The Hill acquired by big TV station owner

D.C.-based The Hill, which has been covering Congress, the federal government and political news for nearly three decades, has been acquired by Nexstar Media Group for $130 million.

Irving, Texas-based Nexstar owns nearly 200 local television stations across the country in 116 markets. Its digital division also operates 120 local websites.

The Hill was founded as a newspaper in 1994. Its website now has 48 million average monthly users, and in 2020 it had 2.2 billion pageviews, according to comScore data cited by Nexstar.

The site employs more than 100 journalists covering political news.

“The Hill has a nationally recognized brand known for delivering balanced political reporting, as well as authentic opinions and perspectives, and is highly complementary to Nexstar’s national cable news network, NewsNation,” said Tom Carter, Nexstar president and COO.

Nexstar rebranded its WGN station as the national cable network NewsNation earlier this year.

“It has been an honor to lead and transform The Hill into the premier news outlet that it is today. With the help of HRS Management, we have substantially grown the business and audience. We are confident that Nexstar will continue to accelerate this tremendous growth,” said Jimmy Finkelstein, chairman of The Hill.

HRS Management is a private investment firm, and was The Hill’s largest investor.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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