Turkey’s newspaper industry continued to lose ground to digital media in 2025, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). The institute’s Periodical Publications Statistics show a sharp decline in the circulation of print newspapers authorized to publish official notices, while the number of online news websites and their employees continued to grow. Employment at digital news outlets has nearly reached the level of the print newspaper sector.
According to TÜİK data, newspapers authorized to publish official notices experienced declines in both circulation and employment in 2025. In contrast, the number of online news websites, visitor traffic and staffing levels all increased, highlighting the growing importance of digital platforms in news production and audience reach. The number of newspapers publishing official notices fell from 753 in 2024 to 659 in 2025, a decline of 12.5 percent. Their combined annual circulation also dropped by 15.1 percent to 392,797,801 copies.
The decline affected both national and local newspapers. Annual circulation for national newspapers fell from 371 million to 322 million copies, while local newspapers saw circulation drop from 90 million to 69 million, a decline of more than 23 percent.
Employment in newspapers publishing official notices also declined over the year, falling from 4,315 employees to 3,714, a decrease of 13.9 percent. Of those employed, 43.8 percent worked as reporters, 26.7 percent as page editors and 20.3 percent as managing editors.
The digital news sector, however, showed the opposite trend. The number of online news websites authorized to publish official notices increased from 349 to 357. Employment at these outlets rose by 8.4 percent to 3,690 people, bringing the number of digital news employees almost level with the 3,714 people working for print newspapers.
Online news websites recorded a total of 8.84 billion unique visitors and 45.31 billion page views during the year. General news websites accounted for 66.3 percent of all unique visitors and 74.2 percent of total page views.
The continued decline in print circulation and employment has placed additional economic pressure on Turkey’s newspaper industry, particularly local newspapers, whose ability to reach readers continues to weaken as the number of publications falls.
At the same time, the growth of online news websites indicates that news production, employment and advertising are increasingly shifting to digital platforms. The fact that employment in digital media has nearly matched that of the print newspaper sector stands out as one of the clearest indicators of this transformation.
