Jack Ma, founder of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, is in talks to buy a stake in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper, people familiar with the matter have told a major Chinese news site.

相关人士透露，阿里巴巴创始人马云正在与《南华早报》举行会谈，购买其部分股份。

Ma has been negotiating the deal with the SCMP Group's major shareholder the Kuok family since last year and the contract will be signed shortly, a source told Caixin, though details on the size of the stake Ma will buy and the value of the deal are still not clear.

The SCMP Group declined to comment.

If the deal is agreed on, this would be another investment by Alibaba in media after its recent bid for Youku Tudou, the video sharing website seen as China's YouTube, and financial news provider Yicai, in which Alibaba invested 1.2 billion yuan (187.8 million U.S. dollars) in June.

Established as an e-commerce company, Alibaba just reported record single-day online sales of 14.3 billion U.S. dollars on Nov. 11, the Cyber Monday-equivalent shopping festival that Alibaba created six years ago.