New classifications agreed for newspapers

China's newspapers are to be divided into two categories: public-service-oriented and profit-oriented, with the former receiving financial support from the government, a senior official said on Sunday.

Wang Guoqing, director-general of the newspaper management department of the General Administration of Publication and Press, said at a forum in Yichang, Hubei province, that the country will deepen its reform of newspapers, almost all of which are State-owned, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

Key government and Party newspapers, those spreading Marxist and Party theories, newspapers for ethnic minorities and farmers, government and Party bulletins, and ones targeted at foreign readers are regarded as public service-oriented, Wang said.