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Nexstar Media Group is acquiring The Hill from long-time owner Jimmy Finkelstein, he said in a Friday announcement.
“Let me say it was an honor successfully producing one of the great news products in the country,” Finkelstein said in an afternoon announcement. “And it was an honor working with all of you.”
The Hill was founded in 1994 by Finkelstein’s father, Jerry Finkelstein, a New York publisher and business magnate who oversaw it until his death in 2012. The paper developed a reputation for putting a special focus on Washington’s inner workings, but also drew ire from liberal critics in more recent years who took issue with Finkelstein’s ties to former President Donald Trump through New York social circles.
The publication’s top selling point has been growing online traffic. The company reported 48 million average monthly users in 2020, sizable by online news standards. (The Washington Examiner received a little more than 10 million in that category with a slightly smaller staff led by Hugo Gurdon, who last served as editor in chief of The Hill.)
It also aggressively sought to monetize that audience through ad revenue and event sponsorships from big companies, such as Lockheed Martin and Koch Industries. Critical readers — and some staffers — suggested those partnerships provided an open line for the companies to submit grievances about unfavorable reporting.
“If … you don’t pull your punches where certain corporations and powerful entities are concerned, at a certain point, it becomes a little unsustainable to be in corporate media critiquing corporate media,” former HillTV host Krystal Ball said in reference to the issue when she left the company in June. “The Hill takes money out from all kinds of different advertisers, you know, everybody from Koch Industries to American Petroleum Institute, which was always really uncomfortable.”
Sources say the business plan was worth about $40 million in 2020 revenue, with $10 million in net profit.
Nexstar, which said it was paying $130 million for the publication, is mostly known for its work in the TV industry. It employs approximately 5,500 journalists at 199 stations around the United States, in addition to holding a 31.3 percent stake in TV Food Network. The Hill will add around 100 employees to its ranks.
