Ruddy: ‘Newsmax is too independent to be a Tea Party vehicle’

Politico.com
“I think we have a huge following of tea party people, but we don’t allow the tea party to drive Newsmax,” says publisher Christopher Ruddy. Yet the magazine devoted its December issue (“The Revolution Begins”) to the tea party, notes Keach Hagey, and featured more than a dozen photos from Sarah Palin’s visit to the company’s offices. (“In an exciting afternoon at Newsmax, the electrifying former governor meets our staff,” says the article’s subhead.) || Hagey reports:
* In March, 42.5 percent of the Newsmax.com web traffic, by far the largest chunk, came from readers who were 65 or older, according to Nielsen.
* Newsmax floated the idea of a Trump presidential candidacy as early as 2006, in a column by chief Washington correspondent Ron Kessler.
* Recent hire Judith Miller says the emphasis at Newsmax, “more than on ideology, is on quality — improving the quality and improving the strength of the stories.”