BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- According to a report released by the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) Wednesday, as of the end of 2016 China had 223,925 press-card holding journalists.

Of these journalists, according to the report published on the ACJA website, 84,130 worked for newspapers and 6,007 for periodicals.

It added that 2,801 journalists were employed by news agencies, 129,829 worked for radio, TV stations or production firms, and 1,158 were employed by news websites.

In terms of demographic data, 38.92 percent of the journalists were aged between 30 and 40, and 34.2 percent were aged between 40 and 50, the report said.

Males accounted for 52.45 percent of all the journalists, it said.

The report noted the "profound changes in the media industry and media environment" last year following efforts by news outlets to integrate traditional and new media.

It said that more than 500 million Chinese now read news on a mobile device, noting the rising popularity of social networks and news apps as a way to access information.

The market size of China's media industry was 1.3 trillion yuan (189 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, an increase of 12.3 percent from 2014.

In 2014, the Internet accounted for 47.2 percent of the media industry's value and this had increased to 51.8 percent in 2015.

In the first half of last year, Internet-advertising spending grew by 26.9 percent, 10 percentage points more than the same period in 2015.

Technological development has driven media reform, the report said, citing the wider application of big data, cloud computing, robots, drones and virtual reality technologies.

It also noted that thanks to the support from the Communist Party of China and the central government, the media industry and technology have developed rapidly, creating a healthy and vital environment for news outlets and reporters.

Noting the booming new media market, the report also mentioned the improved regulation and supervision of media outlets and their products as well as enhanced intellectual property right protection in the sector.

It also said that the development of new media resulted in the creation of more channels for the public to express opinion.

However, it also noted challenges faced by some Chinese media organizations, particularly newspapers.

Citing statistics from another report, it said 43 billion newspapers had been printed in 2015, a 7.29 percent drop from the previous year.

Revenue and profits for newspapers also decreased by 10.3 percent and 53.21 percent respectively.

The report was compiled by departments including ACJA, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television as well as the Cyberspace Administration of China.

The report said the ACJA attached great attention to the protection of the rights and interests of journalists and news industry workers.

Regulation and management regarding journalistic ethics have been reinforced to address fake and false reporting, it said.