Publishing Revolution : The official newspaper of Hungary is seeking an infusion of Western capital and know-how.

Forget about those rusting steel mills and polyester clothing factories that the East Bloc’s communist governments have put up for sale in attempts to bring in hard currency.

Hungary is now accepting bids for its official government daily newspaper, Magyar Hirlap.

“We want to obtain editorial independence from the government, implement a desk-top computer editing system and turn Magyar Hirlap into a profitable venture,” spokesman Pal Bokor said.

Bokor and other editors at the 100,000-circulation daily need about $1.5 million (95 million forints) from foreign investors so they can complete a management buyout. And they particularly want foreigners with Western-style business skills.

Western analysts say Magyar Hirlap also had better look for someone who relishes a high-risk battle in an increasingly cutthroat market.

Shakeout Predicted

“There are a lot of things in Hungary where you could make a killing. News isn’t one of them,” said Jan Vanous of PlanEcon, a Washington economic consulting firm specializing in East Bloc nations.

Vanous predicted a shakeout in the Hungarian newspaper industry, where a number of dailies, weeklies and monthlies have started up in the past year as a result of the new press freedoms.

He added that Magyar Hirlap (which means Hungarian News) “is not the type of property that say, (British press lord) Robert Maxwell would go after. It’s too serious.”

Vanous said a more attractive investment might be the semi-pornographic magazines that are cropping up throughout Hungary.

And he noted that Reform, a gossipy political and cultural weekly that runs pictures of bare-breasted women under the guise of artistic edification, is “doing quite well.” Reform is an international joint business venture financed by a West German publishing house and the Hungarian Communist Party.

But Magyar Hirlap remains undaunted.

Increasingly Open Market

Spokesman Bokor said the paper is holding talks on a possible joint venture with Generali Insurance Co. of Italy and with an Austrian publishing firm that he declined to identify.

One of the first things to be purged under a transformed (and newly independent) Magyar Hirlap would be the paper’s subtitle: “The Daily of the Council of Ministers,” Bokor said.

Founded in 1967, Magyar Hirlap is one of a half-dozen daily newspapers that jostles for readers in this communist but increasingly open country of 10.6 million people. It also is just one of the many Hungarian publications seeking infusions of capital, high-tech publishing equipment and Western turnaround artists.

Magyar Nemzset (Hungarian Nation), another daily paper that is more critical of the government than is Magyar Hirlap, says it, too, is courting foreign investment.

“We’d like to become a shareholding firm with foreign capital and a journalist buyout,” said Jozsef Martin, who heads up Magyar Nemzset’s foreign bureau.

Times staff writer Hamilton recently returned from a professional fellowship in Hungary.