Sabah (newspaper)

Not to be confused with Daily Sabah.
Sabah
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBerliner
Owner(s)Turkuvaz Media Group
Founder(s)Dinç Bilgin
PublisherKalyon Group
Editor-in-chiefErdal Şafak
Associate editorMetin Yüksel
Founded22 April 1985; 39 years ago (1985-04-22)
Political alignmentErdoğanism
Social conservatism
Hard Euroscepticism
Historical
Liberal conservatism
Kemalism
Economic liberalism
Liberalism
LanguageTurkish
HeadquartersBeşiktaş
CityIstanbul
CountryTurkey
CirculationRise 305.714[1]
Sister newspapersYeni Asır, Takvim, Fotomaç
Websitewww.sabah.com.tr Edit this at Wikidata

Sabah is a Turkish daily newspaper, with a circulation of around 330,000 as of 2011. Its name means "morning" in Turkish.

The newspaper was founded in İzmir by Dinç Bilgin on 22 April 1985.[2]

In 2007, the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seized the newspaper, citing a legal document that had not been disclosed to authorities when Sabah was sold in 2001. Ownership of the newspaper was given to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund of Turkey. Some of the newspaper's staffers were fired, and the paper was then sold to the Turkuvaz Media Group belonging to Çalık Holding whose CEO, Berat Albayrak, is the son-in-law of Erdoğan and whose chairman, Ahmet Çalık, has been described as a "close associate" of Erdoğan.[3] The $1.1bn sale aroused substantial controversy in Turkey, not least because it was partially financed by $750m of loans from two state banks, VakıfBank and Halkbank,[4] and was sold for the minimum price, with Çalık Holding the sole bidder.[5] Before the 2007 seizing, it was a pro-Kemalist, liberal newspaper with its political position being close to centre-right.

According to Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, who was Sabah's Ankara bureau chief until the takeover, from then on the newspaper took on "an unwavering pro-government line."[6]

The Kalyon Group took over the newspaper in 2013.[7]

Kalyon Group is the current publisher, while Erdal Şafak is the editor-in-chief.[8]

Sabah has published The New York Times International Weekly on Sundays since 2009. This 8-page supplement features a selection of articles from The New York Times translated into Turkish. The partnership with The New York Times was terminated in 2014 without any formal explanation given.

  1. ^ "Newspaper Circulation Table". Medyatava.com. 2014-11-10. Archived from the original on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
  2. ^ Gholamali Haddad Adel; Mohammad Jafar Elmi; Hassan Taromi-Rad (31 August 2012). Periodicals of the Muslim World: An Entry from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam. EWI Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-1-908433-10-7. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  3. ^ The Economist, 8 May 2008, Circulation wars
  4. ^ Çalık Holding press release, 22 April 2008, ÇALIK HOLDING ACQUIRES ATV-SABAH
  5. ^ Reuters, 12 January 2008, Turkey eyes reform of media ownership law -paper
  6. ^ Turkey's War on the Press, Asli Aydintasbas, The Wall Street Journal, 18 September 2009
  7. ^ "Turkish media group Sabah-ATV sold to Kalyon group". Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  8. ^ "Künye". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 15 July 2011.