Shlomo Ben-Zvi’s acquisition of Maariv is expected to rearrange the Israeli journalism industry and may even affect the country’s political scene.

Maariv’s announcement that the newspaper and most assets of the troubled media group are being sold to Ben-Zvi ends Nochi Dankner’s 17-month ownership of the paper via the IDB group’s Discount Investment Corp.

Ben-Zvi, whose Hirsch Media also owns the right-leaning Makor Rishon daily, will be getting his hands on the Maariv brand and the paper’s estimated 50,000 paying subscribers. He is expected to merge Maariv’s editorial operations with those of Makor Rishon. But with mergers, one partner is usually stronger, and in this case it’s expected to be Makor Rishon.

Maariv said Ben-Zvi is due to offer jobs to 300 to 400 of its staff at the combined operation, most of them editorial staff. At the end of last year, Maariv had 377 editorial staff members.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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