New iPad magazine puts Turkish spin on world news

Turkey’s first weekly iPad magazine in English has been launched by prominent journalist and TV anchorman Cüneyt Özdemir, who aims to give readers news about world events from a Turkish point of view.

The new publication, called Dipnot, will look at Turkey, the Middle East and the rest of the world from Istanbul and from a "world citizen’s point of view," Özdemir said.

"The daily agenda of a person who considers himself or herself a world citizen will find the coverage he or she needs in this magazine," he said. "Curious world citizens who question the world and life itself, and who enjoy life, are our target readers."

The articles in the magazine are written in English by Turkish people from all over the world, on topics varying from the radical conservative communities in the United States to the ongoing cases in which high-ranking army officials are being tried on coup-plot allegations in Turkey.

"The perspective of a Muslim Turkish person living in the United States and covering the activities of radical Christian groups there is very different from an American’s perspective," said Özdemir. "We can describe this [magazine] as a project of Turkish people looking at the world from the widest angle as possible."

Istanbul was chosen as a base for the magazine because of its rising status as a world city on par with New York, Paris and London, the journalist said, while promising a new approach.

"While doing this, we won’t be using clichés such as the Bosphorus Bridge connecting the two continents as a metaphor in order to explain the multicultural structure of Istanbul," he said. "We will try to stay away from such clichés and try to mirror Istanbul and Turkey to our readers from a more hip, innovative and postmodern point of view. We are not chasing the aim of promoting Istanbul so that more tourists come here."

The angles taken by Dipnot’s writers will set it apart from other English-language magazines published abroad, Özdemir said.

"We want to cover everything from a different angle. When it comes to Darfur, for instance, we will be able to view the Muslim nongovernmental organizations there from a different perspective,” he said. “Our readers will be able to see what the Al-Jazeera news channel means for a non-Arab Muslim audience. Or we may be looking at the internal rumors of the literature world with international literature agents, for instance."

Dipnot is using the latest technology – also used by the U.S.-based magazine Wired – for its digital publication, which is currently being updated once a week with plans for a daily update in the near future.

In addition to articles, the magazine also includes online videos, photographs and 3-D games on related themes. "Tablet technology has changed our way of thinking in the news business," Özdemir said. "For instance, when we publish a film review now, we are also able to display the trailer for the movie."

Özdemir is currently financing Dipnot entirely from his personal funds, but said he is actively pursuing an advertising strategy for the magazine.

"Although tens of thousands of people follow us via social media now, companies are not yet aware of the strength of this new media tool, so we are looking for advertisements in English," he said. "We have started a new advertisement campaign with Google, and thanks to this new campaign, all the iPad users around the world will be able to see our ads."


/Hurriyet Daily News/