BEIJING -- A periodical has lost its license to publish after it illegally leased its publication rights to a company, China's State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television announced on Saturday.

Beijing-based Economic Life Digest allowed a cultural company to have publication and operation rights under a so-called "advertisement agreement" from October 2009 to the end of 2012, according to the publication watchdog. An investigation showed the periodical received 300,000 yuan ($49,013) each year from the deal.

During the period, the company put a large number of academic essays published illegally under the name of the periodical into the database of two companies, leading to many substandard pieces of work to appear on the Internet, according to the investigation. "Some periodicals lease, sell, or transfer their publication rights to individuals or cultural companies in pursuit of economic gains," the administration said in the statement. The administration vowed to strengthen investigations and punishments in order to keep the academic publication environment clean.