Hong Kong's media had a bad day yesterday. The esteemed Far Eastern Economic Review has effectively folded, going from a weekly to a monthly cut and paste job with op-eds instead. The world has its global weeklies such as Time and The Economist against which a regional mag like the FEER was always going to struggle. It's done well to last as long as it has.

Far worse for the local newspapers is the news that Hong Kong's police will move in December to new digitally encrypted radios for communications. Instead of reporters being able to listen in to the police network they will have to rely on police internet bullitens instead. The papers make a habit of arrving at the scenes of accidents before police to take graphic photos they can splash across the front page or to expose whichever celebrity has had a car accident. This will no longer be possible as the police will only give out surnames and the broad nature of the incident.

You can expect Hong Kong's papers will protest about freedom of the press and the pubilc's right to know. It's not. And it should make looking at a news-stand a lot easier in the mornings from December onwards.