阿里巴巴欲购买《南华早报》部分股份

Alibaba Buys South China Morning Post 阿里巴巴欲购买《南华早报》部分股份

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced last week that it is buying the South China Morning Post, SCMP.

It is the leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong.

Joe Tsai is executive vice¹ chairman of Alibaba Group. He said in a letter to SCMP readers that Alibaba wants the newspaper to offer “accurate and fair” reporting that will improve global understanding of China.

The company said this will help Alibaba’s investors². Alibaba believes that “negative reports about China in the Western news media are hurting the company’s shares,” which are listed in the U.S., reported the New York Times.

The New York Times said that Alibaba has agreed to pay about $266 million to acquire the South China Morning Post. This is a “small outlay³” for Alibaba, which has annual revenue of $12 billion, according to the Times.

The purchase follows other media deals by Alibaba, reported Reuters. In June, the company agreed to pay $194 million for a stake in the China Business News, a financial media firm.

The South China Morning Post, which is 112 years old, had been struggling financially. SCMP, its owner, was criticized for “shaping its coverage⁴ of China with a more positive stance than other outlets,” according to TechCrunch. The New York Times described the SCMP as “a frayed⁵ institution with a depleted⁶ newsroom” and a declining readership.

Alibaba plans to make all the articles free on SCMP’s website.

China’s ruling Communist party has tight control over Internet use in the country. It blocks material that it considers obscene or subversive⁷. Party censors⁸ under Chinese President Xi Jinping have been increasingly intolerant of critical reports in the domestic news media, reported the New York Times.   

U.S. newspapers under new ownership

Some analysts⁹ compared Alibaba’s purchase of SCMP to Amazon’s acquisition of the Washington Post in 2013. The Washington Post is one of the most famous newspapers in the United States. Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon.com, paid $250 million for the newspaper, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The deal showed “the newspaper industry’s economic decline and the shift of power from old media to Silicon¹⁰ Valley,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Last week, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the largest newspaper in Nevada, was sold for $140 million. Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who owns casinos and is a major donor¹¹ to the Republican party, bought the paper.

The Review-Journal has a conservative slant¹² that “aligns with Republicans far more often than Democrats,” reported the Washington Post. The paper also has “outsize political influence” in Nevada, according to the New York Daily News.

Words in This Story

newspaper – n. a set of large sheets of paper that have news stories, information about local events, advertisements, etc., and that are folded together and sold every day or every week

accurate – adj.  free from mistakes or errors

negative – adj. harmful or bad : not wanted

outlay – n. an amount of money that is spent

stance – n. a publicly stated opinion — usually singular

frayed – v. to cause (a cloth or other material) to become worn down at the end or edge : to separate the threads of (a material)

depleted – v.  to use most or all of (something important) : to greatly reduce the amount of (something)

obscene – adj. very offensive in usually a shocking way

subversive – adj. secretly trying to ruin or destroy a government, political system, etc.

intolerant – adj.  not willing to allow some people to have equality, freedom, or other social rights

outsize – adj. very large in size

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 outlay   

n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费

参考例句：

• There was very little outlay on new machinery.添置新机器的开支微乎其微。
• The outlay seems to bear no relation to the object aimed at.这费用似乎和预期目的完全不相称。

4 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

5 frayed   

adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His shirt was frayed. 他的衬衫穿破了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The argument frayed their nerves. 争辩使他们不快。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 depleted   

adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Food supplies were severely depleted. 食物供应已严重不足。
• Both teams were severely depleted by injuries. 两个队都因队员受伤而实力大减。

7 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

8 censors   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the President. 审查员删去了该书的精华以取悦于总统。
• The censors let out not a word. 检察官一字也不发。

9 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

10 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

11 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

12 slant   

v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向

参考例句：

• The lines are drawn on a slant.这些线条被画成斜线。
• The editorial had an antiunion slant.这篇社论有一种反工会的倾向。