South China Morning Post

Infobox Newspaper
name = South China Morning Post


type = Daily newspaper
format = broadsheet
foundation = 1903
owners = SCMP Group
headquarters = Hong Kong, China
editor = CK Lau
publisher =
ISSN =
website = [http://www.scmp.com/ scmp.com]

The "South China Morning Post", together with its Sunday edition, the "Sunday Morning Post", is an English-language newspaper of Hong Kong, with a circulation of 104,000. Published by the SCMP Group, the South China Morning Post has a higher print circulation than its main competitors in Hong Kong, "The Standard" and the "International Herald Tribune".

The editor is CK Lau, who replaced the controversial Mark Clifford after he was ousted in April 2007.Fact|date=September 2007

History

Broadsheet

South China Morning Post Ltd was founded in 1903. The first edition of the paper published on November 6, 1903. In November 1971, it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It was privatised by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1987, and relisted in 1990Fact|date=September 2007.

Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok's Kerry Media bought the controlling interest from News Corp in October 1993. His son, Kuok Khoon Ean, took over as chairman at the end of 1997Fact|date=September 2007.

Circulation and profitability

The paper has a circulation which has remained relatively constant at 104,000 copies since 2000, but is lower than a decade agoFact|date=September 2007. The average audited circulation for the first half of 2007 stood at 106,054, while its Sunday edition, the "Sunday Morning Post" has a readership of 80,865. Its readership outside Hong Kong remains at some 6,825 copies for the same period, again, relatively unchanged [cite web|publisher = Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations | title = Audit Report
accessdate = 2007-03-21 | url = http://www.hkabc.com.hk/en/index.htm] . It also had the enviable position as the most profitable newspaper in the world on a "per reader" basis, profit declined since peaking in 1997 at HK$805 millioncite news|title = Clash of civilizations at Hong Kong newspaper|last = Smith|first = Patrick|publisher = International Herald Tribune|date = November 19, 2006|accessdate = 2007-03-22|url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/19/business/paper20.php] , yet its growth potential is viewed as being largely dependent on its ability to penetrate the wider Chinese marketcite news|title = Two more top editors leave South China Morning Post|publisher = International Herald Tribune | date = January 29, 2007
accessdate = 2007-03-21 | url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/29/business/paper.php] .

The Group reported net profit of HK$338 million for the year 2006 ("2005 = HK$246m"), the operating profit of HK$419m ("2005 = HK$306m") was attributable mainly to the newspaper operation. [cite news
title = Ad revenue lifts SCMP profit 37pc
publisher = South China Morning Post
date = March 27, 2007 ] .

The selling price of the paper is HK$7 each from Monday to Saturday, and HK$8 for the "Sunday Morning Post". Discounted price is given for students' subscription.

Format

The printed version of the Post is in a broadsheet format, in sections: Main, City, Sport, Business, Classifieds, Property (Wednesday), Racing (Wednesday), Technology (Tuesday), Education (Saturday), Style magazine (first Friday of every month); the Sunday edition contains Main, a Review section, a Post Magazine, Racing, and "Young Post", targeted at the younger readers.

On 26 March 2007, the post was given a facelift, with new presentation and fonts [cite news
title = News Digest
page = 1
publisher = South China Morning Post
date = March 26, 2007 ] .

Online version

"Scmp.com" is a subscription-only service, which also allows the retrieval of archive articles dating back from 1993. It was launched online in December 1996. On May 30, 2007, scmp.com relaunched with a new look, features, and multimedia content. Headlines and the introduction to stories are now free to view, while the full articles are available to subscribers. Archive photos and articles are available for purchase.

On July 16, 2007, scmp.com launched its first-ever viral video marketing campaign targeting a global audience and highlighting the new multimedia features of the website.

Editorial

The Kuok family is known to be pro-Beijing, and questions have been raised over its editorial independence.cite news|title = Clash of civilizations at Hong Kong newspaper|last = Smith|first = Patrick|publisher = International Herald Tribune|date = November 19, 2006|accessdate = 2007-03-22|url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/19/business/paper20.php] There have been concerns, denied by Kuok, over the forced departures, in rapid succession, of several staff and contributors who were considered critical of China or its supporters in Hong Kong. These included, in the mid-1990s, their popular cartoonist Larry Feign, humor columnist Nury Vittachi, and numerous China desk staff, namely 2000-01 editorial pages editor Danny Gittings, Beijing correspondent Jasper Becker, and China pages editor Willy Lam, who departed after his reporting had been publicly criticised by Robert Kuok. [http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=&art_id=11891&sid=&con_type=1&d_str=20010702&sear_year=2001 Freedoms eroded to please Beijing: report] , The Standard, July 02, 2001] [Vanessa Gould, Nelson Lee & Bryan Lee, [http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=&art_id=10130&sid=&con_type=1&d_str=20010228&sear_year=2001 SAR defends rights record] , The Standard, February 28, 2001]

Cartoonist Feign was abruptly dismissed not long after Kuok's purchase of the newspaper, after running several cartoons about the alleged culling 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. [Stephen J. Hutcheon, Pressing Concerns: Hong Kong’s Media in an Era of Transition [http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/research_publications/papers/discussion_papers/D32.pdf] ]

Editorial page editor Gittings complained that in January 2001 he was ordered not to run extracts of the Tiananmen Papers, but was only allowed to after protesting "strenuously". The editor, however, believed that there had already been sufficient coverage. [Greg Rushford, [http://www.rushfordreport.com/2002/4_2002_Cover.htm Cover Story: Hong Kong at a Crossroads] , April 2002]

At the launch of a joint report published by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and Article 19 in July 2001, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association 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 large enterprise, which has financial interests over the border."

Mark Clifford, appointed Editor-in-Chief in February 2006, also enjoyed a turbulent 14 months in the job. He was responsible for the high profile dismissal of a number of journalists over an internal prank.

ee also

* Media of Hong Kong

References

External links

* [http://www.scmp.com/ Official website]