The Hill (newspaper)

Last updated
The Hill
The Hill (2020-01-15).svg
Type Daily newspaper (when Congress is in session)
Format Compact
Owner(s) Nexstar Media Group
Founder(s)
EditorBob Cusack
Managing editorIan Swanson [1]
Photo editorGreg Nash
FoundedSeptember 1, 1994;29 years ago (1994-09-01)
Language American English
Headquarters1625 K St., NW, Suite 900, Washington, D.C., 20006 U.S.
38°54′11″N77°02′15″W / 38.90306°N 77.03750°W / 38.90306; -77.03750 (The Hill newspaper)
CityWashington, D.C.
CountryUnited States
Circulation 24,000 print(as of December 2012) [2] [3]
ISSN 1521-1568
OCLC number 31153202
Website thehill.com

The Hill is an American newspaper and digital media company based in Washington, D.C., that was founded in 1994. [4] [2]

Contents

Focusing on politics, policy, business and international relations, The Hill's coverage includes the U.S. Congress, the presidency and executive branch, and election campaigns. [5] Its stated output is "nonpartisan reporting on the inner workings of Government and the nexus of politics and business". [6]

The company's primary outlet is TheHill.com. The Hill is additionally distributed in print for free around Washington, D.C., and distributed to all congressional offices. It has been owned by Nexstar Media Group since 2021.

History

Founding and early years

The company was founded as a newspaper in 1994 by Democratic power broker and New York businessman Jerry Finkelstein, [7] and Martin Tolchin, a former correspondent for The New York Times . New York Representative Gary L. Ackerman was also a major shareholder. [4] The name of the publication alludes to "Capitol Hill" as a synecdoche for the United States Congress and government generally. [8]

In 2012, James A. Finkelstein assumed control of the organization. [9] [1] [2]

Digital distribution and print circulation

In 2016, The New York Times reported that The Hill was "proceeding with ambitious expansion plans" to become a national brand publication, and its website traffic increased 126% over the prior year, and was above Politico's traffic for the period. [10]

Following the 2016 US presidential election, The Street reported that The Hill saw the largest increase in online political readership among political news sites, with an increase of 780%. CNN and Politico saw smaller increases over the period, [11] making The Hill "the fastest-growing political news site". [12] In 2017, The Hill was also cited by Twitter as one of the top 10 "most-tweeted" news sources. [13] A 2017 study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University found that The Hill was the second most-shared source among supporters of Donald Trump on Twitter during the election, behind Breitbart News . [14] [15]

In 2017, The Hill hired John Solomon as executive vice president of digital video. [16] Solomon inserted material from advertisers into journalistic copy, leading to protests from The Hill's publisher. [17] In March 2018, he worked closely with associates of Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, to promote the spurious Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory. [17] In May 2018, Solomon's role was changed to opinion contributor, although he was allowed to keep his original title. [18] In September 2019, he left The Hill. [16] A February 2020 internal review by The Hill concluded that there were multiple flaws in Solomon's 14 columns about Ukraine and the Bidens, including omitting important details and failing to disclose that the sources used by Solomon were his own attorneys Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova—both close associates of Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. [19] [20]

Katie Halper, a former free-lancer with Rising, was terminated on September 28, 2022. The Intercept reported that she had recorded a "Radar" monologue that described Israel as an "apartheid" state. [21]

As of 2018, The Hill was the second most-viewed US political news website and the third-most tweeted U.S. news source. [22]

In January 2019, CNN claimed Finkelstein interfered in the editorial independence of the paper by "keeping a watchful eye on the newspaper's coverage to ensure it is not too critical" of President Trump. [16]

In 2019, The Hill was ranked second among all US news sites for political readership, second to CNN, and ahead of Capitol Hill competitors such as Politico. [23]

In 2020, it was again ranked second for online politics readership across all news sites, behind only CNN. It remained ahead of Politico, Fox News, NBCNews.com and MSNBC TV. [24]

Vending box for The Hill on K Street. The Hill vending box DC.jpg
Vending box for The Hill on K Street.

As of 2020, the newspaper claims to have more than 22,000 print readers. [2] The Hill is distributed for free in newspaper boxes around the U.S. Capitol building, and mailed directly to all congressional offices.

