Crisis in Turkey: Satirical mag LeMan comes out quarter-sized, cover price remains the same

Crisis in Turkey: Satirical mag LeMan comes out quarter-sized, cover price remains the same
Due to unaffordable picture cropping software, and as a gesture of solidarity to LeMan, bne is unfortunately only able to show you the top half of this front page.
By bne IntelliNews September 7, 2018

Trade inspectors were lately dispatched to prowl around Turkish shops on the hunt for unscrupulous price rises amid Turkey’s currency crisis—and any who came across satirical magazine LeMan must have been startled. Under pressure from rising costs, the publication last week opted to keep its cover price unchanged, but to go to print a quarter of its usual size.

The move made the edition something of a collector’s item. Another print run was required to meet demand. LeMan’s editors then decided that the extra sales revenues generated called for a response. This week, the magazine came out one half of its normal size.

“We found some more paper,” it said on the front page. “We expanded with your support.”

The dramatic devaluation of the Turkish lira—down around 40% against the dollar this year, though it made a slight recovery on September 7—has made the cost of imported materials, such as paper, rather more expensive. Turkey’s publishers’ union this week said publishing costs were up by around 80%.

Inflation in Turkey is running at a 15-year high of 17.9%.

LeMan took on the high and growing inflation as a “humorous challenge,” editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun told Reuters. “Even if you can come up with the money, paper suppliers are not eager to take the papers out of storage because it is not clear what the price will be in two hours.”

Akgun said LeMan’s future was so imperilled that it could even close next week.

“Will the newspapers also shrink in the coming days? Will they fall to pocket size?” Meral Ozdemir, a LeMan reader, was cited as saying by the news agency. “I look at LeMan now and it’s a shame. I am really upset because it is so small. Will it dwindle further?”

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