Two founders, one long name and an English-language daily in Hong Kong.

The South China Morning Post is an English-language daily newspaper published in Hong Kong, with a Sunday edition called the Sunday Morning Post. English Wikipedia says it was founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and the British journalist Alfred Cunningham, and that its opening issue was published on 6 November 1903. The BBC, in a report dated 14 December 2015, also gives 1903 as the year the paper was founded.

The two founders split the work. English Wikipedia says the early editorials were written mainly by British journalists, among them Cunningham, Douglas Story and Thomas Petrie, while Tse brought business to the paper. The title itself sets out the paper’s field in four words: a region, a time of day and a word for a newspaper. Readers and the company also use the initials SCMP, and the website runs at scmp.com, so the paper lives under two names at once, one long and formal and one short.

Ownership changed several times in the twentieth century. English Wikipedia says that after the Second World War the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation bought a majority share in the newspaper, and that the company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in November 1971. The same article says News Corporation bought the paper in 1986, took it private in 1987, and that SCMP listed again in 1990.

A new owner arrived in 1993. English Wikipedia says News Corporation agreed that year to sell a controlling stake to Kerry Media, owned by the Malaysian businessman Robert Kuok. His son, Kuok Khoon Ean, became chairman at the end of 1997, and Kuok Khoon Ean’s sister, Kuok Hui Kwong, was named chief executive on 1 January 2009. The company was delisted in 2013, according to the same article, and the Kuok family held the paper until the sale of its media business in 2016.

Alibaba, a paywall that came down and went back up, and new editors.

The current owner is a technology company. The BBC reported on 14 December 2015 that the Chinese internet company Alibaba would buy the South China Morning Post, and that besides the English-language newspaper it would also take over sister publications, websites and magazines. English Wikipedia says the deal was announced on 11 December 2015 and completed on 5 April 2016. Alibaba Group has owned the paper since 2016.

The sale also moved the name. English Wikipedia says the former parent, SCMP Group, had also been involved in property investment and convenience stores, and that because the intellectual property rights to the name SCMP passed to the buyer, the listed company changed its own name to Armada Holdings and later to Great Wall Pan Asia Holdings. The three letters stayed with the newspaper.

The website went through its own changes. English Wikipedia says scmp.com began as a subscription service in December 1996, relaunched with a new look on 30 May 2007, and had a major redesign on 20 April 2015. The paywall came down on the night of 4 April 2016, the eve of the completed sale, and in August 2020 the paper returned to a subscription model with a metered paywall on the website and the mobile app, the same article says.

Management changed in the same years. English Wikipedia says Gary Liu, the former chief executive of Digg, became chief executive officer in January 2017. Tammy Tam was promoted to editor-in-chief in 2016, succeeding Wang Xiangwei, and in October 2025 she became publisher while Chow Chung-yan was promoted to editor-in-chief. The same article says that after the Alibaba acquisition the paper repositioned its print edition as a premium, magazine-style product, and that the company closed several smaller titles, among them the weekend magazine 48 HOURS and the weekly HK Magazine, as well as a Chinese-language site.

Nameplates, blackletter and typefaces across newspapers.

A newspaper can change its typefaces without touching its name. English Wikipedia says the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong broadsheet founded in 1903, was given new fonts in a facelift on 26 March 2007, and that a redesign in 2011 set its headlines in Farnham and Amplitude, its body text in Utopia and its section headers in Freight. The title on the front page stayed the same through both changes.

The name itself can also change. English Wikipedia says The Straits Times, founded in Singapore on 15 July 1845 as The Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce, was renamed The Shonan Times on 20 February 1942, and then appeared as The Syonan Times, the Syonan Sinbun from 8 December 1942 and the Syonan Shimbun from 8 December 1943, before the earlier title returned. When reading a newspaper’s identity, look at how long its title has stayed fixed, which typefaces set its headlines and text, and when those faces were last changed.

A broadsheet, its sections and two dated redesigns.

The paper is still a broadsheet. English Wikipedia says the printed South China Morning Post appears in broadsheet format, divided into sections for main news, the city, sport, business, classifieds and property, with weekly sections such as technology on Tuesday and education on Saturday, a monthly Style magazine, and a Sunday edition that carries a review section, Post Magazine and Young Post, a section aimed at younger readers.

Two dated redesigns changed its type. English Wikipedia says the paper was given a facelift on 26 March 2007, with new presentation and new fonts. A further redesign in 2011, the same article says, set headlines in Farnham and Amplitude, body text in Utopia and section headers in Freight.

The names do the rest of the work. On paper the full title runs to four words; online and in conversation the initials SCMP stand in for it, and the sale of 2016 showed that the initials themselves were treated as property worth moving with the newspaper. The Sunday title, the Sunday Morning Post, keeps the same pattern with one word changed.

For a design guide, the South China Morning Post shows how a newspaper can keep a long, plain descriptive title for more than a century while also living under its initials, and how a broadsheet can refresh its look through named typefaces rather than a change of name. Compare The New York Times, another broadsheet with a long title and a short form, or Financial Times, a business daily known by two letters. For this guide we use harbour blue, night blue and brass with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep South China Morning Post’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.