Newsmax is a conservative American political media company that produces a monthly magazine, a popular website, and several nonpolitical newsletters.

Newsmax was launched in 1998 by Christopher Ruddy as an alternative to mainstream news outlets. It is co-owned by Ruddy and billionaire Pittsburgh Tribune-Review owner Richard Mellon Scaife and is based in West Palm Beach, Fla., though it opened a New York bureau in 2011.

Newsmax’s revenue grew 50 percent in 2010 over the year before, Ruddy said, from $34 million to $51 million.  The company has a staff of 110. Most of that revenue comes from digital advertising and subscriptions; about 10 percent comes from the print edition.

Newsmax’s website is free, though the publisher now has several paid health and personal finance newsletters in print and online. It also runs an online video site called Newsmax.tv. Newsmax’s site is among the most popular conservative sites on the web. It has about 250,000 print subscribers.

Newsmax bid to buy Newsweek in June 2010, and though it pledged to keep Newsweek’s editorial perspective distinct from its other publications, its bid was rejected primarily because of its conservative editorial stance.

Ruddy said Newsmax is planning to target the 60-plus age group, a demographic that other media companies generally shun. “In the next 10 years, they will dominate the US economy,” he said in January 2011. “They have disposable income — and they read.”