The court this morning approved the purchase of the newspaper 'Ma'ariv' by businessman Eli Azur. Azur will pay only 4 million shekels for the newspaper, compared to a year and a half ago when he competed with Shlomo Ben-Zvi to buy 'Ma'ariv' and offered 122 million shekels. Azur's representatives also pledged to continue employing about 30 administrative and editorial staff, at least for the coming year, which means that about 110 employees, including 80 journalists, will be laid off. In addition, they will hire the services of about 20 freelancers who worked regularly with the newspaper.
Eli Azur owns several media outlets in Israel, including the Jerusalem Post newspaper, the free-to-air Post, the website The Post, Radio Nonstop, newspapers for the Russian sector, billboard and advertising companies. As mentioned, about a year and a half ago, Azur competed to acquire Maariv, but lost to Ben-Zvi, the former publisher of Makor Rishon. Ben-Zvi created a staff, editorial and content integration between Maariv, Makor Rishon and the NRG website.
After losing to Azu Ben-Zvi about a year and a half ago, he founded the weekly "Sofeshavau" as a competitor to the "Sofeshavau" edition of "Maariv". Among the writers are many former journalists at "Maariv", such as Ben Caspit, Yehuda Sharoni, Lior Dayan and more. Now it seems that the "Sofeshavau" newspaper will be merged with "Maariv".
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From Yad Eliyahu - to location 11
Maintaining a low profile and identifying business opportunities are two of the traits that characterize businessman Eli Azur, who was born in Tel Aviv to parents of Iraqi origin and grew up in the Yad Eliyahu neighborhood. His businesses dominate almost all areas of media, including journalism and printing, radio broadcasting, virtual cellular, television broadcasting and outdoor advertising.
His media presence is one of the largest in Israeli industry: through the Jerusalem Post Group, he publishes about twenty newspapers and magazines, is the publisher of several local newspapers, and the Russian-language Novosti network that he owns - which was established immediately after immigrating from Russia in the 1990s - includes, in addition to a widely circulated daily, several weeklies. He prints all of this paper in his own printing house, the former Al Hamishmar printing house.
In addition, Azur holds many shares in the regional radio stations: 'Radio Non-Stop', 'Radio 99', and 'North Non-Stop'. He is also well-established in the field of advertising, as he owns half of the 'Zohar Outdoor Advertising' company and owns the 'Media Backgrounds' company with hundreds of billboards across the country. In the past, he also tried to play in the broadcast field and participated in teams that competed for the Channel 2 and Channel 10 tenders - but lost.
In January 2013, Azur was ranked 11th on Globes newspaper's list of influential media figures.
Plant from below
One of Azur's associates tells of a notable difference between him and other publishers in the industry.
""Unlike Nonny Mozes, Amos Schocken or Shlomo Ben-Zvi, Azur did not receive his business and status thanks to the family he comes from. When you talk about people who rose from the bottom, then that's exactly him. Someone whose businesses he built with ten fingers. And he really came to the media from the bottom: Azur, a native of the Yad Eliyahu neighborhood, entered the world of media even before being drafted into the army as a reporter for Baal HaMishmar, and he began developing his ability to weave connections even then.
""His recognition and understanding of the world of media and its rules of the game comes from the fact that he grew out of it," explains his associate. "I believe this is his basis for his business understanding of the field, for identifying opportunities and the ability to forge valuable connections.".
At this stage, it is not yet clear in what format Maariv will operate, and whether the 'Post' will continue to see the light of day. Azur is exploring the possibility that 'Maariv' will continue to be published to subscribers, and in addition there will be an abridged and free edition, like the 'Post' - under the main 'Maariv' brand, with syndication among the content.
Last week, the court approved the sale of Makor Rishon and the Nerg website to Israel Hayom, for 17 million shekels.
