About Newsmax
Newsmax is an American news website, which was founded in 1998. Newsmax is famous for its conservative opinions and its open support to the GOP. Newsmax largely focuses on the Republican party or popularly known as the Grand Old Party (GOP). GOP is a term used way back in 1884 according to congressional records. The Newspapers in that period referred to the party as GOP due to its leaders being mostly successful military soldiers. The GOP is one of the longest-standing parties in the world. However much like American history itself, GOP has not always been a conservative party. GOP’s first leader and president Abraham lincoln stood against slavery and called for civil reforms. Hence, GOP members often use the name GOP to refer to themselves as it brings back the history and makes the party look like a Moderate party. GOP these days openly supports and sides with right-wing ideas. So do the Newsmax news website which was founded in the early days of Web 2.0, 1998 to be precise. Christopher Ruddy was the founder of the company.
Early days of Newsmax
As mentioned earlier, Newsmax begin its journey as a news website, in the hope of the internet being successful one day. As we all know by now the internet is a human right now and there is a lot of money circulating around the websites and especially news websites. However, during the early days, the company was famous for its anti-Clinton opinions and agendas. The website had lots of backing and investment in the form of high-profile investors. The investors of the company included former CIA director, London-times editor, and more. The company was not an overnight success but it slowly gained attention through the spread of the internet and social media. The Anti-Clinton website slowly moved its tides and became the face of hardcore conservative communities on the internet.
The fame days
During the fall of 2007, Newsmax made national headlines with their positive review of Clinton. This of course is not very welcomed within the community but made bizarre faces in the journalism world. NY times even went as far as to say that it was ‘strange- bedfolds’. This of course reiterated the fact that the company was seen as an opinion website and not as a news agency. With the fall of the GOP’s popularity and the general political trend, the website has seen more moderate by the late 2000s. Bill Clinton, the man against who the company was built up against visited the headquarters of the company. The general talk within the conservative group was that Obama’s election proved that the American people are now more inclusive and the conservative values are seen as thing of the past. But that doesn’t stop the company from growing, however. The company has strangely seen more visitors and grown higher something you won’t relate with an opinion company. In fact, the financial times went as far as to say “rise of Newsmax”.
Current state
In 2013, Bloomberg profiled the company as a successful business model. Whether it counted the values or not is up to debate but it had financial morale to it. The profiling was mainly focused on the narrow targeting and slow growth of the viewership. The website saw more viewership than Fox political and CNN which was baffling at that point. This is because Fox was and still is the epitome of conservative news media and CNN is the most popular news network at that point. But it should be mentioned that all three were and are based on the fact that ‘radical news spark debate and debate is good for media’. To be completely honest, whether it is morally or ethically good? The answer would be not. But it is not a matter of concern when you design a company for making money.
Conclusion
Newsmax attracted lots of eyeballs internationally due to its acts aftermath of the presidential election of 2020. Trump called for legal action against all the votes cast by the post and Newsmax supported openly that it should be considered as a case. During a period where almost every news media there is in the world was openly supporting Trump and his party, NewsMax did go on to say it could be a possibility. Some even said that Newsmax is the last standing partisan news media on American soil. But if anything we can learn from the Newsmax story is that it is not okay to be partisan and call yourself a news outlet. Ultimately it is what it is and as long as people reward a show, the show will go on and on.
