The newspaper would struggle to survive amid financial difficulties in its early years. But that first edition, priced at 10 cents, provides a fascinating snapshot of Hong Kong, a bustling entrepot, and the world at the dawn of the 20th century.

This was the beginning of a story that spans 120 years. The Post has evolved with Hong Kong, reporting on the city’s highs and lows while, from the early days, bringing readers news of mainland China.

“It is just amazing what that means,” said Post CEO Catherine So. “None of us has lived 120 years. For an organisation, it is about the richness of our history and the wisdom we have accumulated and passed from one generation to another.”

Instantly familiar, strangely foreign: photos of 1970s Hong Kong

It all began in the shady world of revolutionaries plotting to bring down China’s crumbling Qing dynasty (1644-1912) rule.

Post co-founder Tse Tsan-tai was a prominent writer, campaigner, artist, inventor and secret revolutionary, driven by a desire to see China reform, modernise and strengthen.

Tse planned an uprising in Canton, now Guangzhou, in early 1903, involving weapons in coffins and members of secret societies. It was betrayed before a shot was fired. This failure prompted Tse to give up his revolutionary activities, he said, “to devote my time to the furtherance of the cause of reform and independence through the columns of the South China Morning Post and other newspapers”.

Fellow founder Alfred Cunningham was a prominent British journalist , who shared Tse’s reformist aspirations.

But a newspaper needed more than ideals to get off the ground. Investors were found, shares issued and a board of directors formed. Staff were recruited from overseas and printing presses imported. The newspaper was based in harbourside premises on Connaught Road, with a steam launch helping distribute copies.

The product, with its lively editorials and coverage of everything from local concerts, courts and cricket to international affairs, was well received. But the company was saddled with debt and struggled to make ends meet. It did not declare a profit until 1913.

The Post owes its survival to an American dentist. Joseph Whittlesey Noble arrived in Hong Kong in 1897 and set up a practice. He became a big investor in prominent Hong Kong companies.

Noble, who became one of the wealthiest men in Hong Kong, joined the Post’s board in 1906, before becoming majority shareholder. A no-nonsense character, he set about instilling much-needed financial discipline. Noble was not averse to firing off thundering directives to the newsroom, complaining about substandard editing and proofreading.

The year 1911 was a turbulent one for China and also for the Post. Reliable news on the revolution, which led to the founding of a republic, was not easy to secure. But the newspaper featured a special report and the “inside story” on how the uprising was planned.

That year also saw an editor sacked, a printers’ strike and an accountant flee to Australia after misappropriating company funds. He was extradited and sentenced to five years of hard labour.

But the company gradually emerged from its crisis and profits began to rise, partly due to a thirst among readers for news of World War I.

Two men were to prove instrumental in forging the Post’s reputation as Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper, known for its coverage of China.

Henry Ching, born in Australia to a Chinese father and British mother, joined as the first “non-European” reporter in 1916. He immediately impressed. Ching was appointed editor in 1924 and would hold that position for 33 years, playing a definitive role in establishing the identity of the newspaper.

Ben Wylie, meanwhile, from Scotland, rose from the printing department to become a highly competent general manager.

The Post strengthened its position, managing to publish – unlike its rivals – during the strikes of the 1920s and gaining credit for its coverage of the escalating conflict between China and Japan in the 1930s.

But disaster struck during World War II. Japanese forces bombed Kai Tak on December 8, 1941, before crossing the border into the New Territories. Post reporters fought with the Hong Kong Volunteers and one, Reg Goldman, was killed.

The occupation is the only period in the Post’s history when it did not publish. The newspaper’s office, then on Wyndham Street, was taken over by a Japanese English-language publication, Hongkong News.

Wylie, among other members of staff, was interned in the Stanley Internment Camp. Ching, not being European, was allowed to stay at home. But he was detained in prison for three months in 1943, accused of being a spy.

