How to Start an Online News Site in Turkey

What you need to start a news site

Splitting the list in two makes it easier: the technical items that get the site up, and the items that make the publication lawful. Most ventures complete the first group and learn about the second six months later — whereas part of the second must be done before you begin publishing.

• A domain name — the address that will carry your brand. The extension you choose affects official announcements and institutional perception later on.
• Hosting or a server — capacity to carry breaking-news traffic. On news sites the load is not flat; it comes in sudden peaks.
• News software — headline management, categories, reporter permissions, archive, RSS and Google News compatibility.
• A responsible editor — a natural person meeting the conditions in Article 5 of Law No. 5187. Every periodical must have one.
• The declaration — given to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office where the place of management is located (Art. 7).
• The masthead — the six items in Article 4(3), directly reachable from the home page.
• An archive arrangement — published content retained for two years (Art. 10).

What field will you publish in?

“General news” is the most crowded and hardest field; you have to distinguish yourself among hundreds of sites copying an agency feed. Winning sites almost always focus either on a geography or on a vertical. Focus produces a concrete promise both for reader loyalty and for advertisers.

• Local news — a province or district. Council meetings, planning, public order, local sport. Low competition, high reader loyalty.
• City life — transport, the culture calendar, local business. A broad advertiser base.
• A trade vertical — agriculture, energy, logistics, health. Fewer readers but a high unit value per advertisement.
• Economy and finance — company news, tenders and incentives.
• Sport — especially with a local club focus; match days bring predictable traffic peaks.
• A news agency — producing content and selling it to other publications. A different business model needing a different infrastructure.

Your choice is not only editorial but commercial. The right to publish official announcements depends on conditions that vary with your place of publication and category; see the official announcements guide.

Choosing a domain name

The domain is the most expensive decision to change. A news site’s address is the carrier of the trust accumulated in search engines over years; when you move, you lose part of that accumulation in any event. So get it right the first time.

• Keep it short and speakable. If it can be announced on radio and dictated over the phone without error, it is good.
• Including a place name is a double-edged sword. “denizlihaber” signals local authority but makes expanding beyond the city harder later.
• Avoid hyphens and digits. They get lost in speech and increase the risk of impersonation.
• Extension: .com is the most widely accepted. .com.tr strengthens institutional perception and requires documents. .news, .press and .media are niche but memorable.
• Check for brand conflict. A name that could be confused with an existing publication creates both legal and reputational problems later.

Three ways to build a news site

In practice there are three routes. All three work; the choice depends not on your budget but on your publishing volume and your regulatory burden.

For the great majority of small and medium publications the right answer is the first. The reason is not design: when items such as the content date stamp, two-year archive integrity and the masthead come embedded in the software, you do not have to build them separately for every page.

Which platform should you choose?

Ask these six questions when deciding on a platform. If three of the answers are “no”, that platform will force you to rebuild later.

• Do the first publication date and subsequent update dates appear on the story in a way that does not change on each access?
• Can you retain published content for two years in a way that proves it was not altered afterwards?
• Are the masthead fields fixed and reachable from the home page in one click?
• Are reporter, editor and responsible editor permissions separated? Is there a trace of who published what?
• Does caching engage under breaking-news traffic, or does the server fall over?
• Are structured data and a sitemap produced for Google News and search engines?

Is starting a news site free?

It can be set up for free but it cannot be run for free. Publishing on free blog platforms is technically possible; the problem is that the masthead, archive and date stamp obligations cannot be met there, and because the domain is not yours you cannot carry the value you accumulate. The realistic cost items are:

• Domain — annual, varying by extension.
• Hosting or a server — monthly. It grows as traffic grows.
• News software — a one-off licence or a monthly usage fee.
• An SSL certificate — included in most packages.
• Personnel — the largest item. Responsible editor and reporter wages are subject to Law No. 5953; the calculation is set out in the journalist employment contract guide.
• Backup and archive storage — the two-year content retention obligation produces disk cost over time.

Does it require technical knowledge?

Not for the setup; partly for running it. With ready-made news software and managed hosting a team with no technical knowledge can take the site live. But on three subjects you must either become competent yourself or buy in the service:

• Security. News sites are addresses frequented by both automated scans and targeted attacks. A site with no update and backup regime is compromised sooner or later.
• Performance. Breaking-news traffic can multiply tenfold within minutes. Cache configuration is the only practical answer.
• Archive integrity. Being able to prove a story was not altered afterwards requires a technical arrangement.

Do you need permission to start a news site?

No. In Turkey no permission or licence is obtained from any institution to start an online news site. That does not mean no formality at all: after the amendment made by Law No. 7418, sub-paragraph (c) of Article 2 of Law No. 5187 treats online news sites as periodicals too. For periodicals Article 7 of the Law provides: for the publication to be issued, giving a declaration to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office where the place of management is located is sufficient.

