Fiktiv Israel - Israel Hayom

Makor Rishon is an Israeli daily newspaper. The paper was originally led by secular writers but over the years it became more religious. Makor Rishon is associated with Religious Zionism and with the conservative right-wing of Israel.

Makor Rishon was founded as a weekly magazine in July 1997 in order to create an independent newspaper with a Jewish religious and nationalistic slant. The paper was the brainchild of its original owner, Rabbi Shmuel Tal. The Listenberg family, a National Religious family in the diamond business based in Belgium and Tel Aviv financed the founding of the newspaper. Journalist Meir Uziel was hired to recruit the staff. Uziel enlisted Michael Ruzulio to find writers. Ruzulio had served as a reporter for Yedioth Ahronoth as well as for the Second Authority for Television and Radio, and helped create the “Voice of the Red Sea” radio station. The newsroom was established in the “Pirsum Yisrael” offices located in Givat Shaul in Jerusalem and included religious and secular journalists and editors.

The majority of the newspaper's editors in its early years were secular and included Meir Uziel, Michael Ruzulio, Yehuda Levi (journalist) and Ofer Shapira.

Earnings from the paper were low and its financial situation worsened. The paper closed down at the end of October 1999, after which the owners filed for bankruptcy.

Makor Rishon was reestablished after five weeks, in December 1999, under the auspices of a company named “The New Makor Rishon” – a move that enabled its purchaser, Dr. Michael Karash, to derive benefit from the newspaper's name without having to be burdened by past debts. Karash worked to broaden the subscriber base and to make the paper financially viable. Over the course of 2003, the paper was purchased by businessman Shlomo Ben-Tzvi. After the buyout, changes were made that included a significant increase in the number of pages and journalists as well as a move to a broadsheet newspaper format.

Until mid-2007, Makor Rishon was published as a weekly. On April 25, 2007, the HaTzofe daily was incorporated into Makor Rishon, which started appearing with the logo “Makor Rishon-HaTzofe”. Shlomo Ben-Tzvi, who until then had been the newspaper's CEO, was appointed the editor-in-chief.

On February 16, 2012, the newspaper began distributing a free expanded edition at various locations throughout the country, that contained many references to the newspaper's flagship edition that is sold on weekends, a move intended to increase sales and subscribers for the Friday edition.

On March 9, 2014, Ben-Tzvi's request for a two-month injunction to halt bankruptcy proceedings against the Makor Rishon and Ma’ariv newspapers was approved by the court. On March 30, 2014, the Jerusalem District Court approved selling the newspaper to Israel Hayom for 14 million shekels, and Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo approved the sale one month later.

In its current format, the paper includes 3 daily sections and 8 weekly supplements:

Newspaper sections:
General News – news items, editorial articles, opinion columns, science, and local travel sections.
Economy - business news items; editorial articles, consumer sections in various fields, capital market and financial consumerism sections, consulting sections, "good life" sections - restaurant and gadget review and the history of Israeli society. The section hosts senior writers in the economy.
Sport - news, results and commentaries from the world of sport.

Weekly supplements:
Yoman – a weekly current affairs supplement containing articles, interviews and personal columns.
Diyukan – a magazine that includes personal interest stories, personal columns and various sections.
Shabbat – a supplement for Jewish philosophy, Judaism and literature, with an intellectual bent.
Tzedek – news and commentaries in the fields of religious and secular law.
Motzash – a lifestyle magazine.
Nashim – a supplement geared to women that began appearing in the summer of 2006 and is published bi-weekly.
Otiot – a magazine for children and teens.
Sukariot – a newspaper for preschoolers, known as the sister paper to Otiot.

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Israel Hayom is an Israeli national Hebrew-language free daily newspaper and news website. First published in 2007, Israel Hayom is Israel's most widely read newspaper.

Israel Hayom's print edition was launched on 30 July 2007 and competed directly with Israeli, another free daily. The same year, Maariv editor Dan Margalit left the newspaper to write for Israel Hayom. A weekend edition was launched in October 2009. In 2014, Israel Hayom bought Israeli media outlets Makor Rishon and nrg.

On May 2014, the name Maariv had been removed from nrg logo, and it was rebranded as nrg. Following the acquisition an antitrust complaint had been failed against Israel Hayom, which resulted in a court order that requested to transfer the maariv domain name to Maariv weekly. In 2017, nrg was renamed to nrg360, and on 10 January 2018 the website had been closed and all its content had been merged into the Makor Rishon website.

In 2014, it was believed that Sheldon Adelson invested in total at least $50 million in Israel Hayom. Adelson's support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led the latter's political opponents in the Knesset to sponsor a bill that would prevent the distribution of newspapers in Israel for free. Framed as a bill to prevent unfair competition and save the Israeli print newspaper industry, critics of the bill said it hurts free enterprise and is a thinly veiled attempt to target Adelson and his political causes, as Israel Hayom is Israel's only free-of-charge national newspaper. The bill passed the first reading in the Knesset, but not subsequent ones. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that although it is commonly believed that he owns the newspaper, he does not, it is owned by a relative of his.

The newspaper is printed in tabloid format, with many color images and large headlines, which characterize the Israeli popular press genre. To attract a large readership, Israel Hayom is characterized by a light and concise writing style in spoken Hebrew and deals with a variety of topics, from current affairs and economics to culture, sports and gossip.

On weekdays, the newspaper includes a single section, which includes regular sections: opinions, culture, economics, leisure (daily crossword puzzles, daily horoscope), sports and gossip; and non-permanent sections, such as: tourism, fashion, food, the internet, automotive, design, the Knesset and more.

In mid-July 2008, the paper launched an independent 3 to 4-page Economic Section. The sports section spans 4 to 6 pages. The cultural section spans 2 pages.

In Friday's issue, "Israel Hayom" includes the following sections:
Main - includes regular sections: economics, leisure (daily crossword puzzles, daily horoscope) and sports.
Israel This Week - a news supplement.
Israel Hayom Magazine - a magazine supplement with research articles as well as content on culture and leisure.