The Alibaba Group, the
Chinese Internet giant, is making an ambitious play to reshape media coverage
of its home country, taking aim at what company executives call the “negative”
portrayal of China in the Western media.
As the backbone of this
effort, Alibaba agreed on Friday to buy the media assets of the SCMP Group,
including one of Hong Kong’s most influential English language daily
newspapers, The South China Morning Post. The company is acquiring an
award-winning newspaper that for decades has reported aggressively on subjects
that China’s state-run media outlets are forbidden to cover, like political
scandals and human-rights cases.
Alibaba said the deal
was fueled by a desire to improve China’s image and offer an alternative to the
biased lens of Western news media outlets. While Alibaba said the Chinese
government had no role in its deal to buy the Hong Kong newspaper, the
company’s position aligns closely with that of the Communist Party, which has
grown increasingly critical of the way Western news organizations cover China.
Such biases, the
company said, influence how investors and others outside China regard Alibaba.
The company said its shares, which are listed in New York, were being affected
by all the negative reports about China.
“Our business is so
rooted in China, and touches so many aspects of the Chinese economy, that when
people don’t really understand China and have the wrong perception of China,
they also have a lot of misconceptions about Alibaba,” Joseph C. Tsai,
Alibaba’s executive vice chairman, said in an interview.
“What’s good for China
is also good for Alibaba,” Mr. Tsai added. He echoed a phrase often attributed
to the former head of General Motors: What’s good for G.M. is good for America.
For Alibaba, the
financial stakes are not significant. Estimated to be worth $100 million, the
deal represents a relatively small amount for a company with more than $12
billion in annual revenue.
The bigger risk is
reputational, as Alibaba leaps into the realm of politics. In owning The South
China Morning Post, Alibaba will control a news organization that operates
along a border that separates two systems, one in Hong Kong with a relatively
free press and another in mainland China with strict censorship controls.
As speculation of a
deal began swirling in recent weeks, some critics in Hong Kong had already
started to worry about whether Alibaba was seeking to tame the paper’s coverage
in order to curry favor with the Chinese leadership.
The newspaper, which is
not subject to China’s strict censorship rules, has long jumped into
controversial issues on the mainland like the anniversary of 1989 pro-democracy
protests in the Tiananmen Square and last year’s Occupy Central movement in
Hong Kong. The newspaper has delved into scandals among China’s elite,
including Ling Jihua, who served as an aide to the former Chinese president Hu
Jintao.
Willy Lam, a political
commentator and former editor at the South China Morning Post, said an Alibaba
takeover would likely exacerbate a trend at the paper toward self-censorship on
sensitive political issues.
Alibaba, however, said
it had no intention of interfering with the day-to-day operations of the paper
and would not censor articles. The company said it would ensure the paper’s
journalistic independence and integrity.
“We’ll operate on
principles,” said Mr. Tsai of Alibaba. “We’ll let the editors make their
judgment on what to publish and not to publish. I can’t think of anything being
off-limits.”
But Mr. Tsai did not
offer details about how Alibaba would execute its vision for more positive
coverage on China without sacrificing editorial independence, two agendas that
are seemingly at odds. He said that more “fair and accurate” articles would
translate, over time, into a more positive image of the country.
With a print
circulation of 100,000, The South China Morning Post is relatively small. But
the newspaper, which is 113 years old, has outsize influence in the West
because of its proximity to China and its English language format.
Since 1993, the SCMP
Group has been controlled by the family of the Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok,
who has extensive business interests in China through its control of the Kerry
Group. The South China Morning Post was once controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s
News Corporation.
In addition to The
South China Morning Post, Alibaba is also buying the SCMP Group’s other media
assets, including a portfolio of fashion, travel and lifestyle publications.
(Starting in February, copies of The International New York Times for Hong Kong
and China will be printed by The South China Morning Post.)
But the SCMP Group,
like many media operations around the world, is facing financial pressure. The
newspaper’s print circulation has dipped, and its profit growth has been
lackluster.
Alibaba said it planned
to invest in the business, by expanding the staff and developing more digital
ventures. The company is also looking to remove the website’s paywall, granting
free access to its content.
Some free press
advocates worry that a mainland entrepreneur could face intense pressure from
the Chinese government to restrict news coverage or to follow directives of the
propaganda arm of the Communist Party. In recent years, there have been growing
concerns in Hong Kong that the Chinese government has asked entrepreneurs and
advertisers to withdraw support of any publication that is deemed to be hostile
to the Communist Party.
“Alibaba and Jack Ma
have done a good job” in “maintaining good relations with the power structure
and not getting involved in politics,” said Orville Schell, the former dean of
the journalism school at the University of California, Berkeley, and a director
at the Asia Society.
By DAVID BARBOZA
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