Maariv (newspaper)

Maariv (newspaper)

Maariv (Hebrew: מַעֲרִיב‎, lit. Evening) is a mainstream Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey for the first half of 2012, Maariv's market share was 11.9 percent.

Ma'ariv was established in 1948 by former Yediot Aharonot journalists. It was the most widely read newspaper in Israel in its first twenty years. Since August 2011, Maariv's editor in chief is Nir Hefetz.

Apart from the daily newspaper and its supplements, the Maariv media group (Ma'ariv Holdings Ltd) has a chain of local newspapers with a national scale distribution, a magazines division, and a semi-independent website called NRG, which includes much of the print content. The company's shares are listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since 1990 (TASE: MARV).

For many years, the Nimrodi family held a controlling stake in Maariv and Yaakov Nimrodi served as its chairman. In March 2010, Zaki Rakib bought a 50% share from Israel Land Development Company and Ofer Nimrodi, bringing new energy and much needed cash infusion to the newspaper which has been losing millions of NIS a year since 2004. Rakib became the new chairman. However, it was announced in March 2011 that Nochi Dankner was to take control of Ma'ariv through his Discount Investment. On March 25 Discount transferred 20 million NIS to the struggling firm. On September 11, Maariv's chairman Dani Yakobi issued a statement saying that he will sell the newspaper's printing equipment do be able do pay September salaries. On September 7, Globes announced that Dankner had reached an agreement with Shlomo Ben-Zvi, publisher of Makor Rishon to buy out the newspaper for 85 million NIS.