 | |
 Front page ofThe Jerusalem Post; September 1, 2020 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | The Jerusalem Post Group |
| Editor | Zvika Klein |
| Founded | 1 December 1932; 92 years ago (1932-12-01) (asThe Palestine Post) |
| Political alignment | |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Jerusalem |
| Country | Israel |
| Circulation | 90,000 (Weekends: 120,000) (International: 50,000)[citation needed] |
| Sister newspapers | Jerusalem Post Lite Maariv Walla! |
| ISSN | 0792-822X |
| OCLC number | 15700704 |
| Website | jpost |
The Jerusalem Post is anEnglish language Israelibroadsheet newspaper based inJerusalem,Israel, founded in 1932 during theBritish Mandate of Palestine byGershon Agron asThe Palestine Post. In 1950, it changed its name toThe Jerusalem Post. In 2004, the paper was bought by Mirkaei Tikshoret, a diversified Israeli media firm controlled by investorEli Azur (who in 2014 also acquired the newspaperMaariv).[4]The Jerusalem Post is published in English. Previously, it also had a French edition.
The paper professes to be in the Israelipolitical center,[5] yet is considered to be on the politicalcenter-right;[6] its editorial line is critical of political corruption,[7] and supportive of the separation of religion and state in Israel.[8] It is also a strong proponent of greater investment by the State of Israel in World Jewry and educational programs for theJewish diaspora.[9]
Thebroadsheet newspaper is published daily Sunday to Friday, except forJewish religious holidays andIndependence Day, with no edition appearing on Saturday (theJewish Sabbath). Regular opinion columnists write on subjects such as religion, foreign affairs and economics.
The first attempt to establish an English-language newspaper in Jerusalem wasThe Jerusalem News, established in 1919 under the auspices of theChristian Science movement, but this had no relationship toThe Jerusalem Post.[10]
The direct journalistic ancestry ofThe Jerusalem Post can be traced toThe Palestine Bulletin, which was founded in January 1925 by Jacob Landau of theJewish Telegraphic Agency.[11] It was owned by the Palestine Telegraphic Agency, which was in practice part of the JTA even though it was legally separate.[11]
On 1 November 1931, editorship of theBulletin was taken over byGershon Agronsky (later Agron), a Jewish journalist who had immigrated to Palestine from the United States.[12] In March 1932, a dispute arose between Landau and Agronsky, which Agronsky resolved to settle by establishing an independent newspaper.[11] Landau and Agronsky instead came to an agreement to transform theBulletin into a new, jointly owned newspaper.[11] Accordingly, thePalestine Bulletin published its last issue on 30 November 1932.[11]
The Palestine Post Incorporating The Palestine Bulletin appeared the following day, 1 December 1932.[11] On 25 April 1933, the masthead was reduced to justThe Palestine Post although its founding year still appeared as 1925.[13] It appeared on 24 August 1934[14] but not in the following issue, 26 August,[15] or later.
During its time asThe Palestine Post, the publication supported the struggle for aJewish homeland in Palestine and openly opposed British policy restrictingJewish immigration during the Mandate period.[16] According to one commentator, "Zionist institutions considered the newspaper one of the most effective means of exerting influence on the British authorities."[17]
On the evening of 1 February 1948, a stolenBritish police car loaded with half a ton of TNT pulled up in front of the Jerusalem office of thePalestine Post; the driver of a second car arrived a few minutes later,lit the fuse and drove off.[18] The building also contained other newspaper offices, the British press censor, the Jewish settlement police, and aHaganah post with a cache of weapons. Arab leaderAbd al-Qadir al-Husayni claimed responsibility for the bombing, but historian Uri Milstein reported that the bomb had been prepared by theNazi-trained Fawzi el-Kutub, known as "the engineer", with the involvement of two British armydeserters, Cpl. Peter Mersden and Capt. Eddie Brown.[19][20] Four people were killed in the bombing, including threePost employees.[21] According to the Palestine Post at the time, a newspaper typesetter and two people who lived in a nearby block of flats died.[22] Dozens of others were injured and the printing press was destroyed. The morning paper came out in a reduced format of two pages, printed at a small print shop nearby.[18]
In 1950, two years after theState of Israel wasdeclared, the paper was renamedThe Jerusalem Post.[23] Until 1989, the paper supported theLabor Party.
In 1989, the paper was purchased byHollinger Inc., owned byConrad Black. A number of journalists resigned from the Post after Black's takeover and foundedThe Jerusalem Report, a weekly magazine eventually sold to thePost. After the acquisition, the Jerusalem Post underwent a noticeable shift to thepolitical right.[24][25]
Under editor-in-chiefDavid Makovsky, from 1999 to 2000, the paper took a centrist position on defense, but began to reject socialism.[2] In 2002, Hollinger hired the politically conservativeBret Stephens ofThe Wall Street Journal as editor-in-chief. David Horovitz took over as editor-in-chief on 1 October 2004.[26] From 2004 onward, editorDavid Horovitz moved the paper to thecenter.
