"Makor Rishon" was founded as a weekly magazine in July 1997 in order to create an independent newspaper with a Jewish religious and nationalistic slant. The paper was the brainchild of its original owner, Rabbi Shmuel Tal. The Listenberg family, a National Religious family in the diamond business based in Belgium and Tel Aviv financed the founding of the newspaper. Journalist Meir Uziel was hired to recruit the staff. Uziel enlisted Michael Ruzulio to find writers. Ruzulio had served as a reporter for "Yedioth Ahronoth" as well as for the Second Authority for Television and Radio, and helped create the “Voice of the Red Sea” radio station. The newsroom was established in the “Pirsum Yisrael” offices located in Givat Shaul in Jerusalem and included religious and secular journalists and editors.