Kenan Sönmez, Chief Executive Officer of Ciner Yayın Holding, told his investment plants to CNBC-E Business: 'We will change newspaper perception in Turkey'
Kenan Sönmez, the Chief Executive Officer of Ciner Yayın Holding, answered questions of Meryem Tek from CNBC-E Business:
While Ciner Group makes a new beginning in media, what does it aim in the sector?
Ciner Group was one of the two biggest groups of media sector one year ago. The entire public opinion knows what happened in Sabah-atv, I do not want to mention it one more time. We made a new beginning here. We aim at becoming at the top of media sector. And we will not act modestly in this subject. As Ciner Group, we have an important experience in media. We revealed what we can do on this subject, our capacity in the sector while managing sabah and atv. We want to re-locate group at the top of the sector. And we aim at achieving this target within two years, but not within a long time. Currently, Doğan Group is sector leader by several lengths. They consider media business as their main business and thus they are very successful. Beyond question, they are the largest in the sector and they have very valuable brands. When we look at other groups in the sector, we see that although there is possibility, they could not make media business as competitive with Doğan Group. Although they have possibilities, someone makes it and someone does not make it. As in the past, we consider ourselves as a group and player that will balance competition with Doğan.
“WE WILL CHANGE NEWSPAPER PERCEPTION IN TURKEY”
What are continuing and planned investments?
Currently, our group is active in media sector with its two TV channels, one internet portal and 12 magazines. We are continuing to make investment on printed press. We are continuing to make investment on printing in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Adana. Our machines will be mounted in July or August. We will receive printing houses in operation by the end of year. We observe in printed media investments that those entering recently in the sector are not used to this method or they do not follow this method. In general, investors entering recently in the sector acted that “We should publish newspaper at first then we will make other investments”. As I said, our group races to be the best in this sector. And a group racing to be the best does not make this by benefiting from others’ opportunities. Thus, we wanted to prepare our infrastructure. But this necessitates highly costly and serious investment. We are raising the level with newspaper printing technology. Big newspapers have good technologies, we should have carried technology further to make disadvantage of being new advantage to be able to compete with them. Our investments will quite change newspaper perception in Turkey. We marry newspaper and magazine printing technology.
Will you establish a distribution Company?
We do not want to be affiliated to anyone and to use opportunities of anyone. Thus, we may think distribution business not now but in the future.
“WE WILL HAVE 20 NEWSPAPERS IN THE NEWYEAR”
When will newspaper be published? They are mentioning several newspapers…
We will create staff in the middle of summer, and start to publish closed circuit newspaper. We plan to make the newspaper ready in the autumn. The investment we made offers very broad opportunities for us. If we use that capacity to the end, we will have to publish many issues. However, we plan to publish a newspaper such as Hürriyet at the beginning. We should firstly publish that newspaper and provide that it has a level that can compete with Hürriyet at par. Then directing towards other newspapers will be easier for us.
And what about the magazines?
We will have 15 magazines until the end of June. Newsweek will be published. We are continuing to negotiate for license contracts of some magazines. I estimate that we will be a group of 20 magazines until the New Year.
And television…
We will continue to make investment for Kanal 1 in terms of TV. When we started to broadcast as of the New Year, new broadcasting period started in broadcasting world. Everyone did their preparations, it proceeded notably. We grew Kanal 1 within this period in parallel with our targets. We surpassed Fox in prime time in April and we prevail. We aim at becoming one of the biggest four channels in the autumn. Ranking in April was Kanal D, Show TV, Star and atv. We want to substitute one of these four channels, and to carry Kanal 1 among the most watched channels of Turkey.
We want to provide that our news channel Haber Türk, like Kanal 1, can compete with sector leader personally. It completed all infrastructure deficiencies. And now we consolidate its staff and program structure. We covered an important distance. When we took over Haber Türk, it was good, reliable and popular brand. But it had technological deficiencies. We completed them. We know that out competitor NTV has very successful staff under the management of Cem Aydın who is a successful broadcaster and media person. But we claim to compete with NTV personally.
“WE WANT TO WORK WITH MOST SUCCESSFUL NAMES OF THE MEDIA”
Which is the size of your investment budget and how long do you expect that will these investments be returned?
Our group was selected as one of the strategic growth areas of media sector. And we will continue in parallel with these targets that we determined. We want to be successful and earn money from these sectors commercially.
I will not give any figure but we are making very serious investment. We want to provide return in a short span of time. We see its first signs in Haber Türk and Kanal 1. I believe that we will reach top level in Haber Türk.
How do you follow policy in personnel recruitment?
We created our staff for televisions. Haber Türk has some deficiencies. Staff of Kanal 1 is complete. Negotiations were slowly started for the newspaper. As we explained in the previous days, Fatih Altaylı will be editorial director of the newspaper. Skeleton staff will be completed towards the end of summer.
We want to collect the bests of the sector. We aim at becoming a media group where the most successful names of the media sector gather together. Our personnel number reached 800 now. We are a new group and this number is increasing day by day.
Foreigners are also interested in this sector as much as local investors. Do you think any foreign partnership?
We do not think for now. We received offers in this regards in the past but we did not evaluate them. We want to direct towards our targets for now as it should be. After Turkish economy was integrated with global economy, interest of the foreigners for media sector increased. They want to make some partnerships. However, there is share limitation and that may change in the future.
Is media an attractive sector when investment interest is compared with profitability and sales?
Yes, media is an attractive and promising sector. Last year, Turkish economy grew by 4.5 percent and advertisement investments grew by 20 percent. There is a growth four times more… It is always growing above Turkish economy. Ratio of the advertisement investments to gross national product is very low when compared with the European countries. About 5 per thousand… It is not below 1 percent in any European country. There are countries having 3.5 percent. It is thought that advertisement investments in Turkey will exceed level of 1 percent in a close future because brands went into the habit of considering advertisement expenditures as an investment. Hope for Turkish economy to be grown for the future and expectation that advertisements investments will reach level in similar countries increase desire for media investments.
MEDIA INVESTORS FROM SONMEZ EYES
“There were always cyclical richnesses in Turkey. Look at the last 20 years… Contractors doing business in foreign countries, state contractors, different privatization richnesses, others doing business with the state… Many such cyclical riches occurred in Turkey… But few of them protected their fortunes. A part of these Companies earning money at short notice preferred media sector of social status but no one left. Such investments and investors will exit today and tomorrow as in the past. However, as long as media is an expensive business, their number will decrease day by day. I think that they should not be counted amount media investors. Political powers have interest on being efficient in the media in countries such as Turkey. It was like this in the past, and the same thing is valid for today… Unfortunately, they cannot be permanent, they come and go. In general, their lives are proportional to power lives. Very few media investors considering media as a commercial business could come until today. I exclude such investors apart from the conjuncture that I told. They reached a definite level. As long of Turkey is integrated with global economy, they want to be efficient also in media such as in other business lines. They will continue to be efficient in next period. I consider their foreign investments positively because I think that this will reinforce competition, bring new instruments and know how”.
