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Executive Column: Tech investment, product diversification ‘key to survival’ in media industry
In a media industry rocked by digital disruption, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) has been going strong. The Jakarta Post’s Sita W. Dewi and Karina M. Tehusijarana spoke with SCMP head of product Malcolm Ong about his experience moving to the media industry from the tech industry and how he has helped the century-old newspaper adapt to changing times.
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South China Morning Post (SCMP) head of product Malcolm Ong. (Handout/South China Morning Post)
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n a media industry rocked by digital disruption, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) has been going strong. The Jakarta Post’s Sita W. Dewi and Karina M. Tehusijarana spoke with SCMP head of product Malcolm Ong about his experience moving to the media industry from the tech industry and how he has helped the century-old newspaper adapt to changing times. Below are edited excerpts of the interview.
Question: How do you see the media landscape now, especially in the Asian and Southeast Asian region?
Answer: I think we've seen companies like The New York Times leading the pack in terms of innovation and changing media and seeing themselves as maybe previously "just news", but now it’s "proper media business" where they get their revenue channels from multiple different sources.
I think in Asia we're sort of seeing the same thing, especially at SCMP. We were acquired by Alibaba about three years ago and prior to that, SCMP was a 115-year-old company, a newspaper of record in Hong Kong.
Since the acquisition, we've changed our focus from being a Hong Kong-based newspaper into a globally focused media company, and with that transition comes a lot of change that's necessary. Like I mentioned before, investing in technology, investing in products, investing in data, but also understanding our customers and also realizing that we can't just rest on content by itself.
