In ancient China, there was a newspaper, which was issued by the government. It was called Dibao. The contents of the newspaper are government personnel changes, prison litigation judgments, etc., as long as they are issued internally. Later, the scope of distribution expanded and gradually penetrated into the people, especially in the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, there were some publications that published government activities, called News (different from today's news), which was also an early newspaper.

I haven't read "Ambitious Bao Qingtian", but it is basically credible to sell newspapers in the Northern Song Dynasty. Of course, newspapers at that time were not commercialized as they are now, so if they were peddled by newsboys or newsstands, they would not be credible. )