Newsmax TV has hired two new execs for the its cable/online news outlet.
Jason Kopp has joined as executive producer and David Winstrom as broadcast news manager.
Winstrom was director of Fox NewsEdge, Fox Broadcasting's affiliate news service, and headed up special reports for Fox Broadcasting. Kopp is a Fox News Channel vet, having worked on specials and investigative reports.
Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy tied the hires to what he said was the growing need for content to match its distribution gains. Newsmax TV is carried on Dish Network, DirecTV, FiOS, U-verse and more than two dozen cable systems, according to the company, which describes its conservative editorial focus as a "heartland" perspective on the news.
Newsmax just sewed up the Dish deal in November.
Newsmax has been in the communications news recently as among those opposing the Sinclair-Tribune merger.
Related: Newsmax's Ruddy Meets With Pai Over Sinclair-Tribune Merger
If Sinclair launches a national news network, as it has contemplated, that could provide new competition to Newsmax, but Ruddy has told Multichannel News he was not worried that Sinclair would start “a Newsmax TV competitor or Fox News look-alike,” adding: “When I started Newsmax back almost 20 years ago, we were the leading conservative online website. Many people have entered the market since, and what we have seen is that as the pie got bigger, the market opportunities for us actually grew."
