After Dankner and Ben-Zvi, a savior has come to Maariv: The publisher of the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Eli Azur, will purchase the Maariv newspaper for 4 million shekels. The purchase will be made through the company he owns. The person authorized to handle the stay of proceedings of the Makor Rishon group, CPA Chen Berdichev, today asked the Jerusalem District Court to approve the sale, and Judge David Mintz will hear the matter on April 6, 2014.
Azur will therefore be the third owner of 'Ma'ariv' in two years, after Nochi Dankner and Shlomo Ben-Zvi - two who failed to stop the newspaper's decline, despite investing tens of millions of shekels in it, and despite laying off dozens of employees in an effort to streamline operations. Azur had sought to purchase the newspaper about a year and a half ago, but then Ben-Zvi's bid surpassed all others.
According to Berdichev, Azur's offer was the only one that met the minimum price he set: 4 million shekels. Azur intends to continue publishing the newspaper 'Ma'ariv', although the format of the newspaper's publication is not specified in Berdichev's application. Azur undertakes in its offer to employ 30 editorial and management employees and about 20 freelance workers for a year, according to their current employment conditions - but this after they are fired and rehired, in a way that their rights will not be preserved.
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Since the start of the freeze on proceedings last month, the Maariv newspaper has been published in a limited daily format in a free concept distributed in the afternoon, while on Fridays the package has been reduced to news pages and a weekend supplement only.
Since Ben-Zvi's ownership, until recently the newspapers 'Maariv' and 'Makor Rishon' were published under the same management, and the content was synchronized between the two. Last week, the court approved the sale of 'Makor Rishon' to the 'Israel Hayom' edition, owned by Sheldon Adelson, for 14 million shekels, so Azur will not win it either.
It should also be noted in this context that Azur is purchasing Maariv without the NRG website, which belonged to and was affiliated with the Maariv newspaper, as the site was also previously sold to Israel Hayom, for a total of 3 million shekels.
