Global Journalist

Israeli agency gets fresh start

By Jay Bushinsky Posted Jul 1 2004

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At last, the Israeli News Agency (ITIM) has a chance to become what it was meant to be at its birth 54 years ago: a worldwide news-gathering organization on par with counterparts such as The Associated Press, the Deutsche Presse Agentur and Japan 's KYODO. Not long ago, ITIM's future looked bleak, but with new owners and the courage and determination of a dedicated staff, Israel 's one and only national news agency is finding a place on the world's stage.

ITIM already has overcome the biggest hurdle: a concerted attempt by its founders to lock out its staff and shut down the shoestring operation. For years, ITIM's every move was controlled by the director-general of the Israel Broadcasting Authority and the publishers of Israel 's major news dailies: Haaretz, Yediot Aharonot, Maariv, Hazofeh and The Jerusalem Post.

Israel's major newspapers and Broadcasting Authority established ITIM as a fig leaf rather than a viable journalistic entity. They used it to cover stories inconvenient for them to staff. As the owners and shareholders of ITIM, they relegated it to a secondary role in the news-gathering process. ITIM was kept out of the media limelight, deprived of opportunities to report major foreign stories or delve into investigative journalism. The management did not want the competition and reserved such story assignments for their star correspondents.

ITIM was founded in 1950 by the seven main Israeli newspapers that existed at that time. Three of these newspapers folded during the ensuing years, including the once-dominant Labor Federation daily Davar, the socialist Al Hamishmar and the conservative Haboker. More than a decade ago, ITIM published an English-language pamphlet explaining its underlying business concept: “Each newspaper received equal shares of ownership, regardless of the size of the publication, in order to prevent monopolization of the agency by the major newspapers.” During its early years, ITIM was a convenient operation to all concerned. It sent its reporters to all of Israel’s courts and covered traffic accidents, political speeches, foreign dignitaries on official visits and press conferences of all sorts. Whenever an assignment editor was short of personnel, ITIM could be relied on to fill the vacuum.

Unlike its model, the AP, ITIM never was given a chance by Israel's major newspapers and Broadcasting Authority to develop into a healthy, dynamic and expanding news operation.

ITIM's story is one of a dedicated team of 25 journalists who fought an uphill battle in Israel 's courts and kept filing, editing and transmitting even when their paychecks stopped. These journalists were well aware that Israel's main newspapers, Yediot Aharonot, Maariv and Haaretz, are owned and controlled by three wealthy Israeli families. They also knew the media outlets not under the influence of one of these families had strong political loyalties to the party that owns or controls their publication.

Although these papers are independent and generally accurate, they are not always objective or reliable. The motivation for ITIM's journalists is the belief that their country needs an independent, objective and reliable conduit for breaking news, one willing and able to transmit to every facet of the local mass media, whether in Hebrew, Arabic or English.

Sefi Shemesh, a young lawyer whose firm took over ITIM in November 2003 during a period of receivership, marveled at the employees' steadfastness.

“When the locks on the office doors were changed and they had to get a court order to get inside, ITIM's transmission schedule was up and running again within two or three hours,” he says. Haim Noy, who joined ITIM 35 years ago and rose to its top journalistic position of editor in chief, proudly agrees. “Our service really never stopped,” he says.

The drama began shortly after ITIM's owners decided last fall “to throw ITIM into the dustbin,” Shemesh says. The Israeli media barons were skeptical about the ability of this Middle Eastern clone of the AP to find new investors and stay out of the red. A well-informed source who was actively involved in ITIM's interim operations during the three-month receivership says that ITIM's former management was not interested in selling the news agency for any price. Its objective was to close it down.

“It didn't have enough customers, its management was inept, and its operation just wasn't worth preserving,” says Avi Golan, The Jerusalem Post's managing director. Aggravating the situation was an oppressive US$200,000 debt to Agence France-Presse (AFP), whose dispatches ITIM carried in Hebrew translation, and the $90,000 it owed to its own employees.

Noy was quoted by Israel's business daily, Globes, as saying, “The shareholders torpedoed us.” Recalling his personal reaction to the impending closure, he says: “I fought like a lion. I cried, shouted and wrote letters against the management and sent them to the shareholders.”

