ADVERTISEMENTNewsmax, named as one of the US’ top 12 news brands by Reuters Institute and a leading supplier of Conservative news, saw its share prices soar over 2000% in April after going public on the New York Stock Exchange on 31 March 2025.
Self declared as US President’s “favourite US channel”, Newsmax first began in 1998 as a digital media company, with the cable news organisation only launching in 2014.
In this episode of The Big Question, co-founder and CEO of Newsmax Chris Ruddy joined Angela Barnes to discuss the secret behind their success.
Is Donald Trump the secret to Newsmax’s success?
US President Donald Trump and Newsmax’s CEO have been friends for over 30 years, Chris Ruddy told The Big Question.
Despite spending lots of time together discussing friends, health and golf, Chris noted that Newsmax still has “criticisms of President Trump.”
“There are a lot of people, both left and right in America, that don’t like the tariff policy. They’re on Newsmax all the time,” he added.
And though Donald Trump may be a divisive character, many media outlets have seen a rise in viewers and readers thanks to Trump-based content.
“The best advice is to have Donald Trump on more. He likes to see himself on Newsmax, but, you know, we have him on quite a bit and we certainly discuss him,” Chris explained.
“Nielsen reported we had 34 million viewers tune in last quarter, up 50% from the previous year.”
Chris thinks their success is partly down to the fact they are providing a Christian-Conservative focused news. And whether you agree with the angle of their content or not, the performance on the New York Stock Exchange was remarkable and does show investor support for the company.
“People are voting with their remote controls, with their downloads, with their apps, and they’re saying they want alternative media here in the United States.”
What does the future hold for Newsmax?
Despite being a relatively new channel, Newsmax has grown in popularity to become one of the top 5 most popular cable news channels in the US and available in over 100 countries.
In September 2024, Newsmax launched an AI-dubbed, Spanish-language channel available in Dominican Republic and Latin America. As well as this, they also resumed broadcasting of their Newsmax Balkans channel, based in Serbia, following a break since 2022.
“Maybe we can do that someday in Germany, for instance, or Italy, which would be fun, and give them access to American news,” Chris added.
The Big Questionis a series from Euronews Business where we sit down with industry leaders and experts to discuss some of the most important topics on today’s agenda.
ADVERTISEMENTWatch the video above to see the full discussion with the Newsmax founder & CEO, Chris Ruddy.
Additional sources • Edited by Arnaud Aubert
