Zaman (newspaper)
 Typical Zaman front page | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Berliner |
| Owner(s) | Feza Inc. |
| Editor-in-chief | Ekrem Dumanlı |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Political alignment | Conservative |
| Headquarters | Fevzi Cakmak Mah. A. Taner Kislali Cad. No:6 34194 Bahcelievler Istanbul, TURKEY |
| Circulation | 1 million[1] |
| Website | www.zaman.com.tr |
Zaman (literally "time" or "era" in Turkish) is a major, high-circulation daily newspaper in Turkey.[2] It was founded in 1986 and was the first Turkish daily to go online in 1995.[3] It contains national (Turkish), international, business and other news. It also has many regular columnists who cover current affairs, interviews and a culture section.
Zaman is known to be related with the Fethullah Gülen movement[4] but the movement is not the owner.[5] It is a conservative[6] newspaper which has a moderate Islamic worldview.[7] Zaman, which declares itself as in support of democracy and secularism,[8] is regarded as Islamic, or Islamist, by some sources.[4][6][9]
Editions
Zaman is an Istanbul-based daily paper that also prints special international editions for some other countries. It is printed in 11 countries[10] and distributed in 35 countries.[8]
In addition to four locations in Turkey, regional editions are printed and distributed in Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Turkmenistan, and the US. Zaman bureaus and correspondents are located in major world capitals and cities like Washington DC, New York, Brussels, Moscow, Cairo, Baku, Frankfurt, Ashgabat, Tashkent, and Bucharest.
Special international editions are distributed in the native alphabets and languages of the countries they are published. Zaman has prints in 10 different languages[8] including Kyrgyz, Romanian, Bulgarian, Azeri, Uzbek, Turkmen. Originally also having an English-language edition, since January 16, 2007, that role has been taken over by the newly-launched English-language daily newspaper Today's Zaman.
Zaman headquarters in Istanbul is supported by news bureaus in Ashgabat, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Moscow, New York, and Washington, DC. Zaman also appears to have a large network of foreign journalists, especially in Russia and Central Asia.
Current position and awards
Its circulation is about 890.000,[11] highest in Turkey as of 2008. The total paid circulation of Zaman was verified by an independent Media Auditing company, BPA Worldwide, after accusations that the newspaper is being handed out freely to gain market share. The audition report was released to public in March 2007, and revealed that Zaman' circulation was 609,865 between Monday-Saturday, and 678,027 on Sundays, without any non-paid circulation.[12] BPA audit figures have also showed that Zaman has one of the largest subscriber bases of a national newspaper in Europe.[2]
Zaman has been awarded several times for its design, including Society for News Design (SND). Zaman's SND awards tally includes 3 in 2003, 5 in 2004,2005, 2006, 20 in 2007, 42 in 2008, and 23 in 2009.[13]
Vision
The newspaper founders have a widely known ambition of reaching 1 million subscribers which is very important threshold in terms of setting the tone in the country affairs. In some cases it was close to getting 900 000 in daily sales, but 1 million is still remains as a target. Several newspaper columnists, notably Kerim Balci have written in their columns about this target encouraging the readers to find new subscribers for the newspaper.
By May month ZAMAN has surpassed 1 million subscription target.
Staff
The newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanli is known as the major brainpower behind the success of Zaman. The newspaper has attracted number of very famous columnists both from liberal and conservative wings of thought.
Online version
Zaman was the first Turkish newspaper to set up online version in 1995. Since then the website has gone through several redesigns, the latest at the end of 2010, and now positioned as a news portal.
References
- ^ "Circulation report based on 02.05.2011 - 08.05.2011". Yay-Sat, Turkuvaz. medyatava.com. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ a b "BPA Audit Figures Reveal Turkish Newspaper As Having One of the Largest Subscriber Bases in Europe". ClickPress. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ Zaman-Wap
- ^ a b Milliyet
- ^ Asharq Alawsat
- ^ a b Editor's Weblog
- ^ Haaretz
- ^ a b c "About Zaman". Feza Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ Middle East Forum
- ^ "Uluslararası bir marka: Zaman" (in Turkish). Zaman. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ Weekly circulation report for Turkish newspapers - Source: Yaysat
- ^ "BPA Worldwide Zaman daily newspaper circulation statement" (PDF). BPA. Zaman. Retrieved 20 July 2009.
- ^ "SND Winners". SND official web page. Retrieved 20 July 2009. [dead link]