• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 2, 2025

Some would say the conservative TV news network Newsmax has been riding the coattails of Fox News Channel since Donald Trump lost his bid to get re-elected in 2020 after his first term as president.

Specifically, viewership spiked around 2020 and into 2021 for the upstart network when Joe Biden became president. Things have been generally good since.

So why not go public -- as in a publicly traded stock market company? Looks like that was a good decision as shares spiked on Monday -- more than 700% -- on its first day of trading. By its second day of trading that number climbed by over 2,000%.

Newsmax raised $75 million through the sale of 7.5 million common shares priced at $10 a share. The stock opened at $14 a share and soared through the day, closing at $83.51.

All this goes against current trending legacy TV and cable network businesses -- which has been sinking for some time due to cord-cutting.

For many, it is just a pure play coming on the heels of Fox News Channel, which has seen its ratings soar as well as bringing back major TV brand advertisers like Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and JP Morgan return -- albeit in a small way -- to the Fox Corp.-owned TV network.

Newsmax founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy was honest on CNBC on Monday when he said he saw some adjacent room in the marketplace when a news network with a conservative bent that he called “center right” could work (compete?) with the dominant, conservative-leaning Fox News Channel.

Ruddy touts that Newsmax is in fourth place in prime-time ratings (around 300,000 viewers) behind Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN.

CNN is the closest to Newsmax -- but still ahead. The Warner Bros. Discovery cable news network is averaging around 550,000 prime-time viewers currently.

But it’s not as if all rising TV news network viewers are only going to networks with conservative opinions and conservative angles to news.

Both MSNBC and CNN have seen growth in ratings recently -- with critical news/opinion content -- in the wake of President Trump’s second term.

Could other different types of legacy TV or streaming networks then start up? Well, let’s not get crazy.

Think about young-skewing Vice TV, owned as a Vice Media/A+E Networks joint venture that tried to make a go of it some years ago. It is still around but its main “Vice News Tonight” show was cancelled two years ago, leaving it with some entertainment programming. Around the same time, Vice Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

For many Newsmax seems to be perhaps just a meme stock, riding on the current political sentiment. Can it be something more?

And despite some ratings growth -- and long-term brand association -- there has been downsizing at CNN and MSNBC, staffing-wise as well as general restructuring.

What remains then for all news networks is live TV programming content -- seemingly the savior for live, linear TV business. Is that enough to sustain this category?