The Chinese government will shut down nearly 5,000 small-scale news agencies during its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), in a bid to optimize and reallocate publishing resources.

Publications that are poorly-run or stuck in an insolvency gridlock will be removed through merger and reconstruction reforms, says an official from General Administration of Press and Publication Wednesday.

Publishers with no-independent legal status will account for less than 30 percent of all the publishing enterprises, compared with the current 65 percent.

The government will advocate media grouping and branding, in the hope the move will vitalize the publishing industry, he added.