As JewishPress.com first reported last Thursday, Shlomo Ben-Zvi, the publisher of the national-religious paper Makor Rishon announced the purchase of the struggling Maariv newspaper on Friday. Maariv is the 3rd largest paper in Israel. It was owned by Nochi Dankner and IDB, and had recently announced it would be going completely digital, except for the weekend editions.
The sale was for NIS 85 million shekels.
Ben-Zvi plans to retain only up 15% of the current Maariv staff, mostly editorial personnel.
Makor Rishon does not own a printing press and outsources its printing, and perhaps surprisingly, Ben-Zvi did not purchase Maariv’s printing press. Leaving open the possibility that Yisrael Hayom may still eventually purchase it.
Ben-Zvi lives in Efrat.