Newsmax, Inc. (orNewsmax.com, previously styledNewsMax) is an American cable news, political opinion commentary, and digital media company founded byChristopher Ruddy in 1998. It has been variously described asconservative,[1]right-wing,[2] andfar-right.[3] Newsmax Media divisions include its cable and broadcast channelNewsmax TV; its website Newsmax.com, which includes Newsmax Health and Newsmax Finance; andNewsmax magazine, its monthly print publication. The company went public in March 2025.
Newsmax launched Newsmax TV in June 2014 to 35 million satellite subscribers throughDirecTV andDish Network.[4] As of 2019, the network claimed to reach about 70 million households via cable television.[5] The average weekly audience for Newsmax TV is about 319,000 people, as of April 2025.[6] The channel primarily broadcasts from Newsmax's New York studio onManhattan's East Side, with two headquarters inBoca Raton, Florida, andWashington, D.C.[7][8][9] Newsmax began broadcasting in the United Kingdom in October 2023, viaFreeview Connect.[10]
After the2020 United States presidential election, Newsmax broadcast numerousconspiracy theories made by PresidentDonald Trump, the Trump campaign, and a Newsmax host, which allegedvoter fraud in the 2020 election.[15][16][17] When asked about Newsmax's support of former President Trump, Ruddy stated, "We have an editorial policy of being supportive of the president and his policies."[18] A month after the election, Newsmax began recognizingJoe Biden as a duly elected president.[19] In 2021, Newsmax issued an apology and retracted its voter fraud conspiracy allegations.[20]
In 2021, Newsmax was sued byDominion Voting Systems andSmartmatic for promoting false claims that the companies had engaged in election fraud during the 2020 presidential election.[21][22] Newsmaxsettled Smartmatic's lawsuit in September 2024 by agreeing to pay Smartmatic $40 million.[23][24] A judge ruled in April 2025 that Newsmax broadcast false anddefamatory statements against Dominion about the election,[25] and four months later, Newsmax settled Dominion's lawsuit by agreeing to pay Dominion $67 million.[26]
From its founding in 1998, Newsmax became known for its anti-Clinton content.[18] However, in the fall of 2007, Newsmax CEOChristopher Ruddy published a favorable review of former presidentBill Clinton's bookGiving: How Each of Us Can Change the World[30] and a positive interview with him at Newsmax.com,[31] followed by a positive cover story inNewsmax magazine.[32]The New York Times said with reference to the event that politics had made "strange bedfellows".[33] Bill Clinton also visited the Newsmax headquarters in West Palm Beach in 2010.[34] In 2014, Newsmax donated $1 million to theClinton Foundation and Ruddy has accompanied Clinton on foundation trips to Africa.[35][36]
In a January 2010 profile on the company, theFinancial Times reported that the "rise of Newsmax" had defied the media trend and said that the Newsmax website was "one of the strongest conservative voices online". The paper said Newsmax had witnessed 40 percent growth rates per annum over the past decade, closing 2009 with $36 million revenues, up from $25 million the year before.[37] Earlier Ruddy had toldBusiness Insider the company expected annual 2010 revenues to reach $50 million.[37]
A profile on Newsmax inThe New York Times described the company as a "potent force in conservative politics" and noted the company's headquarters had become a must stop for Republican candidates seeking the party's 2012 nomination.[11]
Starting in April 2013, Newsmax.com and its affiliated sites drew 14.4 million unique visitors, leading comScore's News/Politics category over such sites asThe Huffington Post Politics,Fox News Politics,CNN Politics,NBCNews.com Politics, andPolitico in monthly viewership for two consecutive months.[38]
In November 2017,Politico reported thatFox News, facing new competitors, was giving more favorable coverage to PresidentDonald Trump. In an interview, Newsmax CEOChristopher Ruddy criticizedFox News' hosts unwillingness to criticize President Donald Trump, telling Politico that "Newsmax is very supportive of the president, but we also will publish things that are critical of him time to time", Ruddy said. "Fox seems to have decided to become very closely aligned, which seems unnatural, and it doesn't seem consistent.[43]
Coverage of the 2020 United States presidential election
During the2020 United States presidential election, President Trump began to promote Newsmax over its rival,Fox News.[44][13][45][46] Trump's preference for Newsmax over Fox News became clearer after the latter became the first news outlet to callArizona for Democratic challengerJoe Biden.[12] Newsmax has made their more conservative leanings a selling point to disaffected Fox News viewers, as well as employing Fox News alumni to join their lineup onNewsmax TV, such asRob Schmitt andGreg Kelly.[12][47][13]Emily VanDerWerff ofVox reported that the outlet "spent lots of time arguing that other media outlets jumped the gun in calling the election for Biden and that Trump still has a path to win this thing", and that it was one of the only networks that didn't call the election for Biden, citing the Trump campaign's legal challenges. However, she did write that "Newsmax doesn't go full arch-conservative" and "doesn't give airtime to QAnon paranoiacs".[16]
