The publication of periodicals is regulated by an act of 1986 which declares that the foundation of a new Hungarian periodical must be reported to the press administration of the Cultural Ministry, and legal deposit copies must be submitted of the publication. According to the order 60/1988 llll.27.) the number of legal deposit copies is six, of which two belong to the national library and serves national bibliographic control.
In the press changes altering ownership and administrative control took place between 1990 and 1994. The author made her analysis on the bases of National Széchényi Library Bibliography of Periodicals and the Hungarian Periodical Database for the period 1988-1997.
Between 1987-1997 over 3500 periodicals appeared annually, with considerable decrease only after 1994. Since the most recent periodicals were started in 1991, this year served as the basis of the analysis of title alterations. Titles are changed if the content of the periodical, the publisher or the editor changes, or if the change of the geographical name leads to title alteration. The survey of the content and typology of the Hungarian press was based on data from 1987, 1992, 1997. In 1987 there were 48 political periodicals, all issued by the Hungarian Socialist Party. In 1992 political parties had started periodicals of their own, thus their number increased to 175, then it was reduced to 71 by 1997. The number of periodicals published by county authorities and economic societies also increased. So did the number of advertising papers and periodicals issued by churches. More and more publication are available on CD ROM or Internet (altogether 150 Hungarian papers). The national bibliography does not include publications available on the net only, however, those having ISSN are registered in the ISSN database.