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Conservative News Sites Guide
Media Guide · Updated November 4, 2026
Conservative News Sites: The 2026 Field Guide to the Right-of-Center Press
Who runs them, how big they are, what each one does best, and how to read them with a sharp eye. Every outlet profile below was checked against current reporting and primary sources.
16 outlets profiled≈ 15 min readSources cited throughout
Key takeaways
Fox News is still the dominant conservative news brand on cable and online, though its 2026 cable audience is down from 2025.
The right-of-center press is not one thing. It spans 70-year-old magazines, populist digital sites, subscription newsletters and poll aggregators that often disagree with each other.
Separating news reporting from opinion is the single most useful habit when reading any partisan outlet, left or right.
Independent raters such as AllSides and Ad Fontes Media publish their methods, so you can check how a site was scored.
What counts as a conservative news site?
A conservative news site is a publication whose editorial outlook, story selection or commentary leans toward right-of-center positions: limited government, free markets, a strong national defense, traditional social values, or skepticism of what its editors see as liberal bias in legacy media. Some outlets state that orientation openly in their mission. Others describe themselves as independent but are classified as right-leaning by media researchers.
The label covers a wide range. A quarterly policy journal and a high-volume breaking-news site can both be "conservative" while having almost nothing else in common. That is why this guide groups outlets by type rather than ranking them on a single list.
It also helps to separate a publication's news from its opinion. Several outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, run news desks that researchers rate near the center alongside opinion pages that are clearly conservative. Media-bias raters often score those two halves separately.
Why these sites matter in 2026
American news audiences are sharply divided by party. In its June 2025 report The Political Gap in Americans' News Sources, the Pew Research Center surveyed 9,482 U.S. adults in March 2025 about 30 major outlets. It found that Republicans get their news from a fairly concentrated set of sources, with Fox News well ahead of the rest, while Democrats spread their attention across many more outlets.
The same research showed Republicans were more likely to distrust than trust most of the 30 sources Pew asked about. A separate Pew survey found that the share of Republicans with at least some trust in national news organizations rose to 53% in 2025, up from 40% a year earlier.
9,482U.S. adults in Pew's 2025 news-source survey
53%of Republicans with some trust in national news in 2025, up from 40%
2.06MFox News average primetime viewers, Q3 2026 (Nielsen via Adweek)
For readers, this means conservative news sites shape what roughly half the country sees first. Whether you agree with them or not, knowing what they cover and how they cover it is basic media literacy.
At a glance: the major conservative news sites compared
Founding years below come from the outlets' own histories, company filings and standard references. Scroll sideways on a phone to see every column.
Launched 1996Owner Fox CorporationQ3 2026 primetime 2.06M viewers
Fox News remains the center of gravity for conservative news. In the third quarter of 2026 it averaged about 2.06 million primetime viewers, according to Nielsen figures reported by Adweek. That was down 17% from the same quarter in 2025, yet Fox still finished first among all cable networks in primetime total viewers. Its website is one of the three largest U.S. news sites, logging about 273 million visits in March 2025 in Press Gazette's Similarweb rankings.
Best for: breaking national news and a quick read on what the conservative mainstream is talking about. Keep the news side and the opinion programming separate in your mind.
Founded 1801Founder Alexander HamiltonOwner News Corp
America's oldest continuously published daily paper, founded by Alexander Hamilton, is now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. It is one of the most-read right-of-center news sites in the country. The Post's style is fast and headline-driven, and its editorial page reliably backs conservative positions.
Best for: quick national stories, New York politics and media gossip.
Founded Sept. 1998CEO Christopher RuddyListed NYSE: NMAX
Christopher Ruddy launched Newsmax.com in 1998 and added Newsmax TV in 2014. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on March 31, 2025, after a $75 million Regulation A+ offering priced at $10 a share, according to its SEC filing. The stock surged on its first trading day before falling back. In 2025 a judge ruled that Newsmax had broadcast false and defamatory claims about Dominion Voting Systems, and Newsmax later settled the case for $67 million.
Best for: viewers who want a cable-news alternative to Fox, with heavy commentary.
Magazines and journals of ideas
These publications focus less on breaking news and more on argument, analysis and long-form reporting. They are where many conservative policy debates happen first.
First issue Nov. 19, 1955Founder William F. Buckley Jr.Editor-in-chief Rich Lowry
William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review in 1955 to give the scattered American right a single intellectual home, and it remains the movement's flagship magazine. Rich Lowry is editor-in-chief and Ramesh Ponnuru is editor. Since 2015 the magazine has been owned by the nonprofit National Review Institute, which Buckley founded. AllSides rates its news content Lean Right and its opinion content Right.
Best for: serious conservative arguments on policy, law and culture.
