Alibaba Group Holding Limited recently announced that it has entered into a definite agreement to acquire the South China Morning Post (SCMP), top English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, and other media assets of SCMP Group Limited.
This is not the first foray of the Chinese e-commerce group into the media landscape. The Group itself edites a self owned digital media platform called Alizyla and on 6th November this same year Alibaba announced the merger between one of its affiliate companies and Youku Tudou Inc. a leading multi-screen entertainment and media company in China.
Alibaba’s movements in the media landscape follow The Washington Post purchase by James Bethos (Founder of Amazon) in 2013, but SCMP’s acquisition by Alibaba goes far beyond any kind of personal investment by Jack Ma it means a decided foray into the global media business by the Chinese e-commerce group.
Why paper and why English?
On a letter to the readers of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) published on 11th December, Alibaba makes two key estatements about the reasons why under this operation.
The first one: “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”…”we see the perfect opportunity to marry our technology with the deep heritage of the SCMP to create a vision of news for the digital age.”
And the second one: “Our vision is to grow the readership globally. We believe we can do this because the SCMP, from its base in Hong Kong, is uniquely positioned to report on China with objectivity, depth and insight, a proposition that is in high demand by readers around the English-speaking world (from New York to London to its home in Hong Kong) who care to better understand the world’s second largest economy.”
Alibaba changes SCMP business model to free access
In the era of the freemium content Alibaba bets for the free access model to quality contents.
“To help achieve our vision, we plan to make the SCMP more readily available. In this spirit, with enough preparation time after we take over operations, the pay wall on SCMP.com will come down, and you will be able to access its content for free on the Internet and on your mobile device.”
“We will also invest to strengthen the foundation of editorial excellence. Only through additional resources will the SCMP be able to stay true to its core values of quality, integrity and trust. Further, the SCMP will stay close to its roots, with a strong China focus offering distinctive and informed analysis on trade, business, economy and society while maintaining its status as the paper of record for Hong Kong.”
The deal includes other top global fashion and lifestyle magazines, but many more
Apart from the flagship South China Morning Post newspaper, the agreement includes the acquisition of the magazine, recruitment, outdoor media, events & conferences, education and digital media businesses of SCMP Group Limited. Besides the broadsheet, other SCMP titles include the Sunday Morning Post, its digital platforms SCMP.com and related mobile apps, and the two Chinese websites Nanzao.com and Nanzaozhinan.com. The acquisition also includes a portfolio of magazine titles including the Hong Kong editions of Esquire, Elle, Cosmopolitan, The PEAK and Harper’s Bazaar.
No plans have been unveiled by Alibaba so far on these assets.
Image over the headline.- Alibaba logo and SCMP Group logo. Respectively © Alibaba Group and © SCMP Group
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