Short answers, pulled from the story.
The South China Morning Post was first published on the 6th of November 1903. Anti-Qing revolutionary Tse Tsan-tai and British journalist Alfred Cunningham launched the newspaper to support the reform movement and overthrow the Qing dynasty.
Malaysian real estate tycoon Robert Kuok bought the South China Morning Post from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1993 for US$375 million. This acquisition marked the paper as a financial powerhouse deeply embedded in the political and economic structures of Hong Kong.
Alibaba Group acquired the media properties of the South China Morning Post on the 5th of April 2016 for HK$2 billion (US$266 million). Following this acquisition, the newspaper removed its paywall and later returned to a subscription model in August 2020.
Jonathan Fenby left the South China Morning Post in 1999 after being replaced by Robert Keatley from The Wall Street Journal. His departure followed a period where the newspaper was sharply critical of the Hong Kong government, which may have influenced the decision to replace him.
The South China Morning Post reaches 35 million monthly readers across multiple platforms as of September 2024. The newspaper is described by The Guardian as Hong Kong's most prestigious English-language newspaper and was regarded as the most credible paid newspaper in Hong Kong in a 2019 survey.