How many of a media organisation's staff may hold a Turkish press card is not a matter of choice, nor does it follow from headcount. It is fixed by the quotas set out by type of publication in Chapter Five of the Press Card Regulation (Basın Kartı Yönetmeliği). For newspapers, the criterion that drives the quota is not circulation but a measure most publishers do not expect: total page area. This article reproduces every quota table in the Regulation, the page-area formula and step-by-step worked examples.
Why the Quota Matters
The quota is the ceiling on how many valid press cards your organisation may hold at any one time. Once the quota is full, even an employee who fully satisfies every individual eligibility condition cannot obtain a card. The quota is therefore directly tied to recruitment planning, to the decision on page count, and even to the choice of the newspaper's page format.
First, Calculate the Page Area
For printed periodicals, every quota table rests on a page-area threshold. Article 4(1)(z) of the Regulation defines the concept as follows: "The value, expressed in square metres, of the figure obtained by multiplying together the page width, the page height and the number of pages of a periodical published in printed form."
PAGE-AREA FORMULA (Press Card Regulation, Art. 4(1)(z))
Page area (m²) = page width (m) × page height (m) × number of pages
IMPORTANT: width and height are entered in METRES.
centimetres → metres : cm / 100
Example: an 8-page newspaper measuring 29.7 cm × 42 cm
= 0.297 × 0.42 × 8
= 0.12474 × 8
= 0.998 m²Below are the single-page areas of the most common page formats and the number of pages needed to cross the 1.20 m² threshold. This table is obtained by applying the formula directly:
| Page format | Dimensions (width × height) | Single page (m²) | Pages needed for 1.20 m² |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadsheet | 35 × 50 cm | 0.1750 | 7 pages |
| Berliner | 31.5 × 47 cm | 0.1481 | 9 pages |
| A3 | 29.7 × 42 cm | 0.1247 | 10 pages |
| Tabloid | 28 × 40 cm | 0.1120 | 11 pages |
Daily Political Newspapers
Legal basis: Article 19(2) of the Regulation. For daily political newspapers the quota is determined by page area and type of publication (national / regional / local) together:
| Page area | Type of publication | Quota |
|---|---|---|
| More than 1.20 m² | All (domestic bureaux) | No quota limitation is applied |
| More than 1.20 m² | National and regional (foreign bureaux) | No quota limitation is applied |
| More than 1.20 m² | Local (foreign bureaux) | At most 25% of those working in the foreign bureau |
| 0.80 – 1.19 m² | Local | Owner + 8 employees |
| 0.60 – 0.79 m² | Local | Owner + 3 employees |
| 0.40 – 0.59 m² | Local | Owner + 1 employee |
| 0.39 m² and below | Local | No application is accepted |
| 1.19 m² and below | National and regional | No application is accepted |
| 1.19 m² and below | All (foreign bureaux) | No press card is issued |
Weekly Political Newspapers and Magazines
Legal basis: Article 20(2) of the Regulation. For newspapers the criterion is page area; for magazines it is the number of pages.
| Weekly political NEWSPAPER — page area | Quota |
|---|---|
| 3.60 m² and above | Owner + 25 employees (foreign bureaux are included within this quota) |
| 1.20 – 3.59 m² | Owner + 10 employees |
| 0.80 – 1.19 m² | Owner + 3 employees |
| 0.60 – 0.79 m² | Owner + 1 employee |
| 0.59 m² and below | No application is accepted |
| 3.59 m² and below (foreign bureaux) | No press card is issued |
| Weekly political MAGAZINE — number of pages | Quota |
|---|---|
| 100 and above | Owner + 25 employees |
| 60 – 99 | Owner + 9 employees |
| 30 – 59 | Owner + 2 employees |
| 29 and below | No application is accepted |
| Foreign bureaux | No press card is issued |
Non-Political Newspapers and Magazines
Legal basis: Article 21(2) of the Regulation. For non-political publications the list of eligible job titles also narrows: unlike the list in Article 19, the titles of staff correspondent (temsilci muhabir) and regional or provincial representative do not appear in this category.
| Publication frequency | Criterion | Quota |
|---|---|---|
| Daily newspaper | 1.20 m² and above | Owner + 25 employees |
| Daily newspaper | 0.80 – 1.19 m² | Owner + 4 employees |
| Daily newspaper | 0.60 – 0.79 m² | Owner + 1 employee |
| Daily newspaper | 0.59 m² and below | No application is accepted |
| Weekly newspaper | 3.60 m² and above | Owner + 14 employees |
| Weekly newspaper | 1.20 – 3.59 m² | Owner + 5 employees |
| Weekly newspaper | 0.80 – 1.19 m² | Owner + 2 employees |
| Weekly newspaper | 0.79 m² and below | No application is accepted |
| Magazine | 100 pages and above | Owner + 14 employees |
| Magazine | 60 – 99 pages | Owner + 5 employees |
| Magazine | 30 – 59 pages | Owner + 2 employees |
| Magazine | 29 pages and below | No application is accepted |
For all publications in this category, no press card is issued to foreign bureaux.
