haaretz.com
Haaretz.com is the English-language digital home of Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, built for readers who want news, analysis, and opinion about Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world.
What is Haaretz.com?
Haaretz comes from one of Israel’s oldest active newspapers, with the modern publication dating to 1919, so its journalism existed for many decades before news moved onto the web.
The Haaretz.com domain itself was registered on August 20, 1997, which means the website has been online for almost three decades according to its domain record.
The long history matters because Haaretz.com is not a digital-only news startup, but the international web arm of an established newspaper brand.
Who owns Haaretz?
The Schocken family has controlled Haaretz for generations, and a 2019 ownership change left the family with 75% of the company while businessman Leonid Nevzlin held the remaining 25%.
Publisher Amos Schocken is part of that family, while Aluf Benn has served as editor-in-chief since 2011, giving the newspaper unusually long leadership continuity.
This ownership structure is important for readers because a news site’s owners, editors, and business model can shape its long-term editorial direction.
How much traffic does Haaretz.com receive?
Public traffic tools cannot see Haaretz’s private analytics, but one recent estimate placed Haaretz.com at about 6.1 million monthly visits, 202,000 daily visitors, and roughly 537,000 page views per day.
The same traffic estimate reported about 2.65 pages per visit, an average visit length of 4 minutes and 20 seconds, and a bounce rate near 54.6%.
A separate Semrush report estimated about 5.17 million visits for Haaretz.com in July 2026, showing that different measurement systems produce different totals.
These figures should therefore be treated as estimates rather than audited visitor numbers, because traffic services model web activity instead of reading Haaretz’s own server data.
Where do Haaretz.com readers come from?
The audience is unusually international, with one estimate putting the United States at 45.6% of visitors, the United Kingdom at 7.38%, Canada at 5.26%, France at 3.84%, and Israel at only 2.88%.
That mix helps explain why the .com site feels different from the Hebrew Haaretz.co.il website, which Semrush estimated received 9.2 million visits in July 2026 and drew 71.88% of its audience from Israel.
The numbers suggest that Haaretz.com is not simply an English copy of a local newspaper, because it also works as a global news product for readers outside Israel.
How do people find the website?
An estimated 72.24% of Haaretz.com traffic arrives directly, while search contributes about 17.38%, referrals about 5.98%, social media about 4.17%, and paid sources about 0.24%.
That large direct share suggests many readers already know the Haaretz brand and go straight to it instead of discovering every article through Google or social media.
Mobile devices account for an estimated 58.84% of visits, compared with 41.16% from desktop computers, so mobile reading is important even for a site known for long analysis pieces.
What kind of journalism does Haaretz.com publish?
Haaretz.com covers Israeli politics, security, diplomacy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, culture, technology, Jewish communities, international affairs, investigations, and a large amount of commentary.
The publication is commonly described as liberal or left-leaning, while its strong opinion section makes it especially important to notice whether a page is straight news, analysis, an editorial, or an individual columnist’s view.
Its smaller domestic print reach has not stopped it from having wider international visibility, because a 2022 TGI survey put Haaretz’s Israeli newspaper exposure at 4.7%, compared with 31% for Israel Hayom and 23.9% for Yedioth Ahronoth.
Why has Haaretz become controversial?
Haaretz frequently publishes reporting and commentary that challenges Israeli governments, and that tension became unusually visible on November 24, 2024, when Israel’s cabinet approved a government boycott of the publication.
The decision stopped government advertising and official cooperation with the newspaper, while press-freedom groups criticized the measure, according to coverage of the cabinet decision.
The dispute followed controversial comments by publisher Amos Schocken, who later clarified his language after criticism from politicians, readers, and even people connected with Haaretz.
This episode shows why readers should separate Haaretz’s reporting, its editorial positions, and statements made by individual executives instead of treating all three as the same thing.
Does Haaretz.com use subscriptions?
Haaretz runs a digital subscription model and actively promotes subscriber access, apps, newsletters, and account-based reading through its subscription service.
This model means frequent readers may meet subscriber-only articles, while the subscription business gives Haaretz another source of revenue besides advertising.
Is Haaretz.com worth reading?
Haaretz.com is useful for readers who want detailed Israeli reporting and viewpoints that may differ sharply from other Israeli news outlets, but its strong editorial identity means important claims are best compared with primary documents and other reputable news sources.
Its estimated millions of monthly visits, large American audience, high direct-traffic share, long publishing history, and subscription model show that Haaretz.com serves a focused global audience rather than competing only for mass-market Israeli news traffic.