China’s Party-run media authorities have taken over two of Beijing’s more outspoken and popular newspapers, Beijing News and Beijing Times, in a move to control information more strictly, the AFP reported. A report on the government-run website Qianlong stated that the change is aimed at bringing the papers under local management and defusing an advertising war between the two. Both papers regularly run stories critical of local governments, and have won popularity for their colorful stories and ads. The two papers may be merged into one, the Qianlong report said. Both papers began about 10 years ago: Beijing News started as a joint publication of the Guangming Daily Group and the Southern Daily group, while Beijing Times was formerly published by the People’s Daily Group, who also publishes the official Communist Party mouthpiece, The People’s Daily.