The number of periodicals
published in Turkey (including weekly publications) is 5,665.[1]
There are about 2,500 newspapers currently circulating in Turkey, including 55 national and 23 regional newspapers. National newspapers and broadcasting companies are based in Istanbul and Ankara.
There are about 2,500 newspapers currently circulating in Turkey, including 55 national and 23 regional newspapers. National newspapers and broadcasting companies are based in Istanbul and Ankara.
The control of the media is in the hands of large multi-sectoral groups - Doğan Media Group, Turkuvaz, Ciner Group, Çukurova Group, Doğuş Group, and Feza Group, while the distribution of the print media is controlled by Doğan Group’s Yay-Sat and Turkuvaz Group’s Turkuvaz Dağıtım Pazarlama.
The leading newspapers (with
respect to average sales) are Zaman, Posta, Hürriyet, Sabah, Sözcü and
Habertürk.
Although its power has
declined, Doğan Media Group is the largest and the most prominent media giant
in Turkey. Despite government pressures, it still controls a number of high-circulation
newspapers - Hürriyet, Radikal, Posta, English-language Hürriyet Daily News,
and Fanatik.
Almost the entire
remaining part of the media is owned by pro-AKP businesses and maintains a
pro-government slant to curry favor with AKP.
Turkuvaz Media Group is
owned by Çalık Holding, and Prime Minister Erdoğan's son-in-law is the CEO of
Çalık Holding.The newspapers owned by this group are Sabah, Takvim, Fotomaç and
Yeni Asır.
Ciner Group, the former
owner of Sabah, launched Habertürk in 2009.
Feza Group, which has
close connections with the Islamic sect leader Fethullah Gülen, controls Zaman
and English-language Today's Zaman.
Akşam, Tercüman and Güneş
belong to Çukurova Group
Daily newspaper Star is
owned by the businessman Ethem Sancak
Albayrak business group
owns Islamic-oriented Yeni Şafak. Other Islamic oriented papers are Yeni
Akit and Milli Gazete.
Taraf daily launched in
2007 by several prominent journalists and intellectuals is known as a critic of
the army and is pro-Kurdish.
Staunch Kemalists and
nationalist status-quo groups in turn publish newspapers like Cumhuriyet,
Sözcü, Yeni Çağ and Aydınlık. They are harsh critics of the government.