CNN'sBrian Stelter, in an on-air interview, asked Newsmax CEOChristopher Ruddy why the network chose to air "election denialism" and "bogus voter fraud stuff", to which Ruddy replied that the network featured all points of view and argued that all of the other major news outlets who had reported Biden's election win were "rushing".[15]
In an interview withVariety, Ruddy stated that, "We are waiting for the states' certification and the electoral college, but we will at some point when that happens" and insisted: "We will be supportive of whoever the next president is."[48] He added "Newsmax would never become Trump TV. We have always seen ourselves as an independent news agency" but would be willing to Trump having a weekly show.[48] Ruddy says the company is "moderately conservative and we will continue to have a moderately conservative viewpoint on things – including the president".[48]
In a later interview withThe New Yorker, Ruddy stated, "I do think that Donald Trump should concede when the certifications come in", he said, adding that he "would not support going to state legislators to overturn the electors".[49] Following the certification of theelectoral college ofJoe Biden as the winner on December 14, 2020, the network began using the title "President-elect" to refer to Biden.[19]
On November 15, 2020,The Wall Street Journal reported that Hicks Equity Partners, aprivate equity firm with ties to a co-chair of theRepublican National Committee, was exploring a buyout of Newsmax. The Hicks group identified a team of executives who would manage the network, and had been talking to formerFox News hosts includingMegyn Kelly.[50] Media analyst Michael Nathanson reported that if a competing network took 20% of Fox News' audience, it could sap about $200 million in annual profit from the company. In an interview withVariety, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy stated "we are not actively selling" the company though he had expressions of interests from investors. Regarding Hicks Equity Partners, Ruddy stated, "we have no deal with them".[48] Ruddy stated that "We would like to overtake Fox News in 12 months, and I think it's doable."[51]
Newsmax promoted baseless[52][53][54] allegations that voting machine companySmartmatic and its competitorDominion Voting Systems had conspired to rig the election against Trump. OnFacebook, Newsmax published a video of its hostCarl Higbie making three minutes of debunked claims against the election results, which accumulated 16.5 million views from November 7 to 10.[15] In December 2020, Smartmatic sent a letter to Newsmax threatening legal action and demanding "a full and complete retraction of all false and defamatory statements and reports".[55][56]
Days later, a Newsmax host stated the company "would like to clarify its news coverage and note it has not reported as true certain claims" made by Newsmax interviewees about Dominion and Smartmatic. Newsmax declared that it had "no evidence" of certain claims made on its programming, including the claim that the two companies have a business relationship, the claim that either company used each other's software, and the claim that either company "manipulated votes" in the 2020 American general election.[57][58] Newsmax also stated it had "no evidence" that Smartmatic software was used anywhere except Los Angeles during the 2020 election.[59] Newsmax additionally said viewers should be aware of "several facts", including that both companies have no relationship withGeorge Soros, and that "Smartmatic is a U.S. company and not owned by the Venezuelan government" or any other foreign entity.[60][61]
Mediaite's Rudy Takala wrote that conservatives disgruntled withFox News could potentially be disappointed by Newsmax due to CEOChristopher Ruddy's friendship with former Democratic presidentBill Clinton and positive remarks about aHillary Clinton presidential campaign.[62] Newsmax has previously donated $1 million to theClinton Foundation. When reached for comment, Ruddy said, "Like Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and other business people, I have donated to the Clinton Foundation and a few Democrats, but over 90 percent of my political contributions have been to Republicans, including ones to President Trump."[62]
Jeffrey McCall, a journalism professor atDePauw University, told Mediaite that "Ruddy is a pragmatist unlikely to allow his operation to be a fully ideological platform. Trump allies who want to bend the arc of media progressivism will need a much more comprehensive national strategy than just trying to take over one particular media outlet."[62]
