Maariv Sale Shakes Up Israeli Media

By Haaretz September 9, 2012

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

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO