Elderly columnists fail to meet young readers’ needs, colleagues argue

According to columnists from many different newspapers, their senior colleagues fail to attract the attention of young readers as they neglect to update their opinions in accordance with the requirements of the contemporary world.

“I look at a newspaper and see that a man is the chief columnist, a man who has been a voluntary guardian of the status quo. He keeps writing the same thing he has for the past 50 years. No one tells him to quit, and he is not willing to do so. He is called the ‘dean of columnists.’

His column is one of the ‘forgotten columns’ of the big newspapers. They need to carry the stream of change to those columns,” journalist Cüneyt Özdemir said in a recent interview with a Turkish daily.

The journalist was referring to Oktay Ekşi, who has been writing for Hürriyet for the past several years.

The columns of Turkey’s prominent newspapers have long been the purview of older columnists. Most Turkish columnists are more than 55 years of age. They are frequently criticized by younger colleagues and readers for failing to keep up with the pace of developments at home and abroad and for defending outdated ideas.

Turkey has a young population, with almost half of its citizens under the age of 28. It has around 2 million university students. However, the average age of newspaper readers is 36. The main reason behind the lack of interest of young people in newspapers is believed to be columnists who do not reflect the points of view of the country’s young residents.

In the Cumhuriyet daily, for example, many columnists are over 80 years old. Among these are İlhan Selçuk (85), Cüneyt Arcayürek (81), Mümtaz Soysal (80), Oktay Akbal (86) and Orhan Birgit (82). The youngest Cumhuriyet columnist is Mehmet Faraç, who is 45. Faraç is followed by Ümit Zileli, at 50.

Cumhuriyet is a staunchly secular daily and defends Turkey’s status quo in most of its articles.

The average age for columnists in Milliyet, one of the prominent newspapers of the Doğan Media Group, is 60. The oldest columnist for the daily is Çetin Altan, who is 82 years old. He is followed by Sami Kohen, 81, Hasan Pulur, 77, Nail Güreli, 77, Güngör Uras, 76, Güneri Civaoğlu, 70, and Melih Aşık, 67. The daily is also home to the country’s younger and frequently read female columnists such as Mehveş Evin, 39, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, 28 and Ece Temelkuran, 36.

The Hürriyet daily is also a “club of elderly columnists.” It has many columnists who are over 60 years of age. Oktay Ekşi, for example, has been working as a columnist for the daily for 35 years and is 77. Another longtime Hürriyet columnist, Özdemir İnce, is 73. Other columnists are Doğan Hızlan, 72, Rahmi Turan, 70, Yalçın Doğan, 65, Tufan Türenç, 64, Ferai Tınç, 60, and Ertuğrul Özkök, 62.

Hürriyet has a few columnists who are around 40 years of age. Among them are Kanat Atkaya, 41, Ayşe Arman, 40, and Ahmet Hakan Coşkun, 42. Coşkun is the daily’s most read columnist.

Sabah is also home to columnists who are mostly 60 or older. The daily’s chief columnist, Mehmet Barlas, is 67, the same age as Yavuz Donat. The two are followed by Nazlı Ilıcak, 65, and Erdal Şafak, 65. What differentiates elderly Sabah columnists from their older colleagues at other newspapers is their difference in stance and style. Barlas and Ilıcak, for example, are frequently applauded by readers and other columnists for defending the rule of law and democracy in their columns.

According to Star columnist Ergun Babahan, elderly journalists and columnists in Turkey fail to catch the spirit of modern times. “Instead of defending fundamental notions such as democracy, the law and human rights, they prefer to stand as the columnists of the [General Staff] headquarters. Why do they continue to write? The first reason is related to the policy of the administration of the newspapers they work for. Newspaper administrations are afraid of radical change. Instead, they prefer to stand by the status quo. Secondly, newspapers like to maintain friendships [with their staff]. Thirdly, newspaper administrations cannot act contrary to the will of their bosses. Last but not least, columnists continue to write because their newspapers want to maintain warm relations with the military,” Babahan stated.

The columnist stressed that the military is a hidden force in politics, and media bosses attach great importance to maintaining friendly relations with the military.

When compared with other newspapers, Star has a young group of columnists. Most of its columnists are roughly 40. Among them are Mustafa Karaalioğlu, Nasuhi Güngör, Babahan, İbrahim Kiras and Şamil Tayyar. Star’s chief columnist, Mehmet Altan, is 56 years old.

Tayyar is best known for his columns on important developments related to the Ergenekon case, mostly exposing the games being played with society. Ergenekon is a clandestine criminal organization accused of working to topple the government. The columnist, however, has faced several legal cases and investigations for his reports.

Like Star, Zaman columnists are young and dynamic, around 40 years old on average. The daily’s oldest columnist is Hekimoğlu İsmail, at 77. He is followed by 73-year-old Hilmi Yavuz.

Akşam daily’s Nagehan Alçı said the Turkish media are afraid of new columnists, which is the main reason behind the preference of most newspapers to keep their elderly columnists. She said the main problem with newspapers that employ elderly columnists is their failure to open their doors to young talent.

“I believe the main reason is our close-minded and conservative approach to new ideas. It is difficult to break the existing structure in the media. The holders of power believe -- in my opinion -- that they will continue to maintain their power by protecting the existing media structure. That’s why they are afraid of new names,” Alçı told Sunday’s Zaman.

Akşam is one of the most colorful newspapers in Turkey, employing both young and old columnists. Its editor-in-chief, İsmail Küçükkaya, for example, is 37 years old. Some of Akşam’s columnists, however, are more than 60. Among them are Deniz Gökçe and Ali Saydam.

On the other hand, Yıldıray Oğur, a journalist and columnist for the liberal Taraf daily, believes what makes a journalist young is the up-to-datedness of his ideas. “I do not divide journalists into young or old. Being 20 years old does not make one ‘young.’ … Some columnists are like civil servants. They save the day with cheap analyses. When they retire, they boast that they always wrote the truth,” he remarked.

Though Taraf is a very young newspaper, it has managed to become one of the best newspapers of the country with several groundbreaking reports. It revealed military plans to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and assassinate prominent public figures to trigger an atmosphere of chaos in the country, which would eventually lead to a coup d’état.

According to Salih Tuna, a Yeni Şafak columnist, elderly columnists stand as the “guardians of the regime.”

“I do not think age is related to the year one was born in. Take İlhan Selçuk, for example. He is an old columnist for many reasons. So is Özdemir İnce. Columnists young in age can also be old in their columns. Oray Eğin and Soner Yalçın can be considered young when we look at their ID cards. But they are old for me because they serve as the ‘janissary’ or ‘guardian’ of the regime in their columns. Other columnists such as Selim İleri, Rasim Özdenören and Engin Ardıç will always remain young columnists in my opinion,” Tuna stated.