Posted on 10/05/2008 7:36:46 PM PDT by kristinn
A few months ago, after John McCain locked up the GOP presidential nomination, Chris Ruddy says he received a series of insistent phone calls from an unexpected source: Sarah Palin.
"We got calls from her people up in Alaska asking if we wanted to interview her," says Ruddy, editor in chief and owner of the conservative Web site Newsmax.com, based in West Palm Beach. "Back then she wasn't on the radar for the vice presidency, and I just blew her off."
But the calls continued. Palin's people wouldn't go away.
"Finally we sent a writer, not even one of our top writers, to interview her," Ruddy says. "And we put her photo on the cover of our magazine."
Days later, when Palin surprisingly emerged as McCain's running mate, Newsmax looked brilliant.
"It was great for us," Ruddy chortles.
Why was Palin so intent on attracting the attention of Newsmax?
Because, according to the latest Nielsen Online ratings, the Web site welcomes 3.86 million individual viewers per month. A separate Nielsen survey estimates that 71 percent of Newsmax viewers are registered Republicans. Those numbers make it one of the biggest Internet sites for conservative politics in the United States. Ruddy has turned those numbers not only into a platform for conservative candidates, but also into profits.
Newsmax.com, its sister magazine and other Newsmax-related ventures will produce about $25 million in revenue this year, Ruddy says.
The firm was founded 10 years ago in West Palm Beach, with him and one other employee. He says he now employs 90 people, almost all in Palm Beach County, with a small office in New York City.
About three years ago, Ruddy, who had to recruit investors to begin the business, bought his headquarters building on Village Boulevard for $8.5 million.
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Ruddy dislikes the war — and Bush's spending — so much it has provoked fond memories of the Clinton years. He praises Clinton not only for keeping the United States out of any protracted war, but for cutting capital gains taxes in the 1990s and being fiscally responsible in general, which he says Bush has not been. Ruddy says he also respects the charitable work Clinton has done since leaving office.
In other words, he likes what he remembers as the conservative aspects of Clinton's presidency.
Ruddy says he and his business partner, Richard Mellon Scaife of the wealthy Pennsylvania Mellon family, recently traveled to Clinton's office in New York's Harlem section and met with the former president for more than two hours.
"We had a great time with him," Ruddy says. "We consider Bill Clinton a friend and he considers us friends."
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