It seems pretty clear this is a business fight, as the Mishpacha is their main competition. Yated has been distributing a free paper once a week for a couple of years already, in addition to their paid daily newspaper. The free edition is a big boon to them, as it allows them to spread their influence, for free of course, along with increasing advertising (at leeast on the free day) as the distribution numbers are kept up.
With Mishpacha jumping into the free-paper market as well, Yated is looking at absorbing yet another big hit. It is not enough that they have already fallen lower down the totem poll in the haredi newspaper industry, now they are looking at competitino for their free newspaper as well.
When the Yated fights, instead of improving their product, they turn to religion. According to them, Mishpacha is a spiritual danger. They have been threatening to get the various rabbonim to sign a letter against it.
And now they did..
Besides for the obvious - nobody is ever going to change their lifestyle or behavior just because of a sign on a wall, I would point out that this pashkevil, seemingly directed subtly against the Mishpacha, does the Yated no favors. The pashkevil says ALL free papers and weeklies are prohibited as they corrupt the Torah and are a spiritual danger. While Mishpacha is identified, it is only identified as "All weekly and free papers, includnig Mishpacha".
The rabbonim who signed on the letter above seemingly did not make an excption for the Yated. Just like thye are supposedly saying it is prohibited to read Mishpacha, or other free newspapers, by the same decree it is assur to read, or print, the Yated Neeman.
I wonder if the Yated is going to listen to the gedolim on this. or maybe they will simply print next week the their rabbonim made an exception for them....
Things like this make a mockery out of yiddishkeit.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean we have rabbinic approval to burn the Chadash paper in RBS?
ReplyDeleteI was going to cancel my subscription to Mishpacha magazine (due to the weekly anti-medicine articles in the back of the magazine), but now I have no choice but not cancel, lest anyone think it is due to religious reasons.
ReplyDeleteEveryone sees through this Yated stuff
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a scene in The Yellow Submarine (circa 1967, and yes, I am showing my age) where the vacuum cleaner monster swallows up Ringo, the submarine, and everything else, then finally swallows itself!
ReplyDeleteI think your opiniom that the yated is loosing money and becoming less relevant is a mistake. It no doubt comes from the constant anti Yated ranting on bechadrey and kikar shabbos.
ReplyDeleteIt is a mistake to look at it that way. There is a reason that these guys hate the yated. It stands for everything they are uncomfortable with and is against everything these internet sites and their commenters (I never figure out what the actual word is - commentators or commenters as they are not giving commentary but just commenting)
The truth is though, that if you speak to the regular classic Israeli yungerleit that have no access to internet or don't really care about those things, you will see that the yated is the only newspaper who has the trust of that segment. Being that the paper was founded to cater to and be the voice of the litvishe yeshiva world, they are still filling that place.
The ridicule of and accusations against the editorial board is nothing to get worked up about, because whenever anyone says anything in the name of the gedoilim that we don't like or agree with, we automatically say that it was the askanim and side interests without any concrete proof to that fact.
But in reality, the yated still has the faith of the people they cater to.
Additionally, the proof is in the pudding, as the sales of mishpacha magazine has gone down according to the forum rooms of bechadrey even though they would never admit to it in an official article.
So you can continue to nitpick all you want about wording and motivations, but for all the yungerleit that don't spend the time dreying around the internet, they won't even know that your articles exist.
at the end of the day it always comes down to money. it might not be as direct with the yated, as they are a party newspaper, and will always be propped up by Degel, but nobody wants to be losing money. In truth it is the loss of influence more than the loss of money. The more Mishpacha grows, the less Yated is able to be the main influence in haredi litvishe society. And there is the money.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the community that trusts them. yes thats true, but it is getting smaller and smaller as the internet does continue to get into more and more haredi homes.