Hevrat HaHadashot

Hevrat HaHadashot is used here for the organization whose official N12 page identifies its legal contact as Israel Television News Company Ltd. The same page describes News 12 as the news company of Keshet 12 and N12 as its digital arm.[6] Earlier reporting commonly called the organization the Channel 2 News Company.

Channel 2 was Israel’s first commercial television station and was initially operated by three franchise companies under the supervision of the Second Television and Radio Authority.[7] Its news division was shared by the licensees.[8] A government assessment states that the franchisees were required to establish a joint news company to provide news throughout the week, linking the company’s structure directly to Israel’s commercial-broadcasting framework.[9]

The Channel 2 News Company began broadcasting on 4 November 1993, the day Channel 2 opened. Its first item was a five-minute bulletin presented by Yaakov Eilon at 14:00.[1] An anniversary account identifies Eilon and Miki Haimovich as the first presenters of the channel’s main newscast.[10] A 2008 profile likewise states that the company was established in 1993 and was financed at that time by Channel 2 franchisees Keshet and Reshet.[2]

The company sought to distinguish its principal newscast from the established Channel 1 news. Haimovich later recalled that the program used a different pace and gave greater prominence to social and economic subjects. Eilon described the unusual celebration after his first bulletin, while Haimovich cited presenting through the final month of pregnancy as a point of pride.[10]

Former presenters later characterized the company’s coverage of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s 1995 assassination and its aftermath as a turning point. Haimovich recalled that the direct reporting style and Rafi Reshef’s interview with Leah Rabin attracted viewers; Eilon said the event helped make Channel 2 a central news provider. These were retrospective assessments by the presenters rather than independently measured findings about the causes of audience change.[10]

The company’s output extended beyond its main evening newscast. A 2008 profile listed current-affairs programs including Six with, Ulpan Shishi, and Meet the Press.[2] An account of Channel 2’s early operation reported that its major evening newscast aired at 8:00 p.m.[11]

At the end of 2007, Channel 2 established a separate internet division to extend the news company’s television work online. It distributed material through Keshet’s mako and Reshet’s website, offering live broadcasts, internet-specific reporting, unused raw footage, behind-the-scenes features, and early Channel 2 news editions.[3]

When the website was launched in 2008, about 30 employees had been recruited for an independent internet newsroom. Its features included a video encyclopedia called Videopedia, with about 100 entries prepared, archived headlines dating to 1993, and behind-the-scenes material.[12] A later report described about 40 employees, three foreign correspondents, and two to three live events per week. It also cited a company-reported total of more than five million video views during the Gaza fighting discussed in the report.[3]

Israel’s commercial-broadcasting framework required a news company to be corporately separate from the company operating its channel. Regulatory safeguards included directors appointed by the Second Authority and a news-company manager who also served as editor-in-chief.[9] Channel 2’s news division was shared by its licensees, and by 2008 Keshet and Reshet were identified as the news company’s shareholders and financial backers.[8][2]

Channel 10’s separate news operation illustrates the regulatory model but was not part of the Channel 2 company. Channel 10 began operating in January 2002 after its selected franchisees merged, and the channel bore the expenses of its own news company.[9] At a 2015 Knesset committee meeting, News 10 chief executive Golan Yochpaz said that his organization had been established to provide Channel 10’s main news edition and had become “the central broadcasting body within the channel.”[13]

A 2011 report concerning Channel 10 used the transliterated phrase Hevrat Hahadshot for that channel’s news company while discussing a proposed rescue plan. The proposal would have raised public money, diluted shareholders, and transferred daily control to professional management; the report also said Channel 10 owed NIS 44 million in royalties and franchise fees.[14] This was a separate Channel 10 matter and should not be treated as part of the Channel 2 company’s corporate history.

The internet division enabled the news company to reach audiences through platforms associated with both Channel 2 franchisees. Its editor said visitors arriving for entertainment material could remain for news. Foreign correspondents used laptops connected to cameras to transmit real-time reports produced specifically for online audiences.[3]

The company’s broadcasts were also affected by a satellite-signal attack. On 29 November 2016, the newscasts of Israeli Channels 2 and 10 were temporarily disrupted through an open satellite link, while YES satellite television subscribers were unaffected. Hackers suspected of being pro-Palestinian Arab activists were blamed, and Israel’s broadcasting authority described the incident as a “hostile takeover” and “an act of sabotage.”[15]

An examination of representation in Hebrew-language Israeli media reported that Ulpan Shishi set a weekly record during the first half of 2017 for the share of Arab speakers and interviewees among the programs studied. At the same time, half of its editions during that period included no Arab speaker or interviewee.[16]

After Channel 2 split, its news company continued temporarily on both Keshet and Reshet. In November 2018, Keshet agreed to buy Reshet’s 50 percent stake for NIS 120 million, based on a company valuation of NIS 240 million. The sale was a condition of the proposed Reshet–Channel 10 merger.[4]

The merged Reshet–Channel 10 service began operating on Channel 13 in January 2019, while Channel 10 vacated its previous slot.[9] From midnight on 15–16 January, the news company’s familiar programs, presenters, and reporters appeared only on Keshet’s Channel 12. The company described this as the end of slightly more than 25 years in which it had operated under multiple broadcasting bodies.[5]

N12 was established in February 2020 on the basis of a News 12 app that had operated since 2012. Its official description calls the website and app the digital arm of News 12 and lists programming including the main newscast, Ulpan Shishi, and Meet the Press.[6] N12’s programs page also includes the central news edition among the News 12 programs it hosts.[17]

The company’s development tracks major changes in Israeli commercial television. It began as the shared news operation of the country’s first commercial channel, working within a system divided among franchisees.[7][8] It later continued across two channels after Channel 2’s division before Keshet purchased Reshet’s stake and made Channel 12 its sole television outlet.[4][5]

Its presenters regarded the coverage following Rabin’s assassination as important to Channel 2’s emergence as a leading news source, although that interpretation remains retrospective.[10] The company’s online projects also show how a television newsroom adapted its reporting, archives, and live coverage for digital distribution during the late 2000s.[3][12]

The title Hevrat HaHadashot is a transliteration rather than the complete English legal name documented by N12. The company’s official page identifies the legal contact as “Israel Television News Company Ltd” and the Hebrew entity as the Israeli News Company.[6] Historical reports also use descriptions such as “Channel 2 News Company,” while later material uses Hadashot and News 12.[1][2] By January 2019, the company publicly described itself as operating exclusively on Keshet 12.[5]

The terminology can be ambiguous because the Hebrew phrase for a news company may also be applied to other broadcasters’ news organizations. A 2011 report concerning Channel 10, for example, used a transliterated form of the phrase for Channel 10’s separate news operation.[14]

A National Library of Israel biographical summary says Yitzhak Livni was selected in 1978 as director general of the Israel Broadcasting Authority and chairman of Channel 2’s News Company.[18] That wording conflicts with direct evidence that the Channel 2 company began broadcasting on 4 November 1993 and with a separate account placing Channel 2’s commercial launch in 1994.[1][19] The 1978 wording therefore should not be used as the company’s founding or operational date.