Monday, October 15, 2007
Someone asked in the comments about this, so here's the story from Haaretz: Logging off: Ynet to close its English site
Ynet, the news Web site of the Yedioth Ahronoth publishing group, is closing its English version, apparently within days, because it wasn't generating satisfactory revenues. The site had employed 11 people, most of will be fired, a high-ranking source at Ynet told TheMarker.
The site's editor in chief, Jeff Barak, will also be leaving the group after nine months on the job. Asked why the management had decided to kill the site, he said: "The site managers decided to focus resources on the Hebrew site."
The English version consisted of material translated from the Hebrew site. It went online in mid-2005. Top Ynet management refused to comment for this report.
Too bad. YNet had some problems -- they needed a native English speaker to do some editing, and sometimes they've had a tendency to be a little too quick to post a piece of sensationalism (hey, get a blog), but it has been a decent resource for news.
This really is too bad. They'll be missed.
I'm with you and Joanne on this one. YNet was a good source of Israeli news, and hopefully, the void will be filled by some other entity.
I am so happy that YNet is going away. Over the years I have grown to dislike ynetnews because of their incessant lefty slant, their pro-gay agenda stance, and their lax morals. I surely will not miss this source of trash....
I guess they changed their minds. I'm happy to report that Ynet is alive and well. It *is* true, however, that they do have a leftist slant and a pro-gay agenda (as Michael said). Many journalists at, say, the NY Times have a lefty slant too, but that doesn't mean that it's a crummy paper worthy of folding. You just need to keep their agenda in mind when you read the articles. And *don't* bother clicking on the stupid lifestyle articles at all! Ynet is still a good source of Israeli news in English.