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A new wave of financial strain is gripping Türkiye’s media industry, leaving few outlets untouched. From long-standing newspapers to digital startups and TV stations, organizations across the spectrum are grappling with unpaid salaries, layoffs, and even full-scale shutdowns.
Ekol TV, one of Türkiye’s leading news channels, is scaling down operations following a decision by its owner, businessman Mubariz Mansimov, to withdraw from the media sector, according to reports in the Turkish media on Tuesday.
The reports said the channel has closed its Ankara bureau and will lay off about 250 employees in Istanbul, leaving around 300 journalists unemployed in total.
The crisis, fueled by both the country’s sectoral slowdown and structural weaknesses in the media business, has now reached household names such as Hurriyet, Cumhuriyet, KRT TV, Ekonomim, and Flash Haber TV, the latter under state receivership through the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF).
Industry insiders describe a domino effect: as revenues shrink and costs soar, media executives are resorting to drastic cuts, signaling a deep structural challenge to Türkiye’s already fragile journalism ecosystem.
The country’s best-known daily, Hurriyet, is reportedly planning one of the largest staff reductions in its history. Roughly one in three are expected to be dismissed, according to journalist Izzet Capa.
Layoff notices, employees say, are being delivered by email, while the paper prepares to move its headquarters to a smaller office in Istanbul.
The media group that owns Hurriyet has long been rumored to have a large debt to state-owned Ziraat Bank.
The restructuring rumors have spread to sister outlets Posta and Milliyet, both part of the same conglomerate, suggesting that more staff cuts could follow in the coming months.
At Flash Haber TV, which operates under the control of the TMSF, about 150 employees have been dismissed, the Journalists’ Association of Türkiye (TGC) announced.
In a statement condemning the move, the association described the layoffs as “arbitrary” and pointed to a rising wave of job insecurity and rights violations in the media sector.
“Unemployment is already high in Türkiye,” the TGC said. “But among journalists, it is much higher. Press workers are increasingly vulnerable to political pressure, lack of oversight, and the absence of enforceable labor protections.”
The group urged authorities to halt dismissals and restore oversight mechanisms, warning that without intervention, job insecurity in the sector could become permanent.
Facing its own financial bottleneck, the Cumhuriyet daily has issued a public call for solidarity, invoking a collective effort to keep the newspaper financially flourishing.
In its message to readers, the 101-year-old paper stated that with its readers support, it was under they “will ensure that our independent and principled journalism can survive into the future.”
The appeal, rare for a major national outlet, underscores how even established institutions are struggling to maintain financial independence amid growing economic and political constraints.
Earlier this year, KRT TV employees staged a work stoppage after months of unpaid wages and meal allowances.
Staff members said they had not received their salaries since late March, and no payment schedule or explanation had been provided by management.
The protest, organized spontaneously inside the newsroom, shows that now even mid-sized broadcasters have been dragged into the broader financial turmoil.
The digital financial outlet Nasil Bir Ekonomi, which operates the Ekonomim news platform, reportedly closed its office and switched to remote work to reduce expenses according to reports from Turkish media.
The decision followed months of mounting costs and declining ad revenues. Insiders say the platform may adopt part-time work arrangements in the coming months as it continues to adjust to lower operating income.
The publication is viewed as a promising alternative in Türkiye’s business journalism landscape and makes space for Turkish financial and economic experts.
The financial downturn is being compounded by another, less visible factor: algorithmic changes by Google.
Several Turkish media outlets argue that recent updates to the tech giant’s search and ad-ranking systems have sharply reduced web traffic and advertising revenues — a blow that independent platforms can scarcely afford.
Earlier this year, the online newspaper Gazete Duvar ceased publication, citing both worsening economic conditions and plummeting ad income linked to Google’s algorithmic adjustments.
In response, a group of outlets including Ekonomim accused Google of “imposing an embargo on reader traffic,” warning that the practice had “destructive and existential consequences” for small and mid-sized media organizations dependent on digital visibility.
The current financial crisis cuts across Türkiye’s entire political spectrum. Outlets traditionally viewed as pro-government are struggling alongside staunchly opposition or independent platforms.
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