26 November 2025

How Kazmedia Holding is boosting the Kazakh language through its New York Times Turning Points licensing deal

The start of 2026 will have not one, but two red-letter days for the publishing industry in Kazakhstan. Firstly, January will herald the arrival, in print and online, of Turning Points Qazaqstan 2026, a much-anticipated bilingual (Kazakh and Russian) edition of the annual New York Times publication, which analyses global trends and events.

That is followed, at the end of January, by the Qazaqstan NEXT Forum in Astana – a one-day summit where senior government officials, thought-leaders, C-suite executives, sovereign-wealth and venture investors, multilateral agencies and academic leaders will discuss topics inspired by the magazine.

In the era of AI-powered digital economies, Kazakhstan holds a winning trifecta: skilled talent, vast reserves of critical minerals and energy, and a strategic crossroads between China and Russia. The Turning Points platform is an opportunity to map local, regional and global forces and reveal how these strengths unlock future-ready prosperity for Kazakhstan.

It’s a “one license, two formats” approach that supercharges knowledge sharing and is designed to act as a bridge between Kazakhstan and the rest of the world.

“What we wanted to do with the Forum and with the Turning Points publication was to give Kazakhstani voices a chance to speak with a global audience on equal terms,” explains Qanat Abash, Managing Director of Kazmedia Holding, the local media group that has struck a licensing deal with The New York Times – in collaboration with consultants YPB Global – to bring the Turning Points magazine and Forum to Kazakhstan.

“By bringing world expert voices to Kazakhstan, the main message we want to bring home to our readers is that Kazakhstan must both understand global trends and recognise its own role as an important player in shaping them.”

Turning Points Qazaqstan 2026 – which is the first branded print-and-digital platform in Central Asia for The New York Times – seamlessly brings together international and local voices.

The publication will feature original essays exploring the forces likely to shape 2026, including AI governance, the digital consumer economy, the future of work and human capital, energy transition, resilient supply chains and the rise of Central Asian soft power.

Each theme is being examined through a dual lens: internationally recognised thinkers who provide the global context and leading Kazakh thought-leaders, business executive, innovators, academic and policymakers adding an invaluable local and regional perspective.

“We decided we wanted to work with The New York Times and publish Turning Points because, while it is something you bring out once a year, it also gives you a conclusion of what happened in the world this year and what you should be expecting in 2026. It looks at what trends will be shaping the year,” says Abash.

“It was a very suitable media for us, both in terms of format, in terms of budget, and also in terms of the content that we wanted.”

Bridging the language divide

For Kazmedia, securing licensing agreements with global brands is not just about providing quality content to readers. One of the publisher’s main driving forces is ensuring the Kazakh language is circulated more widely.

“We started back in 2012/2013 by publishing business entrepreneurship bestsellers in the Kazakh language,” says Abash. “One of the reasons for doing this is the fact that the Kazakh language, even after 30-plus years of independence, still remains an underprivileged group – something that dates back to the education system in Kazakhstan.

“There’s long been shortage of textbooks and information in Kazakh, because of the huge influence of the Russian language and the fact that it was the lingua franca during our Soviet history.

“Currently about 70% of both university and school students study in the Kazakh language, but when it comes to textbooks, the situation is quite the reverse. You have a lot of content and channels in Russian, but very few in the Kazakh language. That’s a huge problem.”

While bringing out translated books proved effective, the launches were very much one-off events. Striving for a more “systematic solution” to the linguistic conundrum, Kazmedia secured the rights to publish National Geographic in Kazakhstan about a decade ago, before targeting a different segment of readers through its collaboration with The New York Times.

“We saw that National Geographic was very good fit for those who were around 13 or 15-plus – school age and senior school age,” says Abash. “And then we said, we probably need something for professionals in the Kazakh language that provides information on what’s happening in the world.

“We needed a very trusted source, and The New York Times was a priority for us. We knew their content because there was a couple of cases when local national media outlets partnered with The New York Times – but that only lasted a few years. So, we decided we wanted to do something with The New York Times and specifically the Turning Points magazine.”

Turning Points is hugely important not just because it gives Kazakh-speaking readers access to quality content, but because of the speed at which it does it.

“For a big part of the last century, the Kazakh-speaking audience has been trying to catch up with the rest of Kazakhstan, because the main medium or the entrance to science and innovation happening in the world was through the Russian language,” says Abash.

“A lot of the bestsellers, the latest content, the latest information would be translated from English into Russian and then after two or maybe five years, they would be translated to Kazakh. That would leave Kazakh-speaking audience behind and in a situation where they always had to catch up.

“What we wanted to do with our international brands was to bridge this gap so that Kazakh-speaking audiences would be getting the latest information in their own mother language. They don’t have to fall back on the Russian language in order to keep up with what’s happening in the world.”

Abash is quick to point out that Kazmedia is not turning its back on the Russian language completely. While Kazakh is the state language of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Russian is recognised as an official language that can be used in state organisations and local self-government bodies on an equal footing with Kazakh.

“It’s not only about helping our own mother language, but it’s about of serving the audience properly. We don’t want to split the audience in Kazakhstan into only Kazakh speakers and Russian speakers. It’s still the readership and still Kazakhstani citizens.

“If we have a strong business case to publish things in Russian, we would definitely do it just as we’re working to do now with National Geographic and Turning Points.

“And we’ll apply the same disciplined approach to any future brands we bring into our portfolio.”

An online education

Abash hopes the arrival of Turning Points Kazakhstan will change the way local consumers look at online content.

“When we analyse the work of our partners around the world, one of the things we noticed is that online audiences are increasing in North America and in a lot of Western Europe.

“But the situation in Kazakhstan and in the neighbouring world, in post-Soviet countries, is quite different. I can’t name a single online media outlet where you have to pay for the content in Kazakhstan. People are still at the stage where they have to understand that the content, and especially good content, needs to be paid for.

“So that’s something that Kazakhstan and its neighbours are working on – not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of legislation. Because people need to understand that authors’ rights and intellectual property must be respected and protected every time you create content.

“I think the preference in this part of the world is still proper physical paper magazines, but our job is to help build a culture where people can enjoy them online as well – and see it as completely normal to pay for high-quality digital content.

The launch of the Turning Points Qazaqstan magazine and Forum is not just a game changer for the country, but the wider region.

“When we say Forum, we don’t mean it’s just for Kazakhstan. Central Asian countries are facing many of the same challenges,” Abash points out. “Take water, for example: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan are already sharing the same shrinking resource – and the same risk.”

“And they, to some extent, have similarities in their economy and political situation. So, I think the Forum in the long term could turn into something where people – not only Kazakhstan, but the Central Asian countries – could voice their concerns, hear out what the world has to say, and share their view of the situation that’s happening in the world.”

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If any FIPP members or commercial partners are interested in getting involved with the Turning Points Qazaqstan publication or the Qazaqstan NEXT Forum at a strategic level — whether through content, partnership, or participation — please contact Kazmedia Holding. Visit the website here.