Israel HaYom (Hebrew: ישראל היום, lit. "Israel Today") is an Israeli national Hebrew-language free daily newspaper first published on July 30, 2007 and currently published in Tabloid format. The name is a variation of the popular USA Today, though there is no relation between the two publications. It has the largest daily circulation in Israel[1] with a market share that rose in the last half of 2009 from 23.2 to 26.6 percent.[2] In July 2010, Israel HaYom surpassed Yedioth Ahronoth in rate of exposure in the semi-annual Target Group Index (TGI) survey with a rate of 35.2% compared with Yedioth's 34.9% After only a few months of publication of a weekend edition, it scored it 25.7% of exposure compared with Yediot's 43.7% rate.[3]
This trend continued in 2011. According to the TGI survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom surpassed all other newspapers in Israel, including Yedioth Ahronoth and became number one daily newspaper (for weekdays) four years after its inception.[4] This survey states that Israel Hayom has 39.3% weekdays readership exposure , Yedioth Ahronoth 37% , Maariv 12.1% and Haaretz 5.8%. But Yedioth Ahronoth’s weekend edition is still leading with 44.3% readership exposure compared to 31% for Israel Hayom, 14.9% for Maariv and 6.8% for Haaretz.
At the time of its launch, the newspaper, owned by Sheldon Adelson, competed directly with Israeli, another free daily previously co-run by Adelson, which later became defunct. In October 2009, a weekend edition has been launched.
Chief editor is Amos Regev. In 2007, Maariv editor Dan Margalit left Maariv to write for Israel HaYom.
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Israel HaYom has been criticized for its right-wing political slant, with its content being described as "propaganda." While in the Prime Minister's office, Ehud Olmert criticized Adelson's leaning toward's Benjamin Netanyahu.[5][6] Ben-Dror Yemini has described it as "a danger to democracy".[7][8] A study conducted by Moran Rada showed that while competing newspaper's coverage of Netanyahu was "not especially fair", Yisrael Hayom's coverage was biased in favor of Netanyahu in most editorial decisions, that the paper chooses to play down events that don't help to promote a positive image for Netanyahu, while on the other hand, touting and inflating events that help promote Netanyahu and the Likud.[9] Oren Frisco reached the same conclusion after the 2009 Knesset elections, writing that throughout the campaign, Yisrael HaYom published only one article critical of the Likud, and tens of articles critical of Kadima.[10]
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