Alibaba may buy stake in respected China biz magazine Caixin

Alibaba founder Jack Ma is seeking to diversify beyond the core business of providing online retail platforms and in December bought Hong Kong’s premier English-language newspaper, a move that raised concerns about media independence.

Caixin Media provides financial and business news through its flagship magazine and several other platforms under the editorial leadership of Hu Shuli, who has received international attention for her brand of investigative journalism within the boundaries of the Communist-ruled state. Bloomberg News said today that Alibaba’s financial services unit Ant was in talks to invest in Caixin Media, but gave no size or price for the stake. 

China’s TMTpost, a business technology information provider, reported that the deal had already been signed. Caixin Media said in a statement it was about to bring in “several high-quality institutional investors”, without identifying them.

“The new investors, like the original shareholders, respect Caixin Media’s principal of editorial independence which is not influenced by the business interests of shareholders,” it said. A spokesman for Alibaba declined to comment.

The December purchase of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post for $266 million has sparked fears the newspaper will lose its independent voice, in what analysts see as part of a gradual erosion of press freedoms after the semi-autonomous city was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.