Adweek reported that Newsmax's TV ratings grew tenfold in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the previous quarter. Its top two shows,Spicer & Co. andGreg Kelly Reports (at 7 p.m.), averaged 816,000 total viewers during the same November 7–18 interval.[63] Regarding coverage of the Biden administration, CEO Christopher Ruddy toldAdweek "I think Newsmax's job is to be loyal opposition, to question the policies, the programs and the people that are coming into the Biden administration. We're going to take a very careful look at that. I think we were pretty fair with Barack Obama. We were tough on him, but we never called for his impeachment", he said.[64] Newsmax TV momentarily exceeded Fox News in viewership in December 2020, but lost viewers after the conclusion of the election cycle.[65][66] APew Research Center study found that Newsmax's reach (10% of American adults) continued to trail Fox News's reach (43% of American adults) in March 2021.[67]
In July 2021,Vox noted that "Newsmax's effort to out-Trump the competition has been less successful since Trump left the White House for Mar-a-Lago. Newsmax's viewership is down more than 50 percent from January (from an average of about 300,000 viewers then to about 114,000 on July 18), and following a significant slump in December and January, Fox News has reestablished itself as not just the most-watched right-wing cable news network but the most-watched cable news network, period."[68]
In November 2021, a study by theCenter for Countering Digital Hate described Newsmax as being among "ten fringe publishers" that together were responsible for nearly 70 percent of Facebook user interactions with content thatdenies climate change. Facebook disputed the study's methodology.[69][70][71]
Also in November 2021, Newsmax White House correspondentEmerald Robinson falsely tweeted that theModerna COVID-19 vaccine containedluciferase "so that you can be tracked". This echoed earlier false social media claims that the vaccine supposedly had satanic links due to "lucifer" in luciferase and alleged references to "666". Robinson's tweet began with the salutation "Dear Christians" and referred her over 400,000 followers to theBook of Revelation; in a tweet days earlier, she equated vaccines with theMark of the Beast.[72][73][74] Twitter removed the tweet that day and suspended Robinson's account for seven days, citing "repeated violations of ourCOVID-19 misinformation policy", as Newsmax sought to distance itself from her remark and removed her from the air pending an inquiry.[75][76] Robinson returned to Twitter after her suspension to continue spreading COVID-19 misinformation, causing Twitter to permanently ban her within hours.[77][78] Newsmax announced the next month that it would not renew Robinson's contract when it ended in January 2022.[79]
DirecTV dropped Newsmax from its lineup in January 2023, after the companies failed to agree on contract terms.[80][81] In response, 42 House Republicans signed a letter to DirecTV executives attacking the removal as an act of "suppressing politically disfavored speech".[82] The two companies resolved their dispute and DirecTV resumed broadcasting Newsmax in March 2023.[83][84]
In May 2023 the "small conservative cable news channel saw its ratings surge" once again in response to actions by Fox News: "Fox’s decision to fire[Tucker] Carlson". Newsmax's viewership during the prime-time spot vacated by Carlson more than doubled.[85] This increase surpassed the 2020 post-election surge and on a night-by-night basis they challenged CNN through the month to be the third-most-watched cable news channel (behind MSNBC and Fox).[86][87] On November 1, 2023, Newsmax placed its live content behind a paywall on YouTube ("Newsmax+") while still offering a free streaming channel ("Newsmax 2").[88]
In March 2024,The Washington Post reported that between 2019 and 2020, a member of theQatari Royal Family had invested $50 million in the network in the midst of theQatar diplomatic crisis. It also reported that network leaders had told staffers to soften coverage related to Qatar following the investment, a claim the network later denied in response to the report.[89][90][91] The investment was made by Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, a former Qatari government official and the owner of a London-based investment fund, with Newsmax looking for outside investors to better compete with Fox News.[92]
In April 2024, Newsmax was included as a defendant in adefamation lawsuit by a man who was falsely identified as the perpetrator of the2023 Allen, Texas mall shooting, alongside others such as Fox News andInfoWars personalityOwen Shroyer. The man alleged the defendants had "recklessly disregarded basic journalistic safeguards and published the photo of an innocent man, branding him as aneo-Nazi murderer to his local community and the nation at large".[93]
In December 2020, Newsmax was included as a defendant in adefamation lawsuit by Dominion executive Eric Coomer.[94] Coomer asserted that the defendants had characterized him as a "traitor" and that as a result he was subjected to "multiple credible death threats".[95][94][96] In April 2021, Newsmax published a retraction and apology on its website, saying it "found no evidence" to support the allegations against Coomer.[97]
