The number of periodicals published throughout the country increased from a total of 387 in 1960 to 581 in 1969, according to the latest government statistics. The total annual circulation of periodicals almost doubled during this time, increasing from about 105 million copies to approximately 209 million. More than 340 of these magazines and journals were published either quarterly or annually, the remainder appearing either weekly, monthly, or at some other intervals. No indication was given within this general classification of the number of publications that were issued in the minority languages or were directed at special minority interest groups.

All periodicals are considered official publications of the various sponsoring organizations and are subject to the same licensing and supervising controls as newspapers. Virtually all magazines and journals are published by mass organizations and party or government-controlled activities, such as institutes, labor unions, cultural committees, and special interest groups. They cover a broad range of subjects and include technical and professional journals, among them magazines on literature, art, health, sports, medicine, statistics, politics, science, and economics. The technical and scientific journals are intended for scholars, engineers, and industrial technicians; cultural and political periodicals are aimed at writers, editors, journalists, artists, party workers, and enterprise managers; and general publications are intended to appeal to various segments of the population, such as youth, women, and both industrial and agricultural workers.

Two of the best known and most widely circulated magazines are Lupta de Clasa and Contemporanul. Lupta de Clasa, a monthly published by the Central Committee of the PCR, had an estimated circulation of about 70,000 in 1969 and was considered to be the foremost political review. It deals with the theory of socialism and is extensively quoted in the daily press as a semiofficial voice in domestic affairs. Contemporanul, the weekly organ of the Council on Socialist Culture and Education, had a circulation of approximately 65,000 and was a leading authority on political, cultural, and social affairs. Through its wide range of articles it serves as a primary vehicle for conveying party policy to writers, journalists, editors, and publishers in all fields.

Other periodicals cover a broad spectrum and included Femeia, the monthly magazine of the National Council of Women; Probleme Economice, the monthly review of the Society of Economic Sciences; Tinarul Leninist, a monthly magazine for members of the Union of Communist Youth; Luceafarul, a semimonthly review of foreign policy matters published by the Union of Writers; Romania Literara, a literary, artistic, and sociopolitical weekly also published by the Union of Writers; Urzica, a humorous and satirical semimonthly review published by the PCR; Volk und Kultur, a monthly review published in German by the Council on Socialist Culture and Education; and Korunk, the monthly sociocultural review in Hungarian, published by the Hungarian Peoples' Council.

One of the magazines best known outside the country is Romania Azi, a richly illustrated social, economic, and cultural monthly magazine published by the Foreign Language Press. In addition to Romanian, it is also published in English, Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Spanish. The government also sponsors a series of scholarly reviews dealing with studies on southeastern Europe, the history of art, Romanian historical and artistic development, and linguistics. These reviews appear at infrequent intervals and, in addition to the Romanian edition, are offered on subscription in English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish.

News Agencies

The Romanian Press Agency (Agentia Romana de Presa—Agerpres) was established in 1949, with the exclusive right to the collection and distribution of all news, pictures, and other press items, both domestic and foreign. In recent years, however, it has concerned itself almost exclusively with news from foreign countries, leaving much of the domestic news coverage to the correspondents of the larger daily newspapers. Agerpres, in 1972, operated as an office of the central government under the direct supervision and control of the Central Committee of the party.

The headquarters for Agerpres is maintained in Bucharest, with some sixteen branch offices located in other major towns and cities throughout the country. In addition, it staffs on a full-time basis twenty-one bureaus abroad, principally in the larger capital cities of Europe, Africa, South America, and the Far East. Until 1960 its most important source of foreign news was the Soviet central news agency, through which it received the bulk of its foreign news releases and international news summaries. This arrangement was replaced by news exchange agreements with selected agencies of both the Western countries and the countries of Eastern Europe.

In addition to the Soviet agency, foreign news bureaus are maintained in Bucharest by the press agencies of Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). To service these bureaus and its own correspondents abroad Agerpres issues the daily Agerpres News of the Day and the weekly Agerpres Information Bulletin. For domestic consumption Agerpres distributes about 45,000 words of foreign news coverage daily to official government and party offices, to various newspapers and periodicals, and to radio and television broadcasting stations.

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