Balancing Act: Can the South China Morning Post Thrive Under China’s Watchful Eye? – A live Sinica Podcast

Join us for a live recording of the Sinica Podcast, the premiere podcast on current affairs in China, with hosts Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn. Our special guest will be Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post. A veteran of the tech world — he was formerly CEO of Digg and head of Spotify Labs —Gary has brought a new approach to the venerable paper since his tenure as CEO began in January, shortly after the paper was bought by Alibaba. We’ll talk about how the paper can navigate the familiar challenges that newspapers around the world face, coupled with Alibaba’s ownership and pressures from Beijing. The podcast recording will be followed by moderated Q&A from the audience.

Alibaba wants to transform the SCMP into a media company that is more relevant in the digital era, and to be the leading outlet for global coverage of China. Will this be possible under new Chinese ownership? In this live Sinica Podcast, long-time Beijing residents Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn—both superstars in the China watching world–will interview Liu about his views on the way forward.

Gary Liu 刘可瑞 is CEO of South China Morning Post, a leading English-language media company based in Hong Kong covering China and Asia. Prior to joining SCMP in January 2017, Liu was CEO of Digg, spearheading the New York startup’s transformation from aggregator to a data-driven news platform. Previously, Liu was Head of Spotify Labs, where he led emerging technologies and business strategies for global markets, after joining as Global Director of Ad Product Strategy. Liu has also worked at AOL and Google.

Kaiser Kuo 郭怡广 is co-founder and host of the Sinica Podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China. He is also editor at large of SupChina, which hosts the podcast. In 2016, Kaiser repatriated to the U.S. after 20 years in China, where he worked variously as a rock musician and reporter before joining China’s leading search engine Baidu in 2010 as director of international communications.

Jeremy Goldkorn 金玉米 is editor in chief of SupChina and co-host of the Sinica Podcast. A native of South Africa, he lived in Beijing for more than 20 years. Goldkorn founded Danwei, a China-focused blog and media research firm, which was later acquired by the Financial Times. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.