Alibaba buys newspaper to ‘improve China’s image’

Head of Alibaba Group Chinese Jack Ma gestures as he speaks during the”Action Day”at the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget north of Paris, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. President Francois Hollande is encouraging mayors of the world to get involved in fighting climate change and praising those that are already setting an example with low-emission buildings and public transport policies. (AP PhotoMichel Euler)

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has confirmed that it’s agreed to buy Hong Kong English-language newspaper “South China Morning Post”, similar to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s $250 million buyout of The Washington Post. The deal is worth just over HK$2 billion, or about $266 million, and includes other SCMP Group properties like the Hong Kong editions of Cosmopolitan and Esquire, according to The Verge’s Sam Byford.

Some have expressed fears that SCMP may see compromising changes under Jack Ma’s Alibaba. The company says its purchase was “fueled by a desire to improve China’s image and offer an alternative to what it calls the biased lens of Western news outlets,” according to The New York Times.

Executive vice-chairman Joseph Tsai attempted to address the criticism. “Some have suggested that ownership by Alibaba will compromise the SCMP’s editorial independence,” Tsai wrote in an open letter to SCMP readers. “This criticism reflects a bias of its own, as if to say newspaper owners must espouse certain views, while those that hold opposing views are ‘unfit.’ In fact, that is exactly why we think the world needs a plurality of views when it comes to China coverage. China’s rise as an economic power and its importance to world stability is too important for there to be a singular thesis.”

“In reporting the news, the SCMP will be objective, accurate and fair,” Tsai added. “This means having the courage to go against conventional wisdom, and taking care to verify stories, check sources and seek all viewpoints. These day-to-day editorial decisions will be driven by editors in the newsroom, not in the corporate boardroom.”

The paper was noted for its strong coverage of the widespread protests in Hong Kong last year, for example, and reported on the annual vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

Perhaps the SCMP’s biggest international exposure came when it interviewed Edward Snowden while he was in Hong Kong following the publication of his NSA disclosures. Tsai says Alibaba’s vision is to further “grow the readership globally,” and to that end the company will remove the paper’s paywall after taking it over. Whether the tenor of that content has changed by then, however, will be down to Alibaba.