The problems of the local press, its development and solution suggestions for the future: The case of Malatya province

Local press, especially local newspapers, are important for the functioning of democracy, formation of public opinion and ensuring urbanization. It is seen that cities with strong local press are better represented and stronger. In our country, the local press creates public opinion in the regions where they are located, informs the public and improves the social awareness of the people. Especially in the disintegration process of the Ottoman Empire and the period of the National Struggle, thanks to the regional and local newspapers, the liberation movements spread to the public and public opinion was formed. However, the local press was kept under constant pressure in different periods, as it was during these war years, and they were prevented from acting freely. Governments have left the media in a financial and moral difficult situation under pressure by censoring the local and national press and by various sanctions in almost every period. These aforementioned problems were researched specifically for Malatya local newspapers, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the concessionaires and editors of the newspapers, and solution suggestions were tried to be obtained for the mentioned problems. In the study, the main problems of local newspapers are income-expenditure imbalance, lack of qualified personnel, lack of technological infrastructure and the policies applied by the Press Advertisement Agency to local newspapers. It is thought that this study will create data about the Malatya local press, which has not been researched before, and contribute to the literature on behalf of the local journalism profession. Keywords: Local Press, Malatya, Press Advertisement Agency, Newspaper, Media