The Hill (newspaper)

History

Founding and early years

The company was formed as a newspaper in 1994 by power broker and New York businessman Jerry Finkelstein, and Martin Tolchin, a former correspondent for The New York Times. New York Representative Gary L. Ackerman was also a major shareholder.

In 2012, James A. Finkelstein assumed control of the organization.

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.

Following the 2016 U.S. 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, 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 found that The Hill was the second most-shared source among supporters of Donald Trump on Twitter during the election, behind Breitbart News.

In 2017, The Hill hired John Solomon as executive vice president of digital video. Solomon inserted material from advertisers into journalistic copy, leading to protests from The Hills publisher. 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. In May 2018, Solomon's role was changed to opinion contributor, although he was allowed to keep his original title. In September 2019, he left The Hill.

, The Hill was the second most-viewed U.S. political news website and the third-most tweeted U.S. news source.

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.

In 2019, The Hill was ranked second among all U.S. 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, NBCNews.com and MSNBC.

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, and mailed directly to all congressional offices.

The Hills YouTube channel had 1,100,000 subscribers, ahead of Politico, Axios, and Bloomberg Politics. In October 2020, The Hills 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 Nexstar Media Group for $130 million.

In 2022, The Hill was accused of censorship after firing Katie Halper for a segment supporting Rashida Tlaib's labeling of Israel as an "apartheid government". In 2024, Briahna Joy Gray was fired after appearing to roll her eyes while discussing the allegations of sexual violence against Israeli hostages during an interview with the sister of an Israeli who was abducted by Hamas in the October 7 attacks.

Between September 2024 and September 2025, The Hill’s overall social media traffic increased by 20 percent, with the newspaper noting increased political engagement and more frequent video posting by its reporters.

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 FAST streaming service and was rebranded as The Hill TV. It is distributed by Haystack, LG, Amazon Fire and Prime, Samsung, Roku, and Vizio. Programming includes Rising, a morning news program hosted by Robby Soave four days a week (initially by Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton). 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.

NewsNation

Since Nexstar's acquisition of The Hill, branded programming has appeared on Nexstar's cable news channel, NewsNation. Starting on April 24, 2023, The Hill appears as a weekday afternoon program on NewsNation, moderated by Leland Vittert and with panel discussion featuring Chris Stirewalt, George Will, Johanna Maska, Niall Stanage, or other rotating panelists. NewsNation's chief Washington correspondent, Blake Burman, took over moderation duties in August 2023 and Mick Mulvaney and Sean Spicer joined the list of rotating panelists. The Hill also airs on SiriusXM immediately following its live broadcast.

On March 3, 2024, The Hill Sunday launched. Hosted by Stirewalt, it is a Sunday morning talk show focusing on Washington politics. On April 7, 2024, the show was offered to The CW network stations and local stations owned by Nexstar.

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.

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

Staff

Masthead

• Joe Ruffolo, general manager
• Bob Cusack, editor-in-chief

Past

• James Carville
• Ron Christie
• Judd Gregg
• Gen. Michael Hayden (ret.) (former NSA and CIA director)
• David Keene
• Josh Marshall
• Dick Morris
• John Solomon
• A. B. Stoddard
• Byron York

