Yedioth Ahronoth was established in 1939 by an investor named Gershom Komarov. It was the first evening paper in the British Mandate of Palestine, and attempted to emulate the format of the London Evening Standard. Running into financial difficulties, Komarov sold the paper to Yehuda Mozes, a wealthy land dealer who regarded the paper as an interesting hobby and a long-term financial investment. His sons, Reuben and Noah ran the paper with Noah as the first managing editor. In 1948, a large group of journalists and staff members led by chief editorEzriel Carlebach left to form Yedioth Maariv, shortly later known as Maariv. According to Dr. Carlebach and his associates, their reason for leaving Yedioth Ahronoth was Mozes' interference in their editorial decisions. He was replaced as chief editor by Herzl Rosenblum. Carelbach is considered the most prominent journalist of his era and his and his associates' departure from Yedioth is commonly known in Israeli media history as "The Putsch". This began an ongoing battle for circulation and prestige between the rival newspapers, which peaked during the 1990s when both papers were discovered to have bugged one another's phones. In the first decades following Carlebach's departure Maariv's circulation greatly outnumbered Yedioth's although over the years Yedioth's readership grew steadily and by the early 1980s its circulation eclipsed Maariv's and therefore became the country's largest newspaper. This success was in large part thanks to the efforts of Dov Yudkovski, a distant cousin of Mozes and holocaust survivor who joined Yedioth following "the Putsch" in 1948, serving as editorial manager between 1953 and 1986, and chief editor between 1986 and 1989. Although officially Rosenblum held the title of chief editor between 1948 and 1986, his duties only extended to writing the paper's leading editorial article while Yudkovski acted as chief editor in practice. For his achievements Yudkovski was awarded the Sokolov Prize for Journalism in 2000 and the 2002 Israel Prize in Communications. As of 2017, the paper is headed by Noah Mozes's son, Arnon Mozes. For many years it was edited by Herzl Rosenblum's son, Moshe Vardi, who was replaced in 2005 by Rafi Ginat. Shilo De-Beer was promoted to editor in April 2007. He was followed by Ron Yaron in 2011. The newspaper is published in tabloid format, and according to one author, its marketing strategy emphasizes "drama and human interest over sophisticated analysis." It has been described as "undoubtedly the country's number-one paper." The paper is open to a wide range of political views. In January 2017, secret recordings were released of conversations between Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu and Mozes discussing a potential deal in which the newspaper would provide better coverage of Netanyahu in exchange for the government limiting the circulation of competitor Israel Hayom.
Circulation
In a TGI survey of the media comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth retained the title of most widely read newspaper in Israel but saw its market share fall slightly from 35.9 to 33.9 percent. In July 2010, a TGI survey reported that Israel HaYom had overtaken Yedioth Ahronoth as the most read newspaper in terms of exposure with a rate of 35.2% compared to Yedioth's 34.9%. After only a few months of publication of a weekend edition, it scored it 25.7% of exposure compared with Yedioth's 43.7% rate. While Yedioth is a paid newspaper, Israel HaYom is a free newspaper, backed by American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
Yedioth Ahronot Group
The newspaper is owned by the Yedioth Ahronoth Group, which also owns shares in several Israeli mass media companies, such as "Channel 2", a commercial television channel; "Hot", the national cable TV company; "Yedioth Tikshoret", a group of weekly local newspapers; Vesti, a Russian language newspaper; magazines, such as the weekly TV guide magazine Pnai Plus and weekly women's magazineLa'Isha; and other non-media companies.
Political leaning
Yedioth Ahronoth is generally critical of Benjamin Netanyahu. A study conducted by Moran Rada with the Israeli Democracy Institute showed that Yedioths coverage of the 2009 Israeli legislative election was biased in favor of Kadima and its leader Tzipi Livni in most editorial decisions and that the paper chooses to play down events that do not help to promote a positive image for her, while on the other hand, touting and inflating events that help promote Livni and her party. Oren Frisco reached a similar conclusion after the 2009 Knesset elections, writing that throughout the campaign, Yediot Ahronoth was biased against Netanyahu. In 2017 it was revealed that Netanyahu taped conversations he held with Yediot chairman and editor Arnon Mozes, in which Mozes proposed to him a deal to have more favorable coverage of Netanyahu in the paper in return for legislation harming the paper's main competitor, Israel Hayom. This led to the opening of "Case 2000", a corruption investigation with Netanyahu and Mozes as its main suspects.