In August 2021, Dominion sued Newsmax for "knowingly and continuously" promoting false election fraud narratives.[21][98] Newsmax said in a statement that it had "simply reported on allegations made by well-known public figures, including the President, his advisors and members of Congress", adding: "Dominion's action today is a clear attempt to squelch such reporting and undermine a free press".[98] On April 9, 2025, aDelaware judge determined that Newsmax's coverage of Dominion was defamatory and consisted of false claims that Dominion had manipulated votes during the election, among other incorrect allegations. To evaluate whether Newsmax acted withactual malice and determine possible damages,[25][99] the case was set for a jury trial later in April,[100] but the judge postponed it.[101] On August 15, a $67 million settlement was reached; the documents were filed with the court on August 18.[26]
In November 2021, Smartmatic sued Newsmax for defamation.[102] In August 2023, a Delaware judge rejected Newsmax's bid to narrow the alleged defamatory statements cited by Smartmatic.[103][104] The trial was set to begin on September 30, 2024.[105][106] Newsmax and Smartmatic settled the suit on confidential terms on September 26.[24][107] In March 2025, it was revealed that Newsmax had agreed to pay $40 million to settle the lawsuit.[23]
On June 10, 2024, during its coverage of a rally organized in Las Vegas by former and current president Donald Trump, Newsmax announced it plans to file for aninitial public stock offering either in late 2024 or early 2025.[108] The plan was confirmed on September 5, 2024, with the company expected to be listed under the ticker symbol "NMAX" on theNew York Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2025.[109] In November 2024, Newsmax offered preferred stock to accredited investors in an effort to raise $100 million. On January 25, 2025, the offering was extended to $200 million, surpassing $220 million by March 2025.[110][111] The company made its stock market debut on March 31, 2025. The shares, priced at $10 in the IPO, closed their first trading day at $83.51, an increase of over 700%.[112] The shares closed their second day of trading at $234—with a market capitalization of almost $30 billion, surpassing that ofFox Corporation.[113]
Newsmax's stock price declined 77.5% on April 2 and closed at $52.71.[114] Financial commentators described the rapid rise and fall of Newsmax's stock price as the trajectory of ameme stock, and some traders compared Newsmax toGameStop in online discussions, referencing the 2021GameStop short squeeze.[115][116]
On September 3, 2025, Newsmax filed an antitrust lawsuit against Fox, accusing it of anti-competitive tactics that deliberately stifle competition.[117] The lawsuit, filed in a Florida federal court, accused Fox News of using its market power to coerce TV providers to restrict competing right-leaning channels.[118] The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in Miami on September 5, 2025, although Newsmax was given permission to refile the complaint.[119]
In October 2025, Newsmax refiled its lawsuit against Fox in the Western District of Wisconsin, asking a judge to reject Fox's bid to transfer the lawsuit back to Florida and arguing it had an “absolute right” to pursue the case in Wisconsin.[120] Newsmax also denied engaging in impermissible "forum shopping" for a friendlier court.[121]
An April 2010 cover story forTalkers Magazine featured Newsmax as a model of future media companies called "Media Stations" that offer their audience audio, video, digital, and print content.[125] In 2010,Nielsen Online said Newsmax was the most trafficked conservative website with approximately 4 million unique visitors monthly.[125]
In 2014,Bloomberg Businessweek detailed Newsmax's business model of targeting higher-incomebaby boomers; the average age of a Newsmax online reader was 54.7 years. The article reported Newsmax's plans to launch a linear andover-the-top (OTT) content cable channel, and noted that Newsmax differentiated itself from its competitors by offering "a smorgasbord of political, health, and financial information, self-help books, and even vitamin supplements", which made Newsmax "less of a news business and more of a strange hybrid of theHeritage Foundation andAmway".[126]
In 2017,The Washington Post described the relationship Ruddy, though not a registered Republican, had with PresidentDonald Trump as a significant influence "with his dual role as a newsman and a close friend".[127]
In 2019, theColumbia Journalism Review reported, "There are currently about 15 to 20 conservative websites which attract at least one million unique visitors per month. Some are venerable right-wing reliables likeNational Review,The Washington Times, or Newsmax. Others, likeInfowars,The Gateway Pundit,Big League Politics, andBreitbart, mine the far fringes of the right."[128]