On 16 November 2004, Hollinger sold the paper to Mirkaei Tikshoret Limited, aTel Aviv-based publisher of Israeli newspapers owned byEli Azur.CanWest Global Communications, Canada's biggest media concern, had announced an agreement to take a 50 percent stake inThe Jerusalem Post after Mirkaei bought the property, but the deal soured. The two sides went to arbitration, and CanWest lost.[27]
In 2011,Steve Linde, pledged to provide balanced coverage of the news along with views from across the political spectrum.[28][29] In April 2016, Linde stepped down as editor-in-chief and was replaced byYaakov Katz,[30] a former military reporter for the paper who previously served as an adviser to former Prime MinisterNaftali Bennett.[31]
In January 2008, the paper announced a new partnership withThe Wall Street Journal, including joint marketing and exclusive publication in Israel ofThe Wall Street Journal Europe.[32]
In 2011, Horovitz was succeeded by the paper's managing editor, Steve Linde, who professed to maintain political moderation and balance.[33]Yaakov Katz, the paper's former military analyst and a fellow at theNieman Foundation for Journalism, succeeded Linde in April 2016.
Since 2012, the newspaper has held an annual conference in New York, The Jerusalem Post Conference, with the participation of senior figures in the Israeli government and the Jewish world. The conference was founded by the media entrepreneur Ronen Lefler, and is currently managed by the CEO of the Jerusalem Post Group, Inbar Ashkenazi.
In 2020,Reuters reported thatTheJerusalem Post, along withAlgemeiner,The Times of Israel andArutz Sheva, had published op-eds written by non-existent people.[34][35] In 2020,The Daily Beast identified a network of false personas used to sneak opinion pieces aligned withUAE government policy to media outlets such asThe Jerusalem Post.[36] Twitter suspended some of the accounts of these fake persons on its own platform.[37]
In January 2022,The Jerusalem Post's website was hacked by pro-Iranian actors. TheJPost.com website homepage was replaced with an image depicting a bullet shot from a red ring on a finger (likely in reference to the ring worn by the Iranian GeneralQasem Soleimani) and the caption "we are close to you where you do not think about it". The hack occurred on the second anniversary of theAssassination of Qasem Soleimani and is largely seen as a threat towards Israel.[38][39]
In March 2023, Katz stepped down as editor-in-chief and was replaced by Avi Mayer.[40] Nine months later, Mayer was replaced by Zvika Klein.[41]
The Jerusalem Post has been publishing an annual list of the world's "50 most influential Jews" since 2010.[42] The list is released onRosh Hashanah. In 2023, The Jerusalem Post announced the launch of a "50 most influential Jews" congress, including an awards ceremony for the honorees.[43]
The Jerusalem Post also publishes a monthly magazine,IVRIT, edited by Sarit Yalov. Its target audience is people learning theHebrew language and it is described as "an easy-Hebrew" publication, meant for improving basic Hebrew reading skills. It uses thevowel notation system to make comprehension of theHebrewabjad simpler.[44]The Jerusalem Report, now edited bySteve Linde, is afortnightly print andonline glossynewsmagazine.
JPost.com was launched in December 1996. Its current version also contains an ePaper version of thedaily newspaper, a range of magazines and other web versions of the Group's products.
The site is an entity separate from the daily newspaper. While sharing reporters, it is managed by different teams. Its staff is based in Tel Aviv, while the newspaper offices are located in Jerusalem.[45]
The site contains archives that go back to 1989, and the default search on the site sends users to archive listings, powered byProQuest, where articles can be purchased.[46] Free blurbs of the article are available as well, and full articles are available when linked to directly from navigation within JPost.com or from a search engine.
JPost.com includes the "Premium Zone", a pay-wall protected area, containing additional Jerusalem Post articles and special features. The site, which was given a graphic facelift in September 2014, recently[when?] relaunched its mobile and tablet applications, as well as its special edition for mobile viewing.
Gershon Agron founded the newspaper and served as its editor until he went into public service. One of his early reporters was his nephewMartin Agronsky, who later became a famous American political journalist.[49] Agronsky left the paper after only a year.[50] He felt he had been hired out ofnepotism and didn't like this, wanting to earn his jobs.[51][52]
Agron's sonDani Agron worked for the newspaper, serving as its business manager in the 1970s,[53] while his wife Ethel wrote forHadassah Magazine.[54] Martin Agronsky's sonJonathan Agronsky became a journalist in the United States.[55]
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