How has Coronavirus Affected Local Newspapers?

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Turkey has been struggling against novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic for over 40 days now. Since the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in Turkey on March 11, both social isolation and curfews have caused the circulation of national and local newspapers to drop.

When compared with the pre-pandemic period, the sales have fallen by half, say the owners and editors-in-chief of local newspapers.

Noting that their future is full of uncertainties, local journalists say that public ads, a major source of revenue, do not come any longer and they oscillate between their employees and closing down the newspapers.

Within this context, we have talked to Emrullah Özbey, the owner and managing editor of weekly Haber49 newspaper from Muş; Cenap Kürümoğlu, the owner of daily Habertrak newspaper from Tekirdağ; Ökkeş Özekşi, the executive board chair of Gaziantep 27 newspaper; and Hasan Kurt, the grant holder of Kuzey Ekspres newspaper from Trabzon.

Özbey: Newspapers remain unsold

Emrullah Özbey: We used to publish the newspaper daily in Muş. With the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, we have started to publish it weekly, we still cannot sell. Normally, I would have 1,000 copies. I still do the same, but newspapers go unsold.

As my newspaper is printed in color, I have it printed in Adana. I also have problems with transportation and distribution. As for advertising, there is no such potential in Muş anyway. There are eight newspapers in Muş printed on a daily and weekly basis and these newspapers have decided to come out as two newspapers a day during the outbreak.

The Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) has announced that it will give personnel support in this period. But, though we applied for it immediately, there are still no developments about it. I don't know how much longer this process will go on, but it is hard for local newspapers to survive it.

Kürümoğlu: I don't know how I will pay the salaries

Cenap Kürümoğlu: Like in other cities, local newspapers in Tekirdağ have started to come out periodically. There are six daily newspapers in Tekirdağ and we come out every three days.

The Press Advertisement Institution (BİK) has said that it will not take the number of subscribers and the number of issues sold at newsstands into consideration in this period, but we are having difficulties as there are no public ads. In fact, the BİK is still receiving a 15-percent commission through advertisements and public ads. It has no use for us. On the very contrary, it places a burden on us.

As newsstands are closed, there is no sale. We have no circulation as workplaces are closed. We still leave the newspapers in front of their doors, but it is not certain what happens to them after that.

'We make no profits, but incur losses'

The majority of our readers are shopkeepers, they read the paper at work. Barbers, coffee houses, restaurants, tea houses... They are all closed now. As the businesses are closed, we cannot collect the debt owed to us.

In spite of all these, I am still paying the salaries of my employees. There are 10 people working with me. But, if this period goes on like that, I don't know how I will manage to pay the salaries.

We make no profits, but incur losses. Because there are no bills or ads. The major source of revenue for local newspapers is public ads. Last month, we took ads worth of 30,000 TRY. It is 5,000 TRY this month.

As the foreign exchange has increased, our inputs have also increased. Inks, chemicals, blocks, paper... Everything is exported. Two months ago, 1 dollar was around 5.80 TRY while it is also 7 TRY now. But the price of the newspaper and that of the ads are still the same.

We cannot go on like this. We were already in deep water. This process has worn us out further. In the beginning of this year, around 1,100 newspapers were receiving public ads. This figure has dropped to 1,025 in April. In other words, 75 newspapers have been closed down. If it continues like that, this figure will keep on dropping. We are having great difficulties.

Özekşi: We are in financial trouble

Ökkeş Özekşi: We have paused print publishing. We make our news to be published once a week and on the Internet. But, apart from this, we make our daily newspaper available online.

We are in great financial trouble. It was said that the İŞKUR would pay 60 percent of employees' wages. It has been a month, but we cannot yet get any results.

We have cheques, deeds, the salaries of our personnel to pay. We are trying to survive without getting any support. There is no public advertising left. Nor are there any notices for execution of debts or courts. As all other things have also stopped, we have no revenue left. As the local press, we are brooding over when we will close down or when our publication stops. The staff are stressed, too.

'We ponder what to do'

We have no revenue from anywhere. As for our subscription system, shopkeepers have closed their businesses and their condition is worse than ours. We are pondering and pondering, like shopkeepers, about what to do.

We have reduced our circulation from 2,000 to around 1,000. 14 newspapers come out as two newspapers a day by turns in Antep. If it goes on like this, we will close down. Our future looks grim. We cannot think about the future.

Kurt: We used to print 3,000, now we print 1,500

Hasan Kurt: Whatever the situation in İstanbul, it is the same in Trabzon. Public ads have stopped, too. If our revenue was five in the past, it has dropped to two now. As the price of printing is foreign currency indexed, the printing costs have also increased. Newspapers have started tolerating this by reducing the number of issues. We used to print 3,000 issues a day, we have also dropped it to 1,500 now. But we still come out daily.

The method of alternate printing in other cities was also tried here, but when one newspaper didn't accept it, everyone kept on working as they liked.

In this process, newspapers have to save money, but as everyone is competing with each other, we cannot do it, either. We wanted to reduce the number of pages from 18 to 12, but it would mean reducing the number of workers as well. We did not find it acceptable to do this just to cut the printing costs by 30-40 liras.

We don't know what we will do. The salaries of some of our workers are now paid by the İŞKUR by half. We are having difficulties in spite of this. A standard procedure needs to be introduced to distribution of ads immediately, a criterium must be set.

There is an unjust situation. A public ad in Antep shouldn't be published in İstanbul anymore. Wherever the ad originates, it has to be published there. When you look at İstanbul newspapers today, you see that they get 80 percent of their ads from Anatolia. Why do the ads in Anatolia go to the newspapers in İstanbul? It is sounding the death knell for us. (HA/SD)