Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Newsmax to open 3 bureaus
Conservative cable channel capitalizing on surge in popularity
Newsmax, the conservative cable channel and website that’s enjoying a surge in post-election popularity, is planning to expand its news operations.
In the next two months, Newsmax plans to open three news bureaus — including one in Miami — Christopher Ruddy, CEO of the Boca-Raton based company, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Another, more immediate shift, is coming. Once the Electoral College votes are cast on Monday that will officially make Joe Biden the next president, Ruddy said he would be referred to on-air as president-elect. “As soon as he’s been named president-elect, we will respect him as the next president of the United States.”
Ruddy said Newsmax has declared Biden the winner of states in which election results have been certified. All 50 states have now
done so, which gives Biden the 306-electoral vote victory.
Other news outlets, from MSNBC and CNN on the left to Fox News Channel on the right, have termed Biden president-elect for weeks. Newsmax has taken a different approach and given extensive coverage to the theories espoused by Trump and his followers that fraud tainted the election. Courts and election officials from both parties have found no evidence to support those claims.
The expansion comes as Newsmax enjoys a ratings surge as supporters of President Donald Trump look for an information source that’s more to their liking. Some Trump fans — egged on by the president — have abandoned Fox News Channel, the longtime conservative media Goliath, in favor of Newsmax.
“We’re growing rapidly, and we want to make our news coverage more extensive,” Ruddy said. “We’ve had just an incredible, seismic growth in our company, and we want to capture that and continue that. People are coming to us because they like our channel. They like our personalities. They think we’re providing a fresh analysis.”
Ruddy wants to strike while the iron is hot, capitalizing on the newfound interest in the channel, ultimately hoping to dislodge Fox from its place at the top of the conservative media world.
The new bureaus will have a lead correspondent and some support staff, Ruddy said.
Miami is a natural location for a bureau, he said. “South Florida is a very big area for news. It’s going to continue with the president down here.” Trump is expected to make Palm Beach his home after his presidency ends.
Ruddy said Miami is also a good location from which to cover COVID-19 and Latin America. Other bureaus are planned for London, focusing on international news, and Los Angeles, where a focus will include entertainment news.
Each bureau will have a lead correspondent and some support staff. Altogether, he expects to add about 25 staffers in the next two months. He said the organization currently has about 275 employees, divided between New York and the company headquarters in Boca Raton.
Expansion means “we will be competing on an equal level of Fox News and other channels,” he said. Fox representatives don’t disclose the channel’s staffing numbers.