Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Competitors try to close down new Israeli Daily


Isi Leibler
December 23, 2009
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=1966

Until recently, the Israeli Hebrew media was dominated by three daily newspapers. The most sophisticated daily, Haaretz, known for its far left post-Zionist agenda has a small circulation but is widely read by opinion makers. But the market has until recently been dominated by two tabloids, Yediot Achronot and Maariv, both of which have a penchant for sensationalism.

Two years ago, a new newspaper appeared on the scene. Yisrael Hayom*. It recruited some of the best journalists, but many predicted that a paper circulated for free which based its income exclusively on advertising would not succeed. All the more so, in an environment when newspapers in Israel and throughout the rest of the world underwent difficulties as the Internet began intruding into their market and the global financial meltdown was making its impact.

But, contrary to expectations, Yisrael Hayom grew from strength to strength and has revolutionized the entire newspaper industry. Already today, it enjoys Israel's second largest circulation and is likely to overtake the leader Yediot Achronot in the near future.

The paper was launched by US business tycoon Sheldon Adelson, one of the most generous Jewish philanthropists of our time who has distributed unprecedented amounts of money for various social causes in Israel as well as becoming the largest donor to Birthright.

The success of the newspaper is reflected in the fact that both Yediot Achronot and Maariv in desperation approached various parliamentarians beholden to them and attempted to block the newspaper by introducing legislation making it illegal for nonresidents to publish an Israeli daily newspaper.

I attach for your interest a translation of a powerful article by Amos Regev, the editor-in-chief of Yisrael Hayom, which appeared in the weekend edition of the newspaper and provides an outline of the seamy aspects of the Israeli media.

*Disclosure: I am a regular columnist for Yisrael Hayom
The Law for Mozes and Nimrodi

Amos Regev - Yisrael Hayom

The owners of Yediot Aharonot and Ma'ariv refuse to acknowledge that their monopoly over news, views, and thoughts, is over.

Now they are trying to recruit the Knesset to their aid - at the expense of democracy.

They want to shut our - Israel Hayom - mouths. They want to limit your - the readers' - freedom of choice. They want to force you to buy only their merchandise.

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