Hundreds of Maariv daily newspaper employees, joined by journalists from the rest of the Israeli media protested (20.9.12) the expected firings of over 1,000 journalists and printing staff.
It seems that for years Maariv management did not deposit all the pension deductions they were supposed to, for at least some of the workers, nor funds to cover the severance pay the employees are due. Maariv’s journalists union said they would strike and stop the paper from publishing on 22.9. It is still not clear whether Maariv will be able to pay its September salaries.

Shlomo Ben-Zvi, whose Hirsch Media firm publishes the right-leaning nationalist paper Makor Rishon, will buy the Maariv daily newspaper for NIS 40 million. The deal with Nochi Dankner’s IDB Holdings was finalized, and Ben Zvi will pay the sum in a number of payments over the next year. IDB’s plan is to close the old company and the assets Ben Zvi is buying will be transferred to his company – all the rest will be sold off or shut down and the employees fired.

In addition to the daily paper, Ben Zvi is buying the Maariv brand and intellectual property rights, the nrg website, the Maariv publishing house, its local weeklies and periodicals and the paper’s subscriber base. But the deal does not include the workers or the printing plant and the land it sits on in Bat Yam.

Union leader Haggai Matar said: “The deal creates a situation where our fears are divided between the past and the future. As to the past, it turns out that based on its declaration Maariv owes workers NIS 95 million, and we still do not know how and when they are planning on paying it. The second fear is for the future, what will happen to the newspaper, how many jobs will be saved, for how long and under what conditions. We still do not have answers to these things,” said Matar.
The workers will continue their legal struggle against the paper, the protests and sanctions, as well, he said.