Ordinary Gweilo

More strange goings-on at what is variously described as "the world’s most profitable newspaper" (is it?), "Asia’s leading newspaper" (it isn’t) and by other epithets that are a little less kind. Yes, it’s the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

A few months ago the editor (Fanny Fung) departed, and last night the SCMP announced that the editor-in-chief, Mark Clifford, would be leaving at the end of this month after just a year in charge. Rebecca MacKinnon was on to the story straight away, as was the Asia Sentinel.  The Bangkok Post also managed to provide a good summary:

The South China Morning Post, a highly profitable newspaper, has had a turbulent management history since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 as it struggles to redefine itself in a post-colonial era.

In less than a decade, the newspaper has had five editors in chief – two Americans, one Briton and an Indian – and at one stage between the third and fourth editors was edited by a management panel of four executives.

Circulation of the newspaper has dipped to around 100,000 copies a day as expatriates leave the city of 6.9 million and Mandarin replaces English as a second language to Cantonese and the newspaper has so far failed in its ambition to expand into mainland China.

The consensus seems to be that Mark Clifford had upset too many people in his brief time at the SCMP  (details over at Asia Sentinel: No Joking Please, We’re Journalists, Top Editor Forced to Resign at South China Morning Post & Hong Kong Newspaper Drama Continues).

More links: World’s most profitable newspaper loses its editor & April’s fool.

I’m just hoping that somebody will hang around long enough to actually do something about the SCMP (and its website) before it finally sinks.