Over the next few weeks, two, maybe three, print dailies are to be launched in Israel, in a market that was conventionally believed to be saturated for print.

For the last decade, only three papers managed to strive in the mainstream Hebrew-speaking market: Ha'aretz, Yedi'ot Aharonot and Ma'ariv.

“The richest Jew in the world, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has decided to spend a rumoured 180m dollars on a new daily paper that will rival the big three,” reports The Jerusalem Post.

The financial viability of Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today), a home-delivered freesheet with a planned circulation of 300,000 copies, remains uncertain.

Owners and publishers of the currently established papers are also contemplating freesheet launches.

The Palestinian Times, which closed down in May due to financial losses, is also planning to resume publication in August. The Times was launched last November, becoming the first Palestinian paper to be sold in Israel since the Six Day War in 1967.

Print isn’t dead in Israel, but the competition is about to toughen up.

Source: The Jerusalem Post