Two of Beijing’s three free English-language entertainment and listings monthlies have just suffered setbacks, and it is unclear when or if they'll return to newsstands. Time Out Beijing (TOB) has been shelved indefinitely due to “improper licensing." The editorial team that once produced That’s Beijing has had to assume a new identity—The Beijinger— after being dumped unexpectedly by the license-holding local publisher.

     Publishing in China is anything but straightforward: the license required for periodicals and books, as well as for Internet sites seeking “to engage in information services,” needs approval by the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP). This is the government agency responsible for drafting and enforcing regulations concerning “prior restraint”— the granting of permission and screening prior to publishing.

    The stringent monitoring and licensing process is especially difficult for foreign periodicals, which have been known to publish surreptitiously under defunct local titles. When Rolling Stone magazine put out its first Chinese edition in 2006, for example, it was scrapped shortly thereafter for improper licensing, even though its directors had presumed all paperwork was in order.

     The reason provided by GAPP for shelving the June issue of TOB is that it lacked a proper license—a fact that has “not changed in the past three and a half years,” said Tom Pattinson, the magazine’s editor. He interpreted the move as another example of heightened restrictions and tighter monitoring in the capital prior to the Olympic Games -- “perhaps a strange time" for a problem to arise over an issue that had not been problematic before.

     The problems encountered by That's Beijing were apparently the climax of a long-running feud. According to an email distributed by Mike Wester, General Manager of True Run Media, the organization which previously coordinated publishing for That's Beijing, the publication's former publisher had brokered -- on the sly -- an agreement with another team to produce content for That's Beijing. Wester's e-mail stated the That’s brand has been under dispute for many years and its trademark status is “up in the air.”  True Run Media launched The Beijinger  website a number of months ago but has yet to arrange a new publisher for the magazine itself.

     Along with TOB and That’s Beijing, City Weekend (CW) Beijing -- a bi-weekly for which I write a dining column -- have been read widely by Beijing’s resident expatriates and short-term tourists. Since CW will continue providing “info on what’s on when and where in Beijing,” according to Managing Editor Collin Crowell, it's virtually the only remaining glossy aimed at informing foreigners about local activities.

     Not wanting to sound overly cynical, I should mention that guides on Beijing's entertainment venues during the Olympics might not be needed as much as originally expected. New Chinese visa restrictions are adversely affecting the nation's tourism industry, "casting a pall over Beijing," writes David Barboza in the New York Times. Though the names of the Games' fuzzy mascots, the Five Friendlies—"bei," "jing," "huan," "ying," and "ni"—mean "Beijing welcomes you" when strung together, the city isn't exactly opening its arms to visitors from abroad.