NEWS STALL

Newspaper stalls, often called newspaper stalls in Hong Kong, are mainly street vendors of newspapers and magazines, and usually sell cigarettes, lighters, chewing gum, drinks, individually wrapped tissue paper, and so on. Newspaper stalls are commonly found in high-traffic streets, at the airport, railway stations and in front of restaurants. Newspaper stalls have a long history in Hong Kong, with the first one appearing in 1904 at the lower station of the Peak Tramway. The reason for setting up a newspaper stall there was that the early newspapers were in English and most of the residents of Mid-levels and the Peak were expatriates. Prior to the newspaper stall, newspapers were sold by hawkers along the route. In the 1960s and 1970s, newspaper stalls could be found everywhere in the streets of urban Hong Kong. Parents would buy a newspaper from the newspaper stall before going for tea, while their young children would buy popular publications such as "Lao Fu Zi" or "Children's Paradise". However, with the rise of the internet, the street culture of newspaper stalls has been declining. In addition, the emergence of free newspapers and the competition from chain shops' quick-selling methods have led to the gradual disappearance of newspaper stalls from the streets. Since the 1970s, the Urban Council has not issued new hawker licences under normal circumstances, and there are strict restrictions on the succession and transfer of hawker licences.