The Post was quickly back in print when word of the Japanese surrender spread in 1945. A single-page pamphlet declaring: “Extra: Fleet Entering” was hurriedly produced, breaking the news that the British were arriving.

Full production quickly resumed. But the war marked a turning point for the newspaper. Towering figures of the pre-war years departed, suffering from ill health after enduring the occupation. A new era began.

Hong Kong bounced back spectacularly from the bleak war years, with industrialisation providing a launch pad for decades of economic growth. The Post prospered amid the revival.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank was soon to become the company’s largest shareholder and the board boasted members of the city’s business elite. A new managing director from the UK, Terence Pearce, was hired and introduced reforms to boost advertising revenue. Meanwhile, circulation rocketed in the 1960s under editor Alec Sturrock.

But in 1967, “leftist” riots left 51 people dead and more than 800 injured during six traumatic months. This was a dangerous time for journalists. The Post’s office was bombed and a photographer attacked. But the newspaper was published every day.

Robin Hutcheon, who became editor after the untimely death of Sturrock in 1967, held the position until 1986, writing a compelling history of the Post in 1983, “the first eighty years”. His tenure included overseeing a move from Wyndham Street to new premises in Quarry Bay, in 1971.

Hong Kong quickly recovered from the riots and the Post began to flourish. The financial and property markets boomed along with the services sector. Classified Post was launched in 1973 as recruitment ads surged. It became a highly lucrative product, running to a record 208 pages in 1995.

By then, Hong Kong was preparing for its return to China. The handover in 1997 was a memorable year. A special edition on July 1 featured a front-page editorial on the city’s future. A special website, featuring video, attracted 6.5 million viewers in two days, an impressive figure in those early days of the internet. That year also saw the Post’s net profits peak at more than HK$805 million.

Hong Kong, adapting to its new role as a Special Administrative Region of China, first endured the economic woes of the Asian financial crisis and then, in 2003, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) that claimed 299 lives in the city.

The Post, meanwhile, faced the challenge of adapting to changes in the media industry as the digital revolution took hold, hitting newspapers’ circulation and traditional sources of revenue. A paywall was introduced for the website in 2002. The first tablet edition was launched in 2010 and a mobile app three years later.

The transition was to accelerate dramatically after the Post was bought by tech giant Alibaba in December 2015. A move to impressive new offices in Times Square, in Causeway Bay, followed.

New strategies were developed for a global readership drive. The newsroom adopted a digital-first approach, while continuing to take pride in publishing the flagship newspaper. Global readership soared along with views of the Post’s video content. A subscription-based model was reintroduced in August 2020.

Meanwhile, the newsroom grew, with the Post building its reporting team in mainland China and opening bureaus in New York and Washington, while installing correspondents in Brussels and London.

Hong Kong was soon making international headlines again. Civil unrest in 2019 required the Post’s journalists, photographers and videographers to cover multiple protests developing simultaneously in different parts of the city. Live blogs, providing readers with quick updates on developments, were well read and produced in a challenging environment.

The pandemic also posed operational challenges. A little piece of history was made when the sudden closure of the office required the newspaper to be published without any members of the editorial team in the newsroom.

Looking ahead, So, who became CEO 15 months ago, said while growing global readership remained important, there would be a new focus on providing targeted, premium content for specific groups of readers around the world.

“Time is very precious. You have to identify who you want to write for, what their biggest needs are and how those needs can be met,” she said.

So, who grew up in Hong Kong, said she was very proud of the city, which has “tremendous potential” and valued the significant role the Post had played over the years.

While much has changed since the first edition in 1903, key features remain, notably a commitment to top quality, trustworthy journalism. So said the proliferation of misinformation on digital platforms was not a threat but an opportunity because “people naturally gravitate towards sources they can trust”.

The Post had been resilient and persistent, she said, and the diverse, international newsroom was ideally placed to understand different parts of the world. The wisdom gained over 120 years is “an asset that sets us up for more interesting things to come”.