Digitalization process of local newspapers:East Marmara Development Agency region example

Inventions and developments in technology have significantly changed the social structure from past to present. Within the scope of this view of technological determinists, it can be said that the results of advances in communication technologies are quite effective today. The use of the Internet in the communications sector in the early 1990s led to a revolution. Thanks to the internet, humanity now has the opportunity to access news, which it has seen as a great need since its existence, independent of time and place. These extraordinary developments have affected newspapers and journalists, and journalistic practices on the internet have also changed greatly. In Turkey, from the perspective of the theory of diffusion of innovations, mainstream/national newspapers that adopt innovation early have completed their digital transformation and become successful in new news channels. The situation is very different for local newspapers. The number of local newspapers, which are left behind in the face of innovation and even still resistant to transformation, is decreasing every year. This results in thousands of journalists becoming unemployed. The aim of the research is to reveal the reasons why local newspapers cannot complete their digital transformation and to offer suggestions. Within the scope of the research using mixed method techniques, data was collected by survey and interview techniques with the owners or managers of local newspapers operating in the provinces of Bolu, Düzce, Sakarya, Kocaeli and Yalova in the Eastern Marmara Development Agency region. Following the quantitative and qualitative analyses, it was revealed that although the technical infrastructure capacities of local newspapers in the region were sufficient for digital transformation, they had resistance to transformation in terms of management and personnel and were unsuccessful in digital journalism practices. Newspapers with economic difficulties cannot employ qualified personnel, printing costs increase, circulation decreases and advertising revenues decrease. Local newspapers that cannot achieve their digital transformation are heading for closure. Keywords: