he South China Morning Post (aka 'SCMP' or 'the Post', simplified Chinese: ????

;
traditional Chinese: ????; pinyin: Nnhu Zaobo; Jyutping: naam4 waa4 zou2 bou3), to
gether with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an Hong Kong English
-language newspaper with a circulation of 104,000, published by the SCMP Group.
In 2009, Reginald Chua, deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and fo
rmer editor of The Wall Street Journal's Asia edition, was appointed editor-in-c
hief of the paper, replacing CK Lau. Chua was joined by David Lague, formerly of
the International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal, as managing edito
r.[1] Chua has since stepped down, replaced by former Deputy Editor Cliff Buddle
.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Broadsheet
1.2 Circulation and profitability
1.3 Format
1.4 Online version
2 Alleged pro-Beijing bias and censorship
3 Notable staff
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
History
Broadsheet
South China Morning Post Ltd was founded by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham i
n 1903. The first edition of the paper was published on 6 November 1903.
From its founding, during the Qing dynasty (Ching dynasty) until 1913, one year
after the establishment of the Republic of China, it was known, in Chinese, as ??
?? (Nnqing Zaobo, lit. South Qing Morning Post). In 1913, its Chinese name was chan
ged to ???? (lit. South China Morning Post), and has remained as such since then.

The Chinese name of Sunday Morning Post is ??????? (Xingqir Nnhu Zaobo lit. Sunday So
th China Morning Post).
In November 1971, it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It was privatis
ed by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1987, and relisted in 1990.[citation
needed]
Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok's
News Corp in October 1993. His
end of 1997.[citation needed]
d chief executive officer on 1
Circulation and profitability

Kerry Media bought the controlling interest from

son, Kuok Khoon Ean, took over as chairman at the
Kuok Khoon Ean's sister, Kuok Hui Kwong, was name
Jan 2009.[2]

The paper's circulation has remained relatively constant at 104,000 copies since
2000.[citation needed] The average audited circulation for the first half of 20
07 stood at 106,054, while its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, has a re
adership of 80,865. In 2012, the readership of the SCMP and the Sunday Morning P
ost was estimated at 396,000.[3] Its readership outside Hong Kong remains at som
e 6,825 copies for the same period, again, relatively unchanged.[4] It also had
the position as the most profitable newspaper in the world on a per reader basis
, profit declined since peaking in 1997 at HK$805 million,[5] yet its growth pot
ential is viewed as being largely dependent on its ability to penetrate the wide
r Chinese market.[6]

The Group reported net profit of HK$338 million for the year 2006 (2005 = HK$246
m), the operating profit of HK$419m (2005 = HK$306m) was attributable mainly to
the newspaper operation.[7]
The selling price of the paper is HK$8 each from Monday to Saturday, and HK$10 f
or the Sunday Morning Post. A discounted student subscription is also available.
It was increased 14.5% (from HK$7) and 25% (from HK$8) respectively in August 2
011.
As of 26 August 2010, SCMP Group posted a profit of $52.3 million in the first h
alf of 2010.[8]
Format
The printed version of the Post is in a broadsheet format, in sections: Main, Ci
ty, Sport, Business, Classifieds, Property (Wednesday), Racing (Wednesday), Tech
nology (Tuesday), Education (Saturday), Style magazine (first Friday of every mo
nth); the Sunday edition contains Main, a Review section, a Post Magazine, Racin
g, "At Your Service", a services directory, and "Young Post", targeted at younge
r readers.
On 26 March 2007, the Post was given a facelift, with new presentation and fonts
.[9] Another redesign in 2011 changed the typefaces to Farnham and Amplitude for
headlines, Utopia for text, and Freight for headers.[10]
Online version
Scmp.com is a subscription-only service, which also allows the retrieval of arch
ive articles dating back from 1993. It was launched online in December 1996. On
30 May 2007, scmp.com relaunched with a new look, features, and multimedia conte
nt. Headlines and the introduction to stories are now free to view, while the fu
ll articles are available to subscribers. Archive photos and articles are availa
ble for purchase.
On 16 July 2007, scmp.com launched its first-ever viral video marketing campaign
targeting a global audience and highlighting the new multimedia features of the
website.
At present, the SCMP also provide free subscription to "The South China Morning
Post iPad edition" for the Apple iPad.[11]
Alleged pro-Beijing bias and censorship
The Kuok family is known to be pro-Beijing, and questions have been raised over
the paper's editorial independence.[5] There have been concerns, denied by Kuok,
over the forced departures, in rapid succession, of several staff and contribut
ors who were considered critical of China or its supporters in Hong Kong. These
included, in the mid-1990s, their popular cartoonist Larry Feign, humour columni
st Nury Vittachi, and numerous China-desk staff, namely 2000 01 editorial pages ed
itor Danny Gittings, Beijing correspondent Jasper Becker, and China pages editor
Willy Lam, who departed after his reporting had been publicly criticised by Rob
ert Kuok.[12][13][14][15] Cartoonist Feign was abruptly dismissed not long after
Kuok's purchase of the newspaper, after running several cartoons about the cull
ing of human body parts from Chinese prisoners. His firing was defended as "cost
cutting", but was widely viewed as political self-censorship during the jittery
final years before Hong Kong's handover to the PRC.[16]
Editorial page editor Gittings complained that in January 2001 he was told to ta
ke a "realistic" view of editorial independence and ordered not to run extracts
of the Tiananmen Papers but was allowed to only after protesting "strenuously".
The editor, however, believed that there had already been sufficient coverage.[1
7]

At the launch of a joint report published by the Hong Kong Journalists' Associat
ion and Article 19 in July 2001, the chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Asso
ciation said: "More and more newspapers self-censor themselves because they are
controlled by either a businessman with close ties to Beijing, or part of a larg
e enterprise, which has financial interests over the border."[12]
Mark Clifford, former editor-in-chief of The Standard from 2004 06, was hired as e
ditor-in-chief of 'The Post' in February 2006.[18] He presided over the controve
rsial dismissal of several journalists over an internal prank,[19][20] and himse
lf resigned with effect 1 April 2007.[21]
Editor-in-Chief Wang Xiangwei was criticised for his decision to reduce paper's
coverage of the death of Li Wangyang on 7 June 2012. Wang reportedly reversed th
e decision to run a full story, and instead published a two-paragraph report ins
ide the paper; other news media reported it prominently.[22] A senior staff memb
er who sought to understand the decision circulated the resulting email exchange
s, that indicate he received a stern rebuff from Wang.[23] Self-censorship conce
rns were raised in the Chinese-language press of the territory because Wang is C
hinese-born, and is a member of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Chinese Pe
ople's Political Consultative Conference; the paper has since stepped up coverag
e of the death and aftermath as major news stories.[24] Wang made a statement on
21 June, in which he said he understood the "huge responsibility to deliver new
s... [and]... the journalistic heritage we have inherited". and said that his de
cision not to pursue extensive coverage as the story broke was pending "more fac
ts and details surrounding the circumstances of this case".[25]
Reporter Paul Mooney, whose contract with the paper was not renewed in May 2012,
said that the Li Wangyang story was not an isolated incident: "[Wang Xiangwei h
as] long had a reputation as being a censor of the news... Talk to anyone on the
China reporting team at the South China Morning Post and they ll tell you a story
about how Wang has cut their stories, or asked them to do an uninteresting stor
y that was favorable to China."[26]
Despite the pro-Beijing sentiments of the owners, the Morning Post does report o
n commemorations of the Tiananmen Square Massacre,[27] and has run editorials cr
iticizing the one-child policy.[28]