Forty percent of China's newspapers are sold through market forces instead of the postal sector, according to a national congress of the China Independent Newspaper Distributors Association convened recently in the island province of Hainan.

Distribution of newspapers in China was monopolized by the postal sector until 1985 when the publisher of Luoyang Daily in central China's Henan Province took a bold step and decided to do the distribution on an independent basis.

China now publishes more than 2,000 newspapers, 800 of which are distributed independently by 170,000 people.

Practice shows that independent distribution is more efficient, costs less, and makes it easier for newspaper publishers to make the money needed to continue publication.