As of 2020, The Hill's YouTube channel had 1,100,000 subscribers, ahead of Politico, Axios, and Bloomberg Politics. In October 2020, The Hill's YouTube channel averaged over 1.5 million daily video views and more than 10 million per week; in September 2020 it received over 340 million video views. [25]

In 2021, The Hill was acquired by Nexstar Media Group for $130 million. [9] [26]

Features and editions

The Hill TV

In June 2018, The Hill launched Hill.TV, a digital news channel. Four years later, the channel expanded to a 24 by 7 FAST streaming service and was rebranded as The Hill TV. [27] It is distributed by Haystack, LG, LocalNow, Plex, Roku, and Vizio. Programming includes Rising , a morning news program hosted by Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave four days a week (initially by Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.) [28] [29] In May 2021, long-time hosts Ball and Saagar Enjeti announced they were departing in order to release their own independent project, Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar. [28] [30]

Notable stories and awards

The National Press Club's annual Sandy Hume Memorial Award is named after staffer Sandy Hume, in recognition of his 1997 reporting in The Hill of an attempted Republican coup against then-speaker Newt Gingrich. [31]

Climate and energy reporters Sharon Udasin and Rachel Frazin were recognized with SEAL Awards for environmental journalism in 2022 and 2023. [32] [33]

Staff

Masthead

Past

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudy Giuliani</span> American attorney and politician (born 1944)

Rudolph William Louis Giuliani is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983 and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.

<i>Roll Call</i> American periodical newspaper published from Washington, D.C.

Roll Call is a newspaper and website published in Washington, D.C., United States, when the United States Congress is in session, reporting news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of congressional elections across the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Toensing</span> American lawyer

Victoria Ann Toensing is an American attorney, Republican Party operative and with her husband, Joseph diGenova, a partner in the Washington law firm diGenova & Toensing. Toensing and diGenova frequently appeared on Fox News and Fox Business channels, until diGenova used a November 2019 appearance to spread conspiracy theories about George Soros, leading to widespread calls for him to be banned from the network. In 2019, Toensing and diGenova began representing Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash in his efforts to block extradition to the United States under a federal indictment and became embroiled in the Trump–Ukraine scandal. The couple has worked with Rudy Giuliani in support of President Donald Trump beginning in 2018, and was named to join a legal team led by Giuliani to overturn the results of the 2020 United States presidential election in which Trump was defeated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Trump Jr.</span> American businessman (born 1977)

Donald John Trump Jr. is an American businessman, former television presenter, political activist, and author. He is the eldest child of former U.S. President Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Trump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krystal Ball</span> American journalist and TV host (born 1981)

Krystal Marie Ball is an American political commentator and media host. She was previously a political candidate, as well as a television host at MSNBC, a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, and a co-host of The Hill's Rising along with Saagar Enjeti. In May 2021, Ball and Enjeti announced that they were leaving the show in order to launch their own independent project titled Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar. Ball is a co-host with her husband Kyle Kulinski on the podcast Krystal Kyle & Friends. She has made guest appearances on networks such as CNN, CNBC, Fox News, and programs including Real Time with Bill Maher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Solomon (political commentator)</span> American media executive, political commentator, and conspiracy theorist

John F. Solomon is an American journalist who was a contributor to Fox News until late 2020. He was formerly an executive and editor-in-chief at The Washington Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Haberman</span> American journalist (born 1973)

Maggie Lindsy Haberman is an American journalist, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a political analyst for CNN. She previously worked as a political reporter for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and Politico. She wrote about Donald Trump for those publications and rose to prominence covering his campaign, presidency, and post-presidency for the Times. In 2022, she published the best-selling book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manu Raju</span> American journalist

Manu Raju is an American journalist who serves as the chief congressional correspondent at the news network CNN, covering the United States Congress and campaign politics. He is also anchor of the Sunday edition of CNN's Inside Politics with Manu Raju. Raju previously reported for Politico as a senior Capitol Hill correspondent and for other D.C. news outlets as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal affairs of Donald Trump as president</span>

The following is a list of notable lawsuits involving former United States president Donald Trump. The list excludes cases that only name Trump as a legal formality in his capacity as president, such as habeas corpus requests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Caputo</span> Republican political strategist and lobbyist (born 1962)

Michael Raymon Caputo is an American political strategist and lobbyist. In April 2020, Caputo was appointed as assistant secretary of public affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration. He worked for the Reagan Administration with Oliver North, and later as director of media services on the campaign for President George H. W. Bush in the 1992 United States presidential election. Caputo moved to Russia in 1994, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was an adviser to Boris Yeltsin. He worked for Gazprom Media in 2000 where he worked on improving the image of Vladimir Putin in the U.S. He moved back to the U.S. and founded a public relations company, and then moved to Ukraine to work on a candidate's campaign for parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections</span>

Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections was a matter of concern at the highest level of national security within the United States government, in addition to the computer and social media industries. In 2020, the RAND Corporation was one of the first to release research describing Russia's playbook for interfering in U.S. elections, developed machine-learning tools to detect the interference, and tested strategies to counter Russian interference. In February and August 2020, United States Intelligence Community (USIC) experts warned members of Congress that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential election in then-President Donald Trump's favor. USIC analysis released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in March 2021 found that proxies of Russian intelligence promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Joe Biden "to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration." The New York Times reported in May 2021 that federal investigators in Brooklyn began a criminal investigation late in the Trump administration into possible efforts by several current and former Ukrainian officials to spread unsubstantiated allegations about corruption by Joe Biden, including whether they had used Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani as a channel.