The misinformation trackerNewsGuard has given Newsmax an unfavorable score of 20 out of 100.[129] TheWikipedia community hascategorized Newsmax in its lowest rank of reliability due to Newsmax's promotion of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.[130]
The company began operations in 1969. The first titles by the company were published in response to the need for higher quality classroom materials to support learning.[133] In 2012 the company was acquired byNewsmax Media and shortly after Anthony Ziccardi was named the publisher of Humanix Books.[131] The company releasedThe ObamaCare Survival Guide by Nick J. Tate that same year.[134][135] The book lays out the arguments against theAffordable Care Act, becoming a number oneNew York Times Best Seller in the Paperback Advice & Miscellaneous category for paperback books.[136][137] In 2015, Mary Glenn replaced Anthony Ziccardi as the publisher of the company.[138] In 2019, Adam Keith Pfeffer was named the deputy publisher of the company.[139]
Newsmax Media publishesNewsmax magazine, which the company describes as "offering Americans the perspective they need on current events, politics, health, money, and lifestyle". The company reports a monthly readership of almost one million on their paid subscription products, includingNewsmax magazine and multiple finance- and health-focused newsletters.[140]
In 2014, Newsmax Media announced they would be starting a new television news channel that would be marketed to compete withFox News Channel.[141][142] It was launched asNewsmax TV in June 2014 with 8 hours of live programming daily, available through the Dish Network andDirecTV as well as for free on the Newsmax website.[143][144]
Newsmax Adria [sr] was a partnership between Newsmax Media andUnited Media that began operating in June 2020.[145] The new partnership operated in most of the formerYugoslav countries.[146] It produced a newly retitled daily news bulletinsDnevnik Newsmax Adria onNova BH inBosnia and Herzegovina, and evening magazine programPregled dana onNova S inSerbia.[147][148] Alongside N1 and Nova S, Newsmax Adria acted as a rival toTelekom Srbija and regularly reported Serbia's government corruption scandals.[149] It ceased production in October 2022.[150]
In September 2024, Newsmax announced that it would resume operation in Serbia in October as Newsmax Balkans, marketed in the region as "real news for real people".[151][152] In May 2025, the network announced an expansion toBosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.[153]
Peters 2011. "Newsmax, the magazine and Web site that Mr. Ruddy founded more than a decade ago, is the right-wing populist'sTime orNewsweek."
Rupar, Aaron (July 28, 2021)."Why Newsmax is failing".Vox.Archived from the original on September 4, 2022. RetrievedSeptember 4, 2022.Instead, you would've had to turn to Newsmax, the right-wing cable news channel that's sticking to its old-school strategy of being the Trumpiest channel on TV.
"How conservative media has grown under Trump".Columbia Journalism Review.Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. RetrievedNovember 14, 2020.Some are venerable right-wing reliables likeNational Review,The Washington Times, or Newsmax.
Moore, Roy L.; Murray, Michael D.;Youm, Kyu Ho (September 30, 2021).Media Law and Ethics (6th ed.).Routledge.ISBN978-1-000-43983-0.Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. RetrievedSeptember 2, 2022 – viaGoogle Books.Also, a government cybersecurity official in charge of safeguarding the integrity of the presidential election sued the Trump Campaign, one of its lawyers and far-right media outlet Newsmax for libel, claiming they conspired to falsely assert widespread election fraud. [...] One Trump campaign lawyer said on far-right cable channel Newsmax: 'He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out and shot.'
Delaney, Tim (May 6, 2022).The Diversity of Darkness and Shameful Behaviors.Routledge.ISBN978-1-000-58475-2.Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. RetrievedSeptember 2, 2022 – viaGoogle Books.It needs to be noted that on April 30, 2021, Newsmax (the far right wing news alternative to FOX News) apologized for airing false allegations that Dominion Voting Systems manipulated machines or tallies on Election Day to the detriment of Donald Trump.
Norman, Bob (July 20, 2021)."The right-wing media capital of America".Columbia Journalism Review.Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. RetrievedOctober 1, 2021.Gaetz found a lifeboat in Newsmax, the far-right cable station ...
^"Newsmax on Freeview".Advanced Television. Creative Media Centre. October 12, 2023.Archived from the original on October 13, 2023. RetrievedOctober 17, 2023.
^abSantaniello, Beverly (April 2010)."The rise of Newsmax".Talkers Magazine. Archived fromthe original on June 28, 2011.Just this January, Nielsen Online released its quarterly demographic survey and revealed that Newsmax was the nation's most popular conservative website...