The word “sufficient” there summarises the regime: you await no one’s approval, you make a notification. What the declaration must contain is listed in the article:

• The name and nature of the publication
• At what intervals it will be published
• The place of management
• The names and addresses of the owner, the representative if any, and the responsible editor
• The type of publication
• The electronic notification address (added by Law No. 7418)

The declaration is signed by the owner of the publication and the responsible editor; the documents showing the existence of the conditions in Articles 5 and 6 are attached, together with a copy of the articles of association if the owner is a legal person. A receipt is given in return. If the declaration or its annexes are incomplete, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office asks for the deficiency to be remedied within two weeks of its submission (Art. 8).

The fields and annexes are set out in the declaration guide.

Responsible editor and masthead: before you publish

The Law requires every periodical to have a responsible editor (Art. 5). Where there is more than one, the section each is responsible for is stated. The conditions for being a responsible editor are:

• Having completed eighteen years of age
• Having a place of residence in Turkey and residing there continuously
• Being a graduate of at least a secondary or equivalent educational institution
• Not being subject to legal incapacity or barred from public service
• Not having been convicted of offences involving moral turpitude
• For those who are not Turkish citizens, the condition of reciprocity

The masthead is regulated in the third paragraph of Article 4, added by Law No. 7418. On online news sites the following information is kept under a “contact” heading and directly reachable by users from the home page:

• The business address at which the activity is carried on
• The trade name
• The email address
• A contact telephone number
• The electronic notification address
• The name and address of the hosting provider

The fourth paragraph of the same article imposes a separate obligation: the date on which a piece of content was first made available and the dates of subsequent updates are stated on the content in a way that does not change on each access. A relative expression such as “3 hours ago” is therefore not enough on its own; a fixed date must be visible. The detail is in the masthead template.

Building a fast and economical news site

If the budget is tight, the place to cut is not the design but the scope. Start with a small number of categories, a single city or a single vertical; do not cut the infrastructure. The common mistake is the opposite: a broad publishing promise, the cheapest shared hosting, and a site that collapses on the first serious story.

• Choose ready-made news software; leave custom development to the second year.
• Start with managed hosting and move to a server as traffic grows.
• Build the design with a ready template; commission a bespoke design once the brand settles.
• Focus on a single vertical for the first six months; keep the number of categories under five.
• Automate backup and updates from day one — a backup added later is not a backup.

Step by step

The order matters: some of the legal steps must be completed before you begin publishing.

• 1. Define your editorial line and scope. Which geography, which subject, what frequency.
• 2. Set up the commercial structure. Sole trader or company; the declaration and the contracts will run through it.
• 3. Register the domain. In the company’s name, for several years.
• 4. Choose hosting or a server. According to the expected traffic peak.
• 5. Install the news software. Categories, reporter permissions, headline layout.
• 6. Appoint the responsible editor. Document the conditions in Article 5.
• 7. Give the declaration. To the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office; keep the receipt.
• 8. Publish the masthead. Six items, directly reachable from the home page.
• 9. Verify the date stamp. First publication and update dates must appear fixed.
• 10. Set up the archive and backup regime. The two-year retention obligation runs from day one.
• 11. Close off the data protection side. Privacy notice, cookie management, VERBİS where required.
• 12. Go live and tell the search engines. Sitemap, Search Console, Google News.

What to do after the site is up

Going live is a beginning, not an end. The obligations requiring continuity after setup are:

Editorial routines must be established alongside those. If you are going to open reader comments, settle the limits of liability for comments at the outset; if you will draw on other sources, settle the rules of quoting news. Your site’s position under Law No. 5651 also affects your operating decisions; the distinction in hosting provider or content provider matters for that. On the data side, check early whether VERBİS registration is required.

How much does a news site earn?

The honest answer: the variability is very high and giving a single figure would mislead. Three variables determine revenue — traffic volume, the commercial value of the audience and the diversity of revenue lines. At the same traffic an economics site earns noticeably more than a celebrity site, because the advertisers are different.

• Programmatic advertising — revenue per impression. Easy to start, low unit revenue.
• Direct advertising — monthly agreements with local businesses. The most stable item in local publications.
• Sponsored content — labelling rules apply; surreptitious advertising is subject to sanction.
• Official announcements — regular and predictable revenue for publications meeting the conditions.
• Subscriptions and donations — meaningful once a loyal readership is established.
• Events and non-publishing revenue — awards, panels, guide publications.

Among those, official announcements are the most asked about and the most misunderstood. Publishing official announcements is not an automatic right: you must meet conditions such as minimum staffing, continuity and traffic, which vary with your place of publication. The staffing condition cannot be solved by software — it is a personnel matter. See the minimum roster guide and the official announcements guide.

Summary

Starting an online news site requires no permission, but it does require a notification. The technical setup is short; what lasts are the obligations requiring continuity — the masthead, the date stamp, the two-year archive and the responsible editor. The right order is: narrow the scope, do not cut the infrastructure, and complete the legal items before the first story. A publication that does those three does not have to come back and clean up when it grows.

The software selection framework is covered in the news software guide and the difference between a script and a platform in the script vs platform guide.