<i>Rising</i> (web series) American daily news and opinion web series

The Hill's Rising is an American daily news and opinion web series produced by Washington, D.C. political newspaper The Hill. The series is available on The Hill's website and YouTube.

The Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory is a series of false allegations that Joe Biden, while he was vice president of the United States, improperly withheld a loan guarantee and took a bribe to pressure Ukraine into firing prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to prevent a corruption investigation of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the Burisma board. As part of efforts by Donald Trump and his campaign in the Trump–Ukraine scandal, which led to Trump's first impeachment, these falsehoods were spread in an attempt to damage Joe Biden's reputation and chances during the 2020 presidential campaign, and later in an effort to impeach him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestic reactions to the January 6 United States Capitol attack</span>

In the aftermath of the January 6 United States Capitol attack, after drawing widespread condemnation from the U.S. Congress, members of his administration, and the media, 45th U.S. President Donald Trump released a video-taped statement on January 7 to stop the resignations of his staff and the threats of impeachment or removal from office. In the statement, he condemned the violence at the U.S. Capitol, saying that "a new administration will be inaugurated", which was widely seen as a concession, and his "focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power" to the Joe Biden administration. Vanity Fair reported that Trump was at least partially convinced to make the statement by U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told Trump a sufficient number of Senate Republicans would support removing him from office unless he conceded. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House Press Secretary, had attempted to distance the administration from the rioters' behavior in a televised statement earlier in the day. On January 9, The New York Times reported that Trump had told White House aides he regretted committing to an orderly transition of power and would never resign from office. In a March 25 interview on Fox News, Trump defended the Capitol attackers, saying they were patriots who posed "zero threat", and he criticized law enforcement for "persecuting" the rioters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Palmer</span> American journalist

Anna Palmer is an American political journalist based in Washington, D.C. She has been the co-founder and CEO of Punchbowl News since January 2021, and the host of the related Daily Punch Podcast. She was previously a reporter for Politico and became its senior Washington correspondent.

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar is an American political news and opinion series created and hosted by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti. It was launched in June 2021 by Ball and Enjeti, both former hosts of The Hill's Rising web series. They publish an audio-only podcast and the video program is available on YouTube, Rumble, and Spotify. Its format includes one anchor representative of the political left (Ball) and one right-of-center anchor (Enjeti), who provide news and commentary with a populist view from divergent sides of the political spectrum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunter Biden laptop controversy</span> US political controversy

In October 2020, a controversy arose involving data from a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden. The owner of a Delaware computer shop, John Paul Mac Isaac, said that the laptop had been left by a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden. Mac Isaac also stated that he is legally blind and could not be sure whether the man was actually Hunter Biden. Three weeks before the 2020 United States presidential election, the New York Post published a front-page story that presented emails from the laptop, alleging they showed corruption by Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee and Hunter Biden's father. According to the New York Post, the story was based on information provided to Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney of incumbent president and candidate Donald Trump, by Mac Isaac. Forensic analysis later authenticated some of the emails from the laptop, including one of the two emails used by the Post in their initial reporting. Later assertions by Twitter owner Elon Musk and others that the government had ordered the company to suppress the Post story to favor Joe Biden in the weeks leading to the election were not supported by a Twitter Files examination authorized by Musk.

Protect Democracy is a nonprofit organization based in the United States. A nonpartisan group, Protect Democracy seeks to check what it believes are authoritarian attacks on U.S. democracy.

After the results of the 2020 United States presidential election determined U.S. president Donald Trump had lost, a scheme was devised by him, his associates and Republican Party officials in seven states to subvert the election by creating and submitting fraudulent certificates of ascertainment to falsely claim Trump had won the electoral college vote in those states. The intent of the scheme was to pass the fraudulent certificates to then-vice president Mike Pence in the hope he would count them, rather than the authentic certificates, and thus overturn Joe Biden's victory. This scheme was defended by a fringe legal theory developed by Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman, detailed in the Eastman memos, which claimed a vice president has the constitutional discretion to swap official electors with an alternate slate during the certification process, thus changing the outcome of the electoral college vote and the overall winner of the presidential race. The scheme came to be known as the Pence Card. By April 2024, dozens of Republican state officials and Trump associates had been indicted in four states for their alleged involvement. The federal Smith special counsel investigation is investigating Trump's role in the events. Testimony has revealed that Trump was fully aware of the fake electors scheme, and knew that Eastman's plan for Pence to obstruct the certification of electoral votes was a violation of the Electoral Count Act.