References

References

1. Yingling, Jennifer. (2014-07-28). "The Hill names Bob Cusack Editor in Chief". The Hill.
2. (February 2015). "The Hill: 'An investment in the arts is an investment in economic growth'". Americans for the Arts Action Fund.
3. Glaberson, William. (25 May 1994). "New paper to vie for readers on Capitol Hill". The New York Times.
4. Joyella, Mark. "New and Old Political Media Are Battling for Dominance in the Century's Wildest Election". AdWeek.
5. Stelter, Oliver Darcy,Brian. (2019-11-19). "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".
6. Bradley, Sydney. "The Hill is sold for $130 million to local news powerhouse Nexstar".
7. Matsa, Elisa Shearer, Kirsten Eddy, Michael Lipka and Katerina Eva. (2025-06-10). "The Political Gap in Americans’ News Sources".
8. Gazette, Press. (2025-10-10). "Top 50 news websites in the US in September: BBC and NBC News among big winners".
9. Lee, Alexander. (2025-09-19). "Why The Hill credits growing engagement for its social traffic bump".
10. McFadden, Robert D.. (November 28, 2012). "Jerry Finkelstein, New York Power Broker, Dies at 96". [[The New York Times]].
11. Mundy, Alicia. (December 2, 1996). "The In-Your-Face Race".
12. (August 20, 2021). "The Hill Is Sold to a TV Giant". [[The New York Times]].
13. (7 February 2007). "Who we are". The Hill.
14. Fandos, Nicholas. (2016-05-14). "Capitol Hill Newspapers, Once a Protected Class, Redefine Themselves (Published 2016)". [[The New York Times]].
15. Doctor, Ken. (28 June 2017). "Washington Post, New York Times are big winners of election wars".
16. (2017-03-02). "{{-'}}The Hill' Has Record Web Traffic in January".
17. Lejeune, Tristan. (2017-12-05). "The Hill named one of 2017's top 10 tweeted news outlets by Twitter".
18. Blake, Aaron. (August 22, 2017). "Analysis {{!}} Trump backers' alarming reliance on hoax and conspiracy theory websites, in 1 chart". Washington Post.
19. (August 8, 2017). "Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election". [[Berkman Center for Internet & Society]].
20. (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".
21. (2019-10-25). "How a Veteran Reporter Worked with Giuliani's Associates to Launch the Ukraine Conspiracy". [[ProPublica]].
22. Erik Wemple. (2018-05-14). "The Hill's John Solomon moves to new spot as 'opinion contributor'". [[The Washington Post]].
23. "'NowThis,' 'The Hill' Among Top 10 Most Tweeted News Outlets".
24. "CNN Digital Breaks Records, Sees Biggest Audience in History in 2019".
25. "Best Summer on Record For CNN Digital".
26. "The Hill's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile)".
27. (August 20, 2021). "Nexstar Media Buys Political News Hub, The Hill, For $130 Million".
28. Grim, Ryan. (2022-09-30). "Hill TV Censors Segment on Rashida Tlaib's Description of Israel as "Apartheid Government", Bars Reporter".
29. (2024-06-07). "Briahna Joy Gray Fired As Co-Host of The Hill's 'Rising': 'A Clear Pattern of Suppressing Speech'".
30. (2024-06-06). "Briahna Joy Gray fired from The Hill days after rolling her eyes at sister of Oct. 7 hostage during interview".
31. Lee, Alexander. (2025-09-19). "Why The Hill credits growing engagement for its social traffic bump".
32. (2022-08-10). "Nexstar Digital Launches The Hill TV Streaming Channel on Plex". Nexstar Media Group, Inc..
33. Cockburn. (2021-06-01). "The fall of Rising".
34. (2018-06-21). "Buck Sexton helps launch Hill.tv with debut of new daily morning show 'Rising with Krystal & Buck{{'-}}". [[Premiere Networks]].
35. Berkowitz, Joe. (2021-06-12). "Why 'Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar' became the number-one political podcast in a week".
36. Alex. (2023-03-06). "NewsNation's Political Ensemble Program The Hill To Debut on Monday, April 24th".
37. Mastrangelo, Dominick. (2023-08-31). "NewsNation names Blake Burman full-time host of 'The Hill'".
38. (February 28, 2024). "NewsNation's Chris Stirewalt Hopes to Crack Sunday-Talk Market".
39. "Wheeling Native Chris Stirewalt To Anchor NewsNation Sunday Show".
40. "National Press Club Journalism Awards".
41. (2023-02-08). "Twelve Journalists Recognized as 2022 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award Winners".
42. (2023-12-12). "Twelve Journalists Recognized as 2023 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award Winners".
43. (February 24, 2023). "Nexstar Names Joe Ruffolo Senior Vice President and General Manager for The Hill and NewsNation Digital". [[Nexstar]].
44. (August 4, 2020). "Birthday of the Day: Bob Cusack, editor-in-chief of ''The Hill''". [[Politico]].