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Newsmax’s April Fools’ Flash Crash

When the Fox wannabe’s stock popped (and then plunged) after its I.P.O. earlier this month, the billionaires got out in time and retail investors got burned. Same as it ever was…

Christopher Ruddy
Newsmax’s financial performance has yet to live up to the hype. This isn’t the kind of growth or profitability story that tends to excite investors. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
April 16, 2025

There are so many curious things about the recent I.P.O. of Newsmax, the conservative digital media and cable news company, but it all begins with the prospectus. Newsmax, of course, is the brainchild of Christopher Ruddy, the former New York Post journalist and longtime Trump buddy who is a regular presence at Mar-a-Lago. Ruddy founded the company in 1998, two years after Fox News first hit the airwaves, and built it up into a meaningful player in the ever-expanding right-wing media landscape.