HONG KONG — Jack Ma, chairman of the Internet giant Alibaba Group, is in talks to buy The South China Morning Post, an influential English-language newspaper based in Hong Kong, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions.

香港——直接了解有关讨论的一位消息人士透露，互联网巨头阿里巴巴集团董事局主席马云正在就收购《南华早报》(South China Morning Post)一事进行谈判。《南华早报》是总部设在香港的一份有影响力的英文报纸。

A deal would echo the purchase of The Washington Post by Amazon’s founder, Jeffrey P. Bezos, in 2013, which gave a major media brand substantial backing at a turbulent time for the business.

如果做成，这笔交易将是亚马逊创始人杰弗里·P·贝索斯(Jeffrey P. Bezos)于2013年收购《华盛顿邮报》(Washington Post)的重演。在纸面媒体面临动荡的时代，贝索斯的收购是对一个主要媒体品牌的重大支持。

Like Mr. Bezos, Alibaba’s founder, Mr. Ma, made his fortune in Internet commerce. Like the Washington Post, The South China Morning Post is struggling to adapt to the changing media environment. And in neither case does the purchase create obvious business advantages for the buyer.

阿里巴巴创始人马云与贝索斯一样靠互联网电子商务发了财。而《南华早报》与《华盛顿邮报》一样在努力适应不断变化的媒体环境。同样，这两笔交易都不给买家带来明显的业务优势。

It has not yet been decided whether the buyer would be Mr. Ma or Alibaba, the person said on Tuesday.

该消息人士周二表示，买家是马云还是阿里巴巴尚未确定。

Any deal for the Hong Kong newspaper will have a political dimension.

任何有关香港报纸的交易都会涉及政治层面。

The prospective takeover is raising concerns that the newspaper’s editorial independence could be compromised by a corporate owner whose market position depends in large part on the good will of the Chinese government. Unlike the rest of China, Hong Kong guarantees freedom of the press, a right enshrined in the laws that have governed the former British colony since its return to Chinese rule in 1997.

这个即将发生的收购引发了人们对该报的编辑独立性可能会受影响的担忧，因为该报将由一个企业人士拥有，而该企业的市场地位在很大程度上取决于中国政府对其有多友善。与中国内地其他地区不同，香港保障出版自由，这一权利庄严地载入了香港于1997年回归中国之后用来管理这个英国前殖民地的法律之中。

Mr. Ma “needs support from Beijing to continue his dominance of the Internet transactional world, and therefore he’s going to be careful in what he does in the publishing world,” said Andrew Collier, a former Beijing-based reporter for the newspaper who now runs a China-focused financial research firm in Hong Kong.

马云“继续他在全球网上交易的霸主地位需要有北京的支持，因此他在出版界做事会小心翼翼，”曾任《南华早报》驻京记者的安德鲁·科利尔(Andrew Collier)说，科利尔目前在香港经营一个关注中国金融的研究公司。

A deal could be weeks or even months away, said the person with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations were private. The talks could also fall apart.

交易做成可能还需数周、甚至数月的时间，那位了解谈判情况的人士表示。此人要求不具名，因为谈判一事尚未公开。谈判也可能会失败。

Nevertheless, talks between the two sides have made “significant progress” in recent days, the person said.

然而，双方之间的谈判近日来取得了“显著的进展”，该人士说。

Alibaba declined to comment. Benson Chao, a spokesman for The South China Morning Post, said the company did not comment on “market rumors.”

阿里巴巴拒绝置评。《南华早报》发言人本森·周(Benson Chao)表示，公司不对“市场传闻”发表评论。

A deal has been the subject of media speculation for much of the past month after news of the possible acquisition was reported in China Daily, an official mainland Chinese newspaper, on Nov. 9.

11月9日，大陆官方报纸《中国日报》报道了可能的收购之后，媒体在过去一个月的大部分时间里对这笔交易做出各种猜测。

In the past, Mr. Ma’s deal-making style has come under scrutiny for purchases that seemed out of line with Alibaba’s strategy. For example, the company bought into a soccer team in 2014.

此前，马云的交易作风吸引了公众的密切关注，因为那些收购交易似乎不符合阿里巴巴的一贯战略。比如，公司曾于2014年买入一支足球队的股份。

Having Mr. Ma make the investment personally would mean that only one company board, the newspaper’s, would need to approve it. “For him, it’s like pocket change,” the person said.

如果交易是马云个人投资的话，那意味着他只需要得到一家公司、也就是这家报社的董事会的批准。“对他来说，这笔投资就像是口袋里的零用钱，”该消息人士说。

A deal for The South China Morning Post, the person said, would fit in with Alibaba’s broader holdings. The company owns stakes in Chinese Internet sites with a media bent, like Youku Tudou, which is similar to YouTube, and Sina Weibo, akin to Twitter. The person said that The South China Morning Post had a good brand and that the takeover “might lead to some synergy.” Any such advantages would be easier to realize if Alibaba were the buyer, the person said.

该人士表示，买下《南华早报》与阿里巴巴更广泛的持股相符。在媒体方面，阿里巴巴已经持有一些中国互联网网站的股份，比如类似YouTube的优酷土豆集团，和类似Twitter的新浪微博。该人士说，《南华早报》是一个良好的品牌，收购“可能会产生一些协同效应”。如果阿里巴巴是买家的话，会更容易实现这种组合优势，该人士说。

But the companies have drastically different audiences. Despite having a Chinese-language service, The South China Morning Post is primarily focused on the limited English-speaking market in Hong Kong, although its coverage of China is read globally. Content on Youku Tudou and Sina Weibo is overwhelmingly in Chinese.

然而，这两家公司有着非常不同的客户群。尽管《南华早报》有一个中文网站，但这家报纸的主要目标是香港有限的英语市场，虽然该报有关中国的报道在全球都有读者。优酷网、土豆网及新浪微博上的内容绝大多数都是中文的。

Under an agreement announced this month, copies of The International New York Times for Hong Kong and China will be printed by The South China Morning Post beginning in February.

据本月初宣布的一项协议，从明年2月起，《国际纽约时报》(The International New York Times)的香港版和中国版将由《南华早报》印刷厂印刷。

The main concern among some people who study the Chinese and Hong Kong press is that ownership of the newspaper by Mr. Ma or Alibaba could further erode media independence in Hong Kong. Mainland Chinese enterprises have been deepening their stakes in the local industry, and journalists here say they are feeling increasing pressure to soft-pedal issues deemed provocative by the governing Communist Party in Beijing.

关注中国和香港出版界的一些人的主要担心是，该报由马云或阿里巴巴拥有，可能会进一步削弱香港媒体的独立性。中国内地企业已在加强对香港当地企业的控股，这里的记者说，他们在报道被视为是挑衅北京的执政党共产党的问题时，已感到有越来越大的压力迫使他们低调处理。