How many of an outlet's employees may be issued press cards depends not on the outlet's preference or its headcount but on the quotas set by publication type in Chapter Five of the Press Card Regulation. For newspapers the measure is not circulation but a magnitude most publishers do not expect: page surface area. This article gathers all the quota tables in the Regulation, the surface area formula and step-by-step worked examples.
Why Quota Matters
The quota is the upper limit on how many valid press cards your outlet can hold at one time. Once it is full, even an employee who fully meets the application conditions cannot get a card. Quota is therefore directly connected to hiring plans, page count decisions and even the choice of page format.
First, Calculate the Surface Area
For printed periodicals every quota table rests on a surface area threshold. Art. 4/1-(z) of the Regulation defines the concept: "the value in square metres of the figure found by multiplying the page width, page height and page count of periodicals published in print."
SURFACE AREA FORMULA (Press Card Regulation Art. 4/1-z)
Surface area (m2) = page width (m) x page height (m) x page count
IMPORTANT: width and height are entered in METRES.
centimetres -> metres : cm / 100
Example: an 8-page newspaper of 29.7 cm x 42 cm
= 0.297 x 0.42 x 8
= 0.12474 x 8
= 0.998 m2Below are the single-page surface areas of common page formats and the page count needed to clear the 1.20 m² threshold. The table follows directly from applying the formula:
| Page format | Size (width x height) | One page (m²) | Pages needed for 1.20 m² |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadsheet | 35 x 50 cm | 0.1750 | 7 pages |
| Berliner | 31.5 x 47 cm | 0.1481 | 9 pages |
| A3 | 29.7 x 42 cm | 0.1247 | 10 pages |
| Tabloid | 28 x 40 cm | 0.1120 | 11 pages |
Daily Political Newspapers
Basis: Reg. Art. 19/2. The quota is set by surface area and publication character (national/regional/local) together:
| Surface area | Publication character | Quota |
|---|---|---|
| More than 1.20 m² | All (domestic bureaux) | No quota limit |
| More than 1.20 m² | National and regional (foreign bureaux) | No quota limit |
| More than 1.20 m² | Local (foreign bureaux) | At most 25% of the foreign bureau staff |
| 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 accepted |
| 1.19 m² and below | National and regional | No application accepted |
| 1.19 m² and below | All (foreign bureaux) | No cards issued |
Weekly Political Newspapers and Magazines
Basis: Reg. Art. 20/2. For newspapers the measure is surface area, for magazines page count.
| Weekly political NEWSPAPER - surface area | Quota |
|---|---|
| 3.60 m² and above | Owner + 25 employees (foreign bureaux included in 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 accepted |
| 3.59 m² and below (foreign bureaux) | No cards issued |
| Weekly political MAGAZINE - page count | Quota |
|---|---|
| 100 and above | Owner + 25 employees |
| 60 - 99 | Owner + 9 employees |
| 30 - 59 | Owner + 2 employees |
| 29 and below | No application accepted |
| Foreign bureaux | No cards issued |
Non-Political Newspapers and Magazines
Basis: Reg. Art. 21/2. For non-political publications the title list also narrows: unlike the list in Art. 19, the titles of correspondent and regional or provincial correspondent do not appear in this scope.
| Publication period | Measure | 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 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 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 accepted |
No press cards are issued to foreign bureaux for any publication in this scope.
Fortnightly and Less Frequent Publications
Basis: Reg. Art. 22/2.
| Publication | Measure | Quota |
|---|---|---|
| Fortnightly newspaper | Surface area 1.60 m² and above | Owner + 7 employees |
| Newspaper less frequent than fortnightly | - | No application 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 accepted |
| Magazine | Published less often than quarterly | No application accepted |
News and Photograph Agencies
Basis: Reg. Art. 24/2 (as amended by Official Gazette 6/6/2024-32568). For agencies the measure is not surface area but the number of publications under contract and the number of journalists on staff. The only circulation threshold in the Regulation is here.
| Condition | Quota |
|---|---|
| A news/photograph contract with at least 10 daily political national/regional newspapers or 5 national radio-TV outlets + at least 10 journalists on staff who have previously held a press card and work under Law No. 5953 | No quota limit; cards also issued to foreign bureaux |
| A contract with daily political newspapers whose combined actual daily sales are not less than 250,000, or with 2 national radio-TV outlets + 5 journalists on staff | Owner + 18 employees; none for foreign bureaux |
| Commercial and economic agencies with 1,000 paying subscribers + at least 5 journalists on staff | Owner + 13 employees; none for foreign bureaux |
Radio and Television
Basis: Reg. Art. 26/2 (the words "Private radio" were changed to "Radio" by the 6/6/2024 amendment).
| Character of broadcast | Quota |
|---|---|
| National radio and television | Board chair + no quota limit for domestic and foreign bureaux |
| Regional television | Board chair + 19 employees |
| Local television | Board chair + 10 employees |
| Regional radio | Board chair + 7 employees |
| Local radio | Board chair + 2 employees |
| Foreign bureaux of regional/local radio-TV | No cards issued |
The definitions of broadcast character are in Art. 4 of the Regulation: a national broadcast reaches at least 70 per cent of the country's population; a regional broadcast reaches at least 70 per cent of the total population of the provinces in a geographical region. A local broadcast is a broadcast service delivered terrestrially within the borders of at most one province.
Internet News Sites
Basis: Reg. Art. 27/2. Here the measure is neither surface area nor traffic but the number of employees insured under Law 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 limit |
The decisive phrase here is "insured under Law No. 5953": if your employees' contracts do not conform to the press labour law, they do not enter this count.
Worked Examples
Page size : 29.7 cm x 42 cm -> 0.297 m x 0.42 m
Page count: 8
Surface area = 0.297 x 0.42 x 8 = 0.998 m2
Band : 0.80 - 1.19 m2 (local daily political newspaper)
QUOTA : Owner + 8 employees = 9 cards in totalSurface area = 0.297 x 0.42 x 12 = 1.497 m2
Band : more than 1.20 m2 (domestic bureaux)
QUOTA : No limit applied
Result: adding 4 pages removes the 9-card ceiling entirely.Employees insured under Law 5953: 6
Band : 5 - 9 employees
QUOTA : Licence holder + 9 employees
Note: even though the quota is 9, the number of people who can
actually get cards is limited by the 6 insured employees. A quota
is a CEILING, not an automatic entitlement.Four Common Mistakes
- Calculating the surface area in centimetres. The formula wants metres. If you get a figure like 29.7 x 42 x 8 = 9,979, you have not converted the unit.
- Thinking of surface area per page. The thresholds are the value of the total multiplied by the page count, not of a single page.
- Treating the quota as an entitlement. A quota is only an upper limit; each employee must additionally meet the individual conditions in Additional Art. 3 of Law No. 5187. For that list see the application checklist.
- Counting non-news staff. At radio-TV, Anadolu Agency and TRT, no card is issued to those not working in the news field even if their title fits.