It has been the continuing headache of Wang Chunwa, Party secretary of Xiajiabao Village in north China's Shanxi Province.

His village has had to spend substantial sums of money subscribing to the Party- and government-run newspapers every year.

Now, beginning next year, his financial headache is over. Print media reforms in China will end the mandatory subscriptions ladled onto villages and officials for such newspapers and periodical subscriptions.

State-owned Chinese print media, except science journals, have been asked to stop recruiting subscribers by administrative orders.

The fundamental reforms that have been passed involve more than 2,000 Chinese newspapers and 9,000-plus magazines.

In the meantime, a total of 667 newspapers and magazines will suspend publication across the country starting next year.

The reforms are needed to weed out publications that yield no social or economic benefit and to relieve financial burdens on farmers and grass-roots enterprises, official sources say.

According to a Xinhua report, some rural areas have been under mandatory requirements to subscribe to more than 100 publications.

The cost of subscriptions for newspapers in some towns and villages is equal to several month's salary for a local official, the report said.

Experts say the reforms should open the Chinese press to more competition.

Under the traditional system of media management, Chinese newspapers and magazines, which were all state-owned, were subsidized by the Party and government departments and enjoyed the benefit of mandatory subscriptions.

According to Yu Guoming, a professor of media with the Renmin University of China, without such subscriptions and government subsidies, many newspapers will not be able to survive in a competitive market.

Although newspapers in China are still state-owned, they have all become sensitive to the market and are responsible for their profits and losses, experts say.

Earlier this month, the Beijing News -- published jointly by Beijing-based Guangming Daily Group and Southern Daily Group in Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province -- began participating in the competitive media market.

In the meantime, such reforms have helped spur media to do their best, Zhang Xinsong with the Economic Information Daily was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying.

(China Daily November 29, 2003)