneasy. Just this year, Alibaba has 27 deals pending or completed, excluding the SCMP, totaling USD15 billion. Investors worry Alibaba is not focused enough on its core business of e-commerce, according to Henry Guo, a Summit Research Partners analyst.
“Investors are increasingly concerned about the company’s spending,” Guo said. “It’s hard to predict how the media content is going to play out for Alibaba for the next three, four, five years.”
Alibaba’s U.S.-traded shares slumped, along with the broader markets. The stock fell 5.4 percent to USD79.74 at the market’s close in New York, bringing the decline for the year to 23 percent.
Still, given the newspaper’s influence, the deal may have implications beyond just profits and sales.
“Jack Ma would view an acquisition of the South China Morning Post as a national service,” Schloss said. “He’d be doing the central government a favor by ensuring that the South China Morning Post is in friendly hands.”
SCMP Group has been suspended from trading since February 2013 after the company failed to have at least 25 percent of shares held by minority investors, the minimum proportion required for a company to trade its shares in Hong Kong. Bloomberg
More freedom to report in HK
The Post and other news media in the former British colony have more freedom to report because the city has a mini-constitution that guarantees freedom of the press and other civil liberties not seen on the mainland. However, there’s widespread concern that press freedom is shrinking as Beijing, which took control of Hong Kong in 1997, tightens its grip on the city.
The 112-year-old Post was once reputed to be the world’s most profitable newspaper on a per-reader basis although its fortunes have suffered in line with the wider decline in the traditional newsprint industry as readers shift to online news sites.
Its influence has also been overtaken by Chinese dailies since Beijing took control of the city from Britain in 1997, although it still retains an important position among the city’s English-speaking elite.
“Why is Alibaba buying into traditional media, considered by some a sunset industry? The simple answer is that we don’t see it that way,” Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai mentioned in a statement, as he outlined a lofty vision of marrying Alibaba’s experience in technology with the Post’s journalism track record to create a China-focused media giant with an international audience.
As part of its goal to broaden its readership, the company plans to stop charging for access to the Post’s website, SCMP.com, Joe Tsai also mentioned.
“Our vision is to expand the SCMP’s readership globally through digital distribution and easier access to content,” he said.
The newspaper’s magazine division has a license to publish the local Chinese-language editions of Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar. It also has a stake in the Bangkok Post newspaper. It took its first step into e-commerce in October by buying a majority stake in fashion site MyDress.com.
The newspaper’s current owner, Malaysian sugar tycoon Robert Kuok, bought it thr through his Kerry Group from media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 1993.
SCMP Group’s net profit has declined for the past four years, falling last year to 137 million Hong Kong dollars (USD17.7 million) on HKD1.2 billion in revenue, according to its latest annual report. Its stock has been suspended from trading on Hong Kong’s stock market since February 2013, when the number of shares freely traded by the public fell below the exchange’s minimum requirement. MDT/Agencies
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