And Israel's top newspaper is... a free daily

Posted by Clara Martínez Turco on July 28, 2010 at 11:11 AM

For the first time in 40 years, Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot is not the most widely read newspaper in Israel. According to a TGI survey published today, the free daily Israel Hayom slightly surpassed the long-time leader with a 35.2 percent exposure in the first six months of 2010, IsraelNationalNews.com reported.

The poll shows that Yediot Ahronot's has an exposure of 34.9 percent. While both dailies increased their readership, other national dailies like Ma'ariv and Ha'aretz suffered losses to 12.5 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

However, when analysing the data over a 12-month range, the Hebrew daily remains the top newspaper, "with an exposure of 34.3 percent, compared with 30.4 percent for Israel Hayom," Globes Online revealed.

On Friday's editions, the recently launched version of Israel Hayom got a 25.7 percent, leaving the leadership to Yediot Ahronot with a 43.7 percent.

The free newspaper was launched in 2007 by Sheldon Edelson, who is associated with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It currently has a distribution of 255,000 copies on weekdays and 350,000 on weekends.