''The Hill'' is an American newspaper and digital media company based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1994. 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. ''The Hill'' describes its output as "nonpartisan reporting on the inner workings of Government and the nexus of politics and business". 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 is owned by

Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...

History

Founding and early years

The company was founded as a newspaper in 1994 by Democratic power broker and New York businessman

Jerry Finkelstein Jerry Finkelstein (January 26, 1916 – November 28, 2012) was an American publisher, businessman and political insider. Among his publications were the ''New York Law Journal'' and '' The Hill''. He was the father of former New York City Coun ...

, and

Martin Tolchin Martin Tolchin (September 20, 1928 – February 17, 2022) was an American journalist and author. He was a longtime political correspondent for '' The New York Times'', and later co-founded ''The Hill'' and '' Politico''. Early life and education ...

, a former correspondent for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. New York Representative Gary L. Ackerman was also a major shareholder. The name of the publication alludes to "

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

" as a synecdoche for the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

and government generally. In 2012, James "Jimmy" A. Finkelstein assumed control of the organization.

Digital distribution and print circulation

''The Hill'' has grown to become the second most-viewed US political news website and the third-most tweeted U.S. news source. In 2016, ''

'' 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 ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

's traffic for the period. Following the

2016 US presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...

, '' 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, making ''The Hill'' "the fastest-growing political news site". In 2017, ''The Hill'' was also cited by Twitter as one of the top 10 "most-tweeted" news sources. A 2017 study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

found that ''The Hill'' was the second most-shared source among supporters of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

on Twitter during the election, behind '' Breitbart News''. 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. 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 The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is o ...

, NBCNews.com and MSNBC TV. The Hill vending box DC

As of 2020, the newspaper claims to have more than 22,000 print readers. ''The Hill'' is distributed for free in newspaper boxes around the

U.S. Capitol building The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill at ...

, 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. In 2021, ''The Hill'' was acquired by

for $130 million.

Features and editions

Hill TV

In June 2018, ''The Hill'' launched Hill.TV, a digital news channel. The channel features ''

Rising Rising may refer to: * Rising, a stage in baking - see Proofing (baking technique) *Elevation * Short for Uprising, a rebellion Film and TV * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), the series premiere of the science fiction television program ''Starg ...

'', a daily morning news program first hosted by

Krystal Ball Krystal Marie Ball (born November 24, 1981) 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 ...

and Buck Sexton. In May 2021, Ball and Saagar Enjeti announced they were departing in order to release their own independent project, ''Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar''. Since then,

Robby Soave Robert Emil Soave Jr.(, ) is an American journalist who is a senior editor for ''Reason.'' He is the author of two books: ''Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump'' (2019) and ''Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn't Fear Facebook and the Future' ...

, Ryan Grim, Kim Iversen, Emily Jashinsky, Batya Ungar-Sargon, and

Briahna Joy Gray Briahna Joy Gray (born August 15, 1985) is an American political commentator, lawyer, and political consultant who served as the National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. Gray is a contributing editor for ''Curr ...

have hosted the program, along with guests including Colin Rogero, Jamal Simmons, Emily Miller,

Alyssa Farah Alyssa Farah Griffin (born June 15, 1989) is an American political strategist and television personality. She was the White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President in 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump. ...

, and Rachel Bovard.

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. In 2019, ''The Hill'' won the Society of Professional Journalists' First Prizes for Features ("Celebrities dive into midterms, hoping to thwart Trump") and Series ("How The Trump Tax Law Passed"). In 2020, ''The Hill'' won the Society of Professional Journalists' First Prize for Features, for the story "Inside the Secret World of the CIA's Social Media Team".

Staffing

Masthead

*Jason Jedlinski, General Manager *Bob Cusack, Editor-in-Chief *Josh Awtry, SVP Audience *Sarah Katt, SVP Programming *Ian Swanson, Managing Editor *Jesse Byrnes, Senior Editor *Tristan Lejeune, Senior Editor *Frank Craig, Contributor Editor *Mike Demarest, Audience Development Director *Greg Nash, Photo Editor *Linda Petre, Production Manager

Past

* James Carville *

Ron Christie Ronald Irvin Christie (born August 7, 1969) is an American government relations expert and Republican political strategist, who has also worked as a member of former Vice President Dick Cheney's staff. He is the author of two books, and an occ ...

* Judd Gregg *

David Keene David Arthur Keene (born May 20, 1945) is an American political consultant, former presidential advisor, and newspaper editor, formerly the Opinion Editor of ''The Washington Times''. Keene was the president of the National Rifle Association for ...

* Josh Marshall * Dick Morris * A. B. Stoddard *

Byron York Byron York (born December 5, 1955) is an American conservative correspondent, pundit, columnist, and author. Education York holds a B.A. from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Career York ...

* John Solomon * Gen. Michael Hayden (ret.) (former NSA and CIA director)

Controversies

In 2017, ''The Hill'' hired John Solomon. Solomon inserted material from advertisers into journalistic copy, leading to protests from ''The Hill''s publisher. Solomon's role was changed to opinion contributor. In March 2018, he conspired to publish a report about the challenged Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory. In September 2019, Solomon left ''The Hill''. In January 2019, CNN claimed Finkelstein interfered in the

editorial independence Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising ...

of the paper by "keeping a watchful eye on the newspaper’s coverage to ensure it is not too critical" of U.S. President

. Kim Iversen was a host on ''Rising''. She was a critic of Anthony Fauci. According to the ''Daily Beast'', Iversen left the show in July 2022 after being excluded from participating in an interview with Fauci.

Katie Halper Katherine Rose Halper (born July 11, 1980/1981) is an American comedian, writer, filmmaker, podcaster, and political commentator. She is the host of the podcast ''The Katie Halper Show'' and co-host of the podcast '' Useful Idiots'' with Matt Ta ...

, a former free-lancer with ''Rising'', was terminated on September 28, 2022. ''The Intercept'' reported that she recorded a "Radar" monologue that described Israel as an "

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

" state.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, The 1995 establishments in Washington, D.C. 2021 mergers and acquisitions American political websites Legislative branch of the United States government Newspapers published in Washington, D.C. Political mass media in the United States Publications established in 1995 01 Weekly newspapers published in the United States