References

  1. 1 2 Yingling, Jennifer (2014-07-28). "The Hill names Bob Cusack Editor in Chief". The Hill. Retrieved 2014-08-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Who we are". The Hill. 7 February 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  3. ↑ "The Hill: 'An investment in the arts is an investment in economic growth'". Americans for the Arts Action Fund. February 2015. Archived from the original on June 20, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Glaberson, William (25 May 1994). "New paper to vie for readers on Capitol Hill". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 16, 2014.
  5. ↑ Joyella, Mark. "New and Old Political Media Are Battling for Dominance in the Century's Wildest Election". AdWeek. K Street, NW, Washington D.C. ISSN   0199-2864. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  6. ↑ "Contact Us". The Hill. July 18, 2018 [First published August 5, 2009]. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
  7. ↑ McFadden, Robert D. (November 28, 2012). "Jerry Finkelstein, New York Power Broker, Dies at 96". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 29, 2012.
  8. ↑ Mundy, Alicia (December 2, 1996). "The In-Your-Face Race" (PDF). Mediaweek. Vol. 6, no. 46. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2021.
  9. 1 2 Smith, Ben; Robertson, Katie (August 20, 2021). "The Hill Is Sold to a TV Giant". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021.
  10. ↑ Fandos, Nicholas (2016-05-14). "Capitol Hill Newspapers, Once a Protected Class, Redefine Themselves (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  11. ↑ Doctor, Ken (28 June 2017). "Washington Post, New York Times are big winners of election wars". TheStreet. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  12. ↑ Communicator, Capitol (2017-03-02). ""The Hill" Has Record Web Traffic in January". Capitol Communicator. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  13. ↑ Lejeune, Tristan (2017-12-05). "The Hill named one of 2017's top 10 tweeted news outlets by Twitter". TheHill. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  14. ↑ Blake, Aaron (August 22, 2017). "Analysis | Trump backers' alarming reliance on hoax and conspiracy theory websites, in 1 chart". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  15. ↑ Faris, Robert; Roberts, Hal; Etling, Bruce (August 8, 2017). Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Berkman Center for Internet & Society. p. 72. OCLC   1048396744.
  16. 1 2 3 Stelter, Brian; Darcy, Oliver (2019-01-18). "Jimmy Finkelstein, the owner of The Hill, has flown under the radar. But he's played a key role in the Ukraine scandal". CNN Business . Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  17. 1 2 Pearson, Jake; Spies, Mike; McSwane, J. David (2019-10-25). "How a Veteran Reporter Worked with Giuliani's Associates to Launch the Ukraine Conspiracy". ProPublica. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  18. ↑ Erik Wemple (2018-05-14). "The Hill's John Solomon moves to new spot as 'opinion contributor'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  19. ↑ "John Solomon columns on Ukraine ripped in newspaper's internal investigation for conflicts and distortions". The Washington Post. 2020. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Six degrees of Rudy: Giuliani's web tangles three Trump controversies". NBC News. November 30, 2019.
  21. ↑ Grim, Ryan (2022-09-29). "Hill TV Censors Segment on Rashida Tlaib's Description of Israel as "Apartheid Government," Bars Reporter". The Intercept. First Look Media. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30.
  22. ↑ "'NowThis,' 'The Hill' Among Top 10 Most Tweeted News Outlets". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  23. ↑ "CNN Digital Breaks Records, Sees Biggest Audience in History in 2019" . Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  24. ↑ "Best Summer on Record For CNN Digital" . Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  25. ↑ "The Hill's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". socialblade.com.
  26. ↑ Goldsmith, Jill (August 20, 2021). "Nexstar Media Buys Political News Hub, The Hill, For $130 Million". Deadline.
  27. ↑ "Nexstar Digital Launches The Hill TV Streaming Channel on Plex". Nexstar Media Group, Inc. 2022-08-10. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  28. 1 2 Cockburn (2021-06-01). "The fall of Rising". The Spectator . Retrieved 2021-06-07.
  29. ↑ "Buck Sexton helps launch Hill.tv with debut of new daily morning show "Rising with Krystal & Buck"". Premiere Networks. 2018-06-21. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  30. ↑ Berkowitz, Joe (2021-06-12). "Why 'Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar' became the number-one political podcast in a week". Fast Company . Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  31. ↑ "National Press Club Journalism Awards". National Press Club.
  32. ↑ "Twelve Journalists Recognized as 2022 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award Winners". SEAL Awards . 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  33. ↑ "Twelve Journalists Recognized as 2023 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award Winners". SEAL Awards . 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  34. ↑ "Nexstar Names Joe Ruffolo Senior Vice President and General Manager for The Hill and NewsNation Digital". Nexstar Media Group, Inc. 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  35. ↑ "Birthday of the Day: Bob Cusack, editor-in-chief of The Hill". Politico. August 4, 2020. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.