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HONG KONG— Chairman of the Internet giant Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 realise if Alibaba were the buyer, the person said. — NY Times