He contended that one of the reasons why ITIM always was in the red was the large disparity between executive and employee salaries. When executives were receiving about $2,250 per month, along with a company car and phone bill coverage, editors and reporters were averaging a paycheck of only $660 to $900 per month with no perks.

“But what could I do?” Noy asks. “I was only a hired hand. My hands were tied from every side. ITIM was a deprived child who always was told there was no money for anything. The shareholders simply did not inject any money.”

Noy believes that the previous management would have rather watched ITIM's demise than witness its survival in other hands. “ITIM could have been sold to a prospective buyer for $200,000 two years ago, but the then-management turned down the offer,” he says. That offer was nearly three times the final sale price.

The consequences of the previous management's negative attitude and hardball tactics were quick in coming. One of the employees, Ada Rabinovich, discovered that the company owed her a substantial sum in salary checks and that her regular contributions to the employees' welfare fund had been terminated.

Shemesh recalls how she showed up at his office and asked that he and his colleagues help her retrieve her unpaid salary and bring management's contributions to her providential fund up-to-date.

“We immediately filed a complaint to the Tel Aviv District Court,” Shemesh says.

When she notified her colleagues that the obligation to the fund was not being met, 15 of them came to see us and we responded by suing the management for $120,000.

“This resulted in management reaffirming its decision to dump ITIM. Its representatives warned that if we sued, they definitely would disband the parent company. Simultaneously, they acted secretly to disconnect ITIM's computers, change the locks on the doors and post a sign stating that ITIM was closed.

“That made us race over to the district court and request on behalf of the employees that the company be dismantled by court order, not at the whim of the newspapers and broadcasting outfit which owned it, and to appoint us as the receivers. The staff went along with us and agreed to continue working for another three months without pay if necessary, something unprecedented in Israel.”

After winning the court's immediate consent, the lawyers and staff went back to ITIM's ramshackle premises, broke in, reactivated the computers and placed a sign on the door notifying the public that ITIM was back in action. It was then that ATLAS bought ITIM.

ATLAS, an Israeli firm that distributes foreign newspapers, recognized ITIM's potential. It purchased the news-gathering agency Feb. 19 for $75,000 in the belief that efficient management and operation expansion eventually can produce a profit.

Under ATLAS' ownership, ITIM currently has been paying its own way, covering its expenses and making a small profit.

Although Noy recently resigned as editor in chief due to disagreements with the new owners, he is encouraged by their readiness to invest in state-of-the-art equipment. ATLAS has streamlined ITIM's operations, put its books in good order, introduced cost-saving measures and implemented a successful marketing plan.

Noy's optimism comes from the knowledge that foreign publications with sizable Jewish readership have repeatedly requested more information about Israel.

“Our former owners always prevented us from closing deals with them, but ATLAS won't,” Noy says. Shortly before his sudden resignation, he contended that its potential clients knew that ITIM has the inside track on reporting on Israel.

ITIM is currently expanding its services to the surrounding Arab world and beyond to the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Far East.

Anat Shahor, a veteran ITIM reporter who serves as its new director of marketing and development, accused the former owners of “refusing to let us translate our copy into English.” She was proud to announce that its first English edition was inaugurated April 21. “We have a code-sharing deal the with DPA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur), and are about to close one with China 's equivalent, Xhinua News Agency,” she says.

Shahor is also proud of the new agreement signed with the Federal News Agency (FNA), based in Washington, D.C., to which ITIM expects to supply 200 items daily, all translated into English by ITIM's personnel. FNA, in turn, will transmit them to its clientele. “They are very interested in our Middle Eastern coverage,” she says.

“Our forecast is expansion overseas rather than in Israel,” Golan says. “This country already is saturated, but we can provide an excellent service to newspapers, foreign ministries and embassies abroad, as well as to hundreds of Jewish periodicals published in English and other languages.”

Golan anticipates the imminent hiring of additional staff and says the search is on for a new editor in chief.

Shahor apologizes about the rundown venue in which she and her colleagues speak. “We'll be out of here soon,” she says. “It's about time we moved into a modern office with all the state-of-the-art equipment which was denied us for so long.” Golan and ITIM Director-General Zvi Ganot nod in approval, adding that neither harbor any notion or intention of ever interfering in editorial policy or news coverage.