Newsmax began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. I don’t know what I expected to happen, but the price rising by more than 700% wasn’t in line with my expectations, I know that.
There’s a lot of talk about the viability of the cable bundle, cable television as a whole, and cable news. The success of the Newsmax IPO shows just how unfounded those claims might be.
Think about it: A television network that didn’t hit cable television until 2014 — basically boarding the Titanic after it had already hit the iceberg — just saw its stock price close 36 cents below Apple on a per-share basis. Apple! Like, the maker of the phone there’s a roughly 46% chance you’re reading this column on, Apple.
If you look at the media-related stock ticker at the top of our website, you’re about as likely to spot a pig flying through the air as you are to see a company with a triple-digit stock price, let alone one where the number begins with a two.
Maybe this isn’t sustainable. Maybe it’s a meme-stock in an effort to “own the libs.” But even if that’s the case, it made Newsmax founder Chris Ruddy an overnight billionaire as the stock soared from its $10 opening price on Monday. And it further legitimized the company as it has seen steady growth in the cable news ratings over the course of the past two years.
That flies in the face of conventional wisdom that cable television — make that linear television as a whole — is dead.
Fox News just finished the first quarter of 2025 as the highest-rated cable news network in history. It’s routinely pulling in audiences that best network television.
Couple that with the fact that Newsmax raised $300 million in a round of private funding before hitting the New York Stock Exchange this week and it’s stock price being the virtual definition of “soaring” in its first days on the market, I don’t know how you could argue that the cable news industry is dying.
Maybe I’m naive. Maybe the Newsmax stock price reaching the stratosphere is actually a house of cards that is about to come tumbling down. But I don’t know if you could have predicted a better opening for the company than what has transpired in the last few days.
Just like I don’t know that you could have predicted Fox News would be setting new records as cable television audiences continue to dwindle.
But both fly in the face of the narrative that cable news is a dying industry.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say the genre is akin to Arnold Schwarzenegger in a mid-70s body-building contest, either. But it’s inaccurate, in my view, to sit back and say that things are dire simply because MSNBC and CNN are in the midst of rough patches after Donald Trump secured victory in the 2024 election.
All I know is, the evidence points to things being significantly more rosy in the cable news world than previously thought. And it makes sense. In the television world right now, two things — and only two things — matter and give a network an edge: live sports and live news. So while Chris Ruddy might have been painted as the town fool in 2014 when he got the idea to launch Newsmax as a cable brand, it’s hard to argue that the move hasn’t paid dividends — stock pun intended! — as the company has seen a ridiculous surge since its stock hit the open market.
Folks on Wall Street aren’t stupid. At least not all of them. If they see value in Newsmax’s stock — to the tune of pushing the price near that of companies like Apple and Tesla — then I think it’s difficult for anyone to dismiss the cable news industry just quite yet.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
FNC continues to earn high ratings, but its business model heavily reliant on carriage fees from cable, satellite and OTT (top advertisers shun the channel) is on shaky ground. The characterization of Newsmax as a “meme stock” seems to be on the mark. Shares have already cratered 50% from their lofty heights and surely they have a long way yet to fall. Anyone hoping to retire on their earnings from holding NMAX stock might want to rebalance their portfolio.