Fortnightly and Less Frequent Publications
Legal basis: Article 22(2) of the Regulation.
| Publication | Criterion | Quota |
|---|---|---|
| Fortnightly newspaper | Page area 1.60 m² and above | Owner + 7 employees |
| Newspaper published less often than fortnightly | — | No application is accepted |
| Magazine | 120 pages and above | Owner + 15 employees |
| Magazine | 80 – 119 pages | Owner + 9 employees |
| Magazine | 50 – 79 pages | Owner + 2 employees |
| Magazine | 49 pages and below | No application is accepted |
| Magazine | Published less often than every three months | No application is accepted |
News and Photo Agencies
Legal basis: Article 24(2) of the Regulation (as amended by the Official Gazette of 6/6/2024, No. 32568). For agencies the criterion is not page area but the number of publications under contract and the number of journalists on the payroll. This is also the only circulation threshold anywhere in the Regulation.
| Condition | Quota |
|---|---|
| A news/photo contract with at least 10 daily political national or regional newspapers, or with 5 national radio or television broadcasters + at least 10 journalists on the payroll who have previously held a press card and are employed within the scope of Press Labour Act No. 5953 | No quota limitation; cards are also issued to foreign bureaux |
| A contract with daily political newspapers whose combined daily actual sales are not less than 250,000, or with 2 national radio or television broadcasters + 5 journalists on the payroll | Owner + 18 employees; not issued to foreign bureaux |
| Commercial and economic agencies with 1,000 paying subscribers + at least 5 journalists on the payroll | Owner + 13 employees; not issued to foreign bureaux |
Radio and Television Broadcasters
Legal basis: Article 26(2) of the Regulation (the amendment of 6/6/2024 replaced the phrase "Private radio" with "Radio").
| Coverage of the broadcast | Quota |
|---|---|
| National radio and television | Chairman of the board + no quota limitation for domestic and foreign bureaux |
| Regional television | Chairman of the board + 19 employees |
| Local television | Chairman of the board + 10 employees |
| Regional radio | Chairman of the board + 7 employees |
| Local radio | Chairman of the board + 2 employees |
| Foreign bureaux of regional/local radio and television | No press card is issued |
The definitions of broadcast coverage are given in Article 4 of the Regulation: a national broadcast is one that reaches at least 70% of the country's population; a regional broadcast is one that reaches at least 70% of the combined population of the provinces in a geographical region. A local broadcast is a broadcasting service delivered terrestrially within the boundaries of at most one province.
Internet News Websites
Legal basis: Article 27(2) of the Regulation. Here the criterion is neither page area nor traffic, but the number of employees insured within the scope of Press Labour Act No. 5953:
| Employees insured under Law No. 5953 | Quota |
|---|---|
| 4 employees | Licence holder + 4 employees |
| 5 – 9 employees | Licence holder + 9 employees |
| 10 and above | No quota limitation is applied |
The decisive condition here is the phrase "insured within the scope of Law No. 5953": if your employees' contracts do not comply with the press labour legislation, they do not count towards this figure. On how such a contract is to be drawn up, see the article on the journalist employment contract template.
Step-by-Step Worked Examples
Example 1 — Local daily newspaper, A3, 8 pages
Page format : 29.7 cm × 42 cm → 0.297 m × 0.42 m
Page count : 8
Page area = 0.297 × 0.42 × 8 = 0.998 m²
Band : 0.80 – 1.19 m² (local daily political newspaper)
QUOTA : Owner + 8 employees = 9 cards in totalExample 2 — The same newspaper increased to 12 pages
Page area = 0.297 × 0.42 × 12 = 1.497 m²
Band : More than 1.20 m² (domestic bureaux)
QUOTA : No limitation applied
Result: adding 4 pages removes the 9-card ceiling entirely.Example 3 — Internet news website with 6 insured employees
Employees insured under Law No. 5953: 6
Band : 5 – 9 employees
QUOTA : Licence holder + 9 employees
Note: although the quota is 9, the number of people who can
actually obtain a card is limited in practice to the 6 insured
employees. The quota is a CEILING, not an automatic entitlement.Four Common Mistakes
- Calculating the page area in centimetres. The formula requires metres. If you end up with a figure like 29.7 × 42 × 8 = 9,979, you have not converted the unit of measurement.
- Thinking of the page area as a single page. The thresholds refer not to a single page but to the total multiplied by the number of pages.
- Mistaking the quota for an entitlement. The quota is only an upper limit; each employee must additionally satisfy the individual conditions in Additional Article 3 of Press Law No. 5187. For that list, see the article on the press card application checklist.
- Counting non-news staff. At radio and television broadcasters, at the Anadolu Agency and at TRT, no card is issued to those who do not work in the news field, even where their job title fits.