The SCMP buy does not make sense for Alibaba - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

For more than a decade the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post has been destroying its image as a quality paper it still was in the 1990. Key journalists were fired or walked away voluntarily. The purchase by Alibaba gives observers new reason for worry. It does not make sense for Alibaba, says business analyst Shaun Rein in the Star Beacon Herald.

The Star Beacon Herald.

During its glory days in the 1980s, the South China Morning Post was one of the world’s most profitable newspapers and was hugely respected for its coverage of mainland China. 

But the internet media revolution and changes in rules on how Hong Kong-listed firms announce company news have caused a drop in readership and profitability. 

The SCMP Group, which gets 68% of revenues from newspaper publishing, made a net profit of HK$136.8m ($17.65m) in 2014, less than the HK$223.7m it made in 2013. The newspaper has a readership of 349,000 people. 

Its website has about four million unique visitors a month, of which two-thirds come from outside Hong Kong and China. 

Those are reasonable figures for a regional Asian newspaper, says Shaun Rein, managing director of the Shanghai-based China Market Research Group, but he does not believe the deal make sense for Alibaba. 

“It looks like they’re a little lost,” he says. “What’s their strategy? Is it to integrate the newspaper into the rest of its business? If so, I don’t see how they would do that given you can’t even read the SCMP in mainland China right now.” 

He adds the deal would make sense only from a strategic, relationship-building point of view. 

“It might be a way of currying favour [with]the Chinese government, for the most important English-language newspaper in Hong Kong to be owned by a pro-Beijing, pro-business company,” he says. 

Over the past year, Alibaba has purchased shares in several media companies, including the China Business Network and Youku Tudou. But its purchase of the SCMP Group is the most controversial yet.

More in the Star Beacon Herald.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

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The State of the Hong Kong media - China Weekly Hangout

When I arrived in Asia in the 1990s, Hong Kong's media were leading opinion makers. As a non-native in Asia, especially as a journalist, the South China Morning Post, the Far Eastern Economic Revu (FEER), Asiaweek and a few others, with the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club as informal headquarter, were compulsory reading.
As I studied Chinese at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, I would collected my newspapers and magazines (like porn in a brown envelope, and always a few days too late), and I would sit down with a beer in the bar of the building for foreign students to digest the world news.
Meanwhile, the two magazines have folded. I just thought the other day the South China Morning Post had an interesting article, but their outdated firewall kept me effectively from reading it. Since those days, the internet and the social media have effectively replaced my news consumption. The whole world is at my fingertips, without making them dirty. And the old media, in digital format, still belong to my news digest, but very few are Hong Kong based.
How has Hong Kong fared and their news outlets, is the subject of next week's China Weekly Hangout? In 1997, when China took over Hong Kong, many feared Asia's media capital would be killed. Well, it looks it has been killed, but not on orders from Beijing, but by the failure to keep up with the times.

Reason enough to organize on March 14 a China Weekly Hangout on the state of the media in Hong Kong. Joining is from Hong Kong is +Paul Fox , lecturer (Asian Studies / Media Studies) at the HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education, and possibly a whole other bunch of people.

The China Weekly Hangout is held on Thursday 14 March, 10pm Beijing Time, 3pm CET (Europe) and 9am EST (US/Canada). You can register at our event page. If you are not selected for the official hangout, you can leave your remarks and questions at Twitter and Google+ (do include our hash tag #CWHCWH).

Please note we try to limit the duration of the hangout to 30, 45 minutes at most. If you report for duty too late, you might not get access. In the future we hope to add annotation to the hangouts, so browsing becomes easier (and we might make them longer), but current resources do not yet allow this now.

You can view our hangout both here and at our event page. Earlier China Weekly Hangouts, you can find here. 

How are China's media doing in Africa? That is the question the China Weekly Hangout is asking itself coming Thursday, March 7, in a first session on China's international politics. We will be joined by Eric Olander of the China Africa Project, and other guests. You can read our announcement here, or register directly to participate on our event page. 

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My China news radar, and other stories

Google plus laptop (Photo credit: jf1234)

Last year around this time I was planning to write a book on how I survive in this digital world. How does my digital radar screen looks like? How do I select my China news? What tools do I use? And what do I pass on to the rest of the world, and hope to add to the digital radar screens of others?
It was not meant for the digital vanguard, who does not need my guidance, but for the large number of people who are clueless when it comes to figuring out how to make their own selection of news in this fast changing digital world. When you are in the vanguard, it might be a no-brainer, but for many who do not deal with China-related news on a daily basis, life is not that easy. (Although, when I see how many seasoned China experts take the Business Insider as a serious media, I do get worried.)
Unfortunately (or also partly fortunately), I was not able to finish my master piece. Apart from some business activities, also Google+ took off. That took even more of my time and although I did write a fair bit of words together at the time, because of the take-off of Google plus I would have to add new sections on business pages, communities, the way Google is changing its search function.
So, when I look back, changing and finishing a real book does not seem to be right and possible. By the time I might have finished this Sisyphus labor, Google or another internet company has completely changed the playing field again. But the idea of sharing some of my tools, and opening it up for scrutiny, still seems a good idea. So I will start publishing the different chapters - after I have revamped them here - and look for your input.
It will focus on China, but the tools are those of the world outside China. For pragmatic reasons: my client base and audience is mostly outside of China. And making sense out of the internet in China itself, that is a specialized work I rather leave to others, who are more qualified.
See this as a pre-announcement. I will possibly publish them on special pages on this weblog, but always link to this weblog, to my Google account at +Fons Tuinstra and my community China Debate. Of course, I will set up now and then a +China Weekly Hangout to discuss this effort. Since it is also focusing om media tactics, other sites might also be on my target lists. And you can add this site to your RSS reader, of course.
Stay tuned.

Which reminds me. In one of the upcoming China Weekly Hangouts, together with +Paul Fox 

English: 的士司機和南華早報 Category:South China Morning Post Category:Taxis in Hong Kong Category:User:ChvhLR10 - Gallery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

we will focus on the way how the media landscape in Hong Kong has changed. When I arrived in the region, at the beginning of the 1990s, the South China Morning Post, was leading the English-language media, complete with the now fully defunct Asiaweek, the Far Eastern Economic Review (I even had to look up that name :-)) and others. State-owned media from the mainland try to carve out their piece of the action, and social media have changed Hong Kong beyond recognition. 
Do you want to join the debate? Drop me a line.
The subject might be too large for one session of 45 minutes, but we might split it up if needed.

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