Founder: Newsmax is not up for sale

Media company has no plans for deal with Trump

Newsmax, the conservative South Florida media company, is not for sale and has no plans to enter into any agreements with outgoing President Donald Trump, founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy said Monday.

The company, based in Boca Raton, became the subject of a flurry of news reports over the weekend that certain “Trump allies” were interested in buying Newsmax with the aid of a private investment firm Hicks Equity Partners, which is based in Dallas.

“There was no real formal deal,” Ruddy said in a telephone interview Monday .“They just suggested they might have an interest. We’ re not actively selling. My focus is building Newsmax into a major news property.”

A longtime friend of the president, Ruddy added he hasn’t talked to Trump about any media deals or any positions with Newsmax.

“I have not talked to him about it,” he said. “I don’t think he wants to own a network at the end of the day. He’s an omnivore and likes all media. It would be difficult for Donald Trump to be tied down.”

Ruddy said he is more interested in making inroads against Fox over the next 12 months.

Newsmax has not called the presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden even though most national media have projected him as the winner. Since Nov. 4, the Newsmax TV arm has made inroads into Fox’ s audience, Ruddy said, citing Nielsen Media Research data. The numbers showed Newsmax’s average prime-time audience jumping 156% to 223,000 viewers during the week of the election, though Fox News had

5.7 million, just behind CNN’s 5.9 million.

Last Thursday, Newsmax had 1.06 million from

7 p.m. to 8 p.m., about half of Fox’s audience of 2.06 million during that time period.

“Newsmax viewership is soaring in the wake of a contentious Trump-Biden election and disputed outcome — as millions are leaving Fox News,” Newsmax’s marketing department declared in a note. “Another sign of that exodus: The Newsmax App has had over 2 million downloads in the month of November.”

“As of Thursday afternoon, Newsmax was listed in the No. 2 position in the news category,” the note added. “The app was listed in the No. 4 slot of most-downloaded free apps, ahead of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.”

Still, Newsmax has a steep hill to climb if it is to challenge Fox News Channel at the top of the prime time heap. From Memorial Day through last week, according to Nielsen, Fox News was first in all of television prime time with

3.930 million nightly viewers, edging out NBC, which had 3.929 million; CBS, at

3.593 million; and ABC, at

3.290 million. Newsmax has yet to regularly surpass 1 million viewers during the prime time slot, the data show.