Well.
There’s no Scrooge-like “Bah! Humbug!” for Newsmax this Christmas.
The conservative TV network has had quite the successful 2025. (And full disclosure, I am a Newsmax contributor.)
Here are a few sample headlines from this year.
- Yahoo/Finance: Newsmax stock soars, pushing market cap north of $20 billion after shocking IPO success
- Cleeng: How Newsmax+ Exceeded 150K Subscribers in 30 Days & Retained Over 85%
- Forbes: Newsmax Founder Chris Ruddy Is A Billionaire Thanks To Stock Surge
- The conservative news outlet’s blockbuster public listing on Monday catapulted its founder and CEO, Chris Ruddy, into the billionaire ranks.
- Newsmax: Newsmax IPO Makes Headlines Across the Globe
- Investopedia: Newsmax Stock Has Soared 2,200% In Its First 2 Days Of Trading
- Allsides: Banker Elenowitz: Newsmax 'Success' As Public Company Will Continue, Revenues to Grow
And on and on go the headlines on the success of Newsmax splashed across pages of the Internet.
The obvious question is: why? What drives the stunning success of Newsmax?
For an answer in this corner, remembering history counts. And that history begins with the late conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr..
As noted in the Sam Tanenhaus weighty and excellent biography Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, when, in 1955, a young Bill Buckley summoned the press to the Overseas Press Club in New York to “announce the birth of National Review” magazine, Buckley distributed a press release which said, in part, that NR’s mission:
…was ‘to change the nation’s political and intellectual climate—which, at present, is predominantly leftist.’ The magazine would argue that ‘appeasing the Soviet Union is suicidal,’ and that the Eisenhower administration had been guilty of exactly such appeasement for the past year and a half. For the first time, these arguments would be made in a publication liberals themselves would be obligated to read—an important first step in the conservative revolution.
The conservative revolution was indeed launched. Notably in the media. Four years before Buckley began National Review, the evolution of talk radio, led by conservative commentator and radio host Paul Harvey, had begun. From 1951 until his retirement in 2008, Harvey was at the forefront of a media industry that would produce conservative radio giants like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck and numerous local conservative radio shows across the country.
Flash ahead to 2014, as the 21st century is underway. And founder Chris Ruddy launches Newsmax TV, with 35 million subscribers through Direct TV and Dish Network. Today the network has expanded by the millions, becoming a major force in both the larger media generally and the conservative media specifically.
As the headlines above illustrate vividly, the network has become a resounding success, a decided competitor to Fox News and a media force in its own right. It has become a “go to” for news junkies and a massive conservative audience.
As 2025 winds down, 2026 - an election year - begins to dawn. And without doubt as the campaign heats up, as it will without doubt, Newsmax will be very much at the center of the national media as the ups and downs and ins and outs of the election unfold. Not to mention as the presidential election of 2028 starts to glimmer in the distance. And among others, NewsBusters own Tim Graham, the Executive Editor of NewsBusters, along with NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck will be on Newsmax providing analysis of the craziness heated election years always bring.
So as Christmas approaches, now mere days away and followed quickly by the New Year, Newsmax with its cast of anchors, reporters, commentators and behind the scenes staff, is without doubt, ready for 2026 and whatever may come down the road that merits serious media attention.
Tune in. The election circus is getting ready to start. With Newsmax, after a blockbuster 2025, being front and center and ready to cover 2026.
Merry Christmas!
