Abstract:

The digital age we live in has changed not only our communication styles but also our media usage habits, causing newspapers which were once at the forefront of people's way of getting news lose one of their most important source of revenue, namely advertising, to digital media. This has eroded the amount and variety of advertisements given to newspapers, while reducing the financial resources required for quality journalism. The aim of this study is to determine the up-to-date percent advertising content within newspaper content as well as analyzing the ads according to categories determined for this study. With the assumption that best-selling newspapers will provide important clues for the rest of the sector, top three newspapers in 2020, namely Hürriyet, Sabah and Sözcü were chosen and Istanbul editions for the period 1-15 December 2020 were analyzed using content analysis method. Within the scope of the study, 896 ads which held 333.067 square centimeters were identified. The analysis of these ads under six main categories has revealed that social ads category has been the top category both in terms of number and space followed by official ads category which is the government support. The results of the study determine that ad space in newspapers, which was once almost as high as 60% for popular newspapers is between 14,0% and 24,7% for the newspapers analyzed. In addition, Turkish newspapers which obtained many ads from a variety of sectors in the past are currently dominated by obituaries and official ads.

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