Business side of publishing opens to foreigners

China will open publishing sales and distribution to foreigners by the end of the year. Yu Yongzhan, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publications, said foreign businesses could set up book, newspaper and periodical wholesale and retail businesses either as joint-ventures or wholly foreign owned operations, but prohibitions on foreign involvement in actual content would continue, he said. Media giants Bertelsmann AG, which has opened bookstores in Shanghai and elsewhere, News Corp, Time Warner and others have been lobbying hard to be allowed into China distribution.