For online news sites the number varies between 15 and 120 items a day depending on category. Article 60 of the Regulation on Official Announcements and Advertisements sets that threshold category by category, and the threshold is daily — it is not assessed over a monthly total.
The minimum daily news count by category
| Category | Minimum news items per day |
|---|---|
| General Category | 120 |
| 1st Category | 50 |
| 2nd Category | 40 |
| 3rd Category | 25 |
| 4th Category | 20 |
| 5th Category | 15 |
The gap between the General Category and the 5th is eightfold. The price of a nationwide quota location shows here too: alongside 120 items a day come a roster of 32 and a requirement of 250,000 daily unique visitors.
The number is not enough; the quality of the content is required too
Article 23 separately regulates what the content must be like. Even if the number of items you publish is met, the condition is not satisfied if they do not have these qualities:
- All text other than private announcements and advertising must be published in Turkish (content in other languages is permitted provided a Turkish translation exists)
- The content must be original and current, and concern political, economic, cultural, artistic, scientific, technological, social, entertainment and sporting subjects relating to the place of publication or quota location and its surroundings
- Service content such as broadcast schedules, duty pharmacies, economic tables and weather must be up to date; content such as crosswords and horoscopes must not be repeated
- Images must be relevant and proportionate to the news text
- Headlines must not distort the content, mislead, or create a contradiction with it
- Two thirds of a newspaper’s surface area, and the daily news count of an online news site, must consist of content of that quality
There is a further condition for those employing columnists: their columns expressing their own views and opinions on social subjects must be published at least once every seven days.
The date and time requirement
Article 60(2) also intervenes in form: news items and columns in the content must carry date and time information. The date and time at which a piece was first made available, together with subsequent update information, must be stated on the content in a way that does not change on each access.
That provision looks in the same direction as the date-stamp obligation in Article 4(4) of Press Law No. 5187. Relative expressions such as “3 hours ago” are not enough on their own; a fixed date must be visible.
The equivalent for newspapers
For newspapers the criterion is not a daily news count but surface area. Under Article 23 two thirds of a newspaper’s surface area must consist of content of the quality listed in the article. Article 39 additionally sets a minimum surface area category by category.
Conclusion
The minimum daily news count for online news sites rises from 15 in the 5th Category to 120 in the General. The threshold is daily; as well as the number, the content must be original, current and related to the place of publication, at least one sixth must be produced by rostered editorial staff, and every item must carry a fixed date and time.
How the monthly figure is calculated is covered in the monthly content guide and traffic thresholds in the traffic guide.