Makor Rishon

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Makor Rishon (Hebrew: מקור ראשון‎, "primary source") is an Israeli daily newspaper, identified with conservative national and religious values. It was launched in 1997 to counter the dominance of secular and left-wing media. Because the newspaper was driven by ideology rather than business, it was both a quality high brow paper and an economic failure.

After a financial collapse, the paper was resurrected in 1999 and an effort was made to obtain financial stability and an increase in readership. The paper was published in tabloid format with two section inserts, one for political analysis and one for features. Most of its readership are part of the nationalist religious community.^{[citation needed]}

The editor-in-chief is Amnon Lord, an experienced Israeli journalist and writer, who started his career in the left-wing Peace Now, editing the now defunct weekly Koteret Rashit which expressed the movement's opinions, and changed his views following the Oslo Accords. Lord was one of a group of "former leftist intellectuals" who became close to Binyamin Netanyahu during his term as Prime Minister (1996-1999), and sought to model themselves on the Neo-Conservatives in the US, some of whom also started out as leftists and liberals. In Lord's editorials and op-ed articles, there are still frequent expressions of support for Netanyahu, evident especially during and following the 2006 elections - displeasing to some of Lord's colleagues on the nationalist right-wing, who strongly criticise Netanyahu for what they consider a very lukewarm opposition to Ariel Sharon's eviction of the Israelis from Gush Katif.

Lord's former allegiance is still very evident in his writing, when he frequently mentions events of his past and people and institutions which he knew in his previous career - usually, to condemn them and their works all the more sharply for having intimately known them in the past.

Makor Rishon is published in Tel Aviv and most of its readersip is based on paying subscribers. In an effort to get to wider audiences, the literary supplement - where the political positions are far less evident and outspoken than in the other parts - is distributed free in large quantitites.

In 2004, Shlomo Ben-Tzvi purchased the newspaper through his company Hirsch Media. On April 25 2007, Makor Rishon returned to publishing daily. At the same time, HaTzofe (also owned by Hirsch Media) stopped publishing its daily edition, instead becoming a weekly insert in Makor Rishon.