Magazines and newspapers develop steadily and the price of textbook fall.

The General Administration of Press and Publication of China published the 2006 report on the current situation of China's press and publishing industry on June 26th. It shows that, in 2006, China's copyright trade had seen significant growth, but the case of the copyright trade deficit has, essentially, not reversed itself.

The report shows that in 2005, China imported a total of 10,894 kidns of copyrighted publications, exported 1,517 kinds of copyrighted publications; and in 2006, China imported a total of 12,386 kinds of copyrighted publications, exported 2,057 kinds of copyrighted publications. The volume of imported and exported copyrighted publications all has experienced obvious growth, but the state of the copyright trade deficit has not fundamentally reversed itself. Some relevant experts think that this means the competitiveness of China's books is still weak, and the task of China's books "going abroad" is arduous with a long road ahead.

The report shows that, in 2006, China's magazines and newspapers had developed smoothly. A total of 9,468 kinds of journals were published in 2006, with the printing of 2.852 billion pieces. Compared to the previous year, the number of categories balanced, but the total printing went up 3.38 percent; and 1,938 types of newspapers were published with the total printing hit 42.452 billion copies. Compared with the previous year, the number of categories has increased 0.36 percent, with the total printing up 2.89 percent.

The report shows that, compared with the previous year, the categories of published textbooks increased by 3.79 percent in 2006, and the total value of marked prices fell by 3.21 percent. Experts point out that this change indicates that, along with the reform of textbook purchase bidding, the price of textbooks have fallen to some extent in the past two years and lightened the financial burden on students.