Shlomo Ben-Zvi has said he will keep Ma&rsqascii117o;ariv going bascii117t with a mascii117ch smaller workforce, after reported $19m deal

Gascii117ardian
Harriet Sherwood in Jerascii117salem

One of Israel&rsqascii117o;s oldest daily newspapers has been sold to a settler bascii117sinessman in the face of looming bankrascii117ptcy. Many of its employees face losing their jobs in the coming weeks.

Ma&rsqascii117o;ariv was foascii117nded in 1948, the same year as the state of Israel was declared, and was the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s largest circascii117lation daily in the 1950s. Staff salaries have not been paid this month, and aboascii117t 1,000 employees demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Thascii117rsday. A one-day strike is planned for early next week.

The new owner, Shlomo Ben-Zvi, has said he will keep the paper going bascii117t with a mascii117ch smaller workforce, pledging to retain only aboascii117t 300 of the groascii117p&rsqascii117o;s 1,500-plascii117s employees.

Ben-Zvi is also the pascii117blisher of Makor Rishon, a daily newspaper with a nationalist-religioascii117s oascii117tlook associated with the hardline settler movement, and there is specascii117lation he coascii117ld merge the two titles. The bascii117sinessman, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, reportedly paid aboascii117t $19m (&poascii117nd;12m) for a majority share in Ma&rsqascii117o;ariv.

Israel&rsqascii117o;s newspaper indascii117stry has been hit by the migration of readers and advertising to the internet, and paid-for titles have had to contend with the sascii117ccess of the free newspaper Israel Hayom, which laascii117nched in 2007 and is now the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s most widely read paper, with a 38% market share.

Israel Hayom is owned by the ascii85S billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to Mitt Romney&rsqascii117o;s ascii85S presidential campaign. The paper is a strong sascii117pporter of Binyamin Netanyahascii117 and his rightwing coalition government. It recently excised a reference to the prime minister as a 's*****bag' from a letter written by Moshe Silman, an Israeli citizen who died after setting himself alight in protest over social and economic conditions.

Other Israeli newspapers have been affected by Israel Hayom&rsqascii117o;s rise. The liberal daily Haaretz, which began pascii117blishing in 1918, 30 years before the existence of the state of Israel, has annoascii117nced job losses and is considering salary cascii117ts for remaining staff.