First issue Autumn 1990Publisher Manhattan InstituteEditor Brian C. Anderson
The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, launched City Journal in 1990 amid worries about crime and decline in New York City. The quarterly and its website cover policing, schools, housing and urban economics, plus culture and architecture. Its ideas were influential during Rudy Giuliani's mayoralty, and in the 2020s its writers have driven national debates over education and diversity programs.
Best for: data-heavy arguments about cities, crime and public schools.
Founded 1968Publisher Reason FoundationLean Libertarian
Reason sits beside the conservative press rather than inside it. The magazine argues for "free minds and free markets," which puts it on the right on taxes and regulation but often at odds with conservatives on immigration, drug policy, policing and trade. It is a useful counterweight for readers who want a right-of-center voice that is not tied to either party.
Best for: free-market economics and civil-liberties reporting.
Digital-native news outlets
Born online in the 2000s and 2010s, these sites built their audiences through search, social media and, more recently, video and podcasts.
Established 2005Owner Clarity Media GroupAllSides Lean Right
Owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz's Clarity Media Group, the Examiner was conceived as a conservative counterpart to The Washington Post. AllSides rates it Lean Right with high confidence, noting that its story choices are conservative but its presentation is generally not sensational.
Best for: straightforward coverage of Congress, the White House and federal policy.
Founded 2007Founder Andrew BreitbartEditor-in-chief Alex Marlow
The late Andrew Breitbart founded the site in 2007 with Larry Solov, who is now CEO. Alex Marlow, the company's first hire, has been editor-in-chief since 2016. Breitbart rose to national prominence during Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and remains a leading voice of the populist, nationalist wing of the right. Critics frequently describe it as far-right.
Best for: understanding the priorities of the populist base, especially on immigration and trade.
Launched Jan. 11, 2010Co-founders Tucker Carlson, Neil PatelHQ Washington, D.C.
Tucker Carlson and former Dick Cheney adviser Neil Patel launched The Daily Caller in 2010. Carlson later sold his stake, and Patel continues to run the company. Its affiliated nonprofit, the Daily Caller News Foundation, supplies reporting that other outlets can republish. Several of its alumni now hold prominent jobs across Washington journalism.
Best for: fast-moving political news from a conservative angle.
Launched Sept. 2013CEO Sean DavisEditor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway
Ben Domenech and Sean Davis co-founded The Federalist in 2013 to cover politics, culture and religion from a viewpoint that rejects what they call the assumptions of the media establishment. Mollie Hemingway is editor-in-chief, and Davis became CEO in 2022. Its media criticism and election coverage have made it both widely read and frequently challenged by fact-checkers.
Best for: sharp media criticism and culture-war commentary.
First published Feb. 7, 2012Co-founder Matthew ContinettiEditor-in-chief Eliana Johnson
Founded by Michael Goldfarb, Aaron Harrison and Matthew Continetti, the Free Beacon set out to practice what it called combat journalism. Its reporting on universities has had real-world consequences: its stories on Columbia administrators' text messages preceded the resignations of three deans in 2024. Even some critics on the left have credited its investigative work.
Best for: original scoops on higher education, money in politics and national security.
Founded 2015Co-founders Ben Shapiro, Jeremy Boreing, Caleb RobinsonCEO Mike Richards (since May 2026)
Ben Shapiro, Jeremy Boreing and Caleb Robinson built The Daily Wire into a media company known as much for podcasts, films and video as for its website. It has gone through major changes: Boreing stepped down as co-CEO in March 2025, and in May 2026 Robinson moved to the board and president Mike Richards was promoted to CEO, as reported by Barrett Media. The company confirmed layoffs that same spring amid reports of falling audiences.
Best for: podcast and video commentary, especially The Ben Shapiro Show.
Subscription and independent newsrooms
A newer generation of outlets relies on paying subscribers instead of ad clicks. Several were started by writers who left larger institutions.
Launched Oct. 2019CEO Steve HayesEditor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg
After The Weekly Standard closed in 2018, its former editor Steve Hayes teamed up with National Review veteran Jonah Goldberg and Toby Stock to launch The Dispatch. The founders said they wanted to focus on conservative principles regardless of party lines. It began as Substack's first media company, built a certified fact-checking unit, later acquired SCOTUSblog, and reported more than 500,000 subscribers by October 2024.
Best for: careful, fact-checked reporting from conservatives who are often critical of Donald Trump.
Founded 2021Founder Bari WeissOwner Paramount (since Oct. 2025)
Former New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss started The Free Press in 2021, and it is usually described as right-leaning or heterodox rather than strictly conservative. In October 2025 Paramount bought it for a reported $150 million and named Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News, as TV Tech and others reported. Weiss continues to lead The Free Press as a standalone brand.
Best for: contrarian reporting and live debates that cut across party lines.
Aggregators and polling sources
Aggregators collect headlines and columns from many outlets in one place. They are useful for scanning, but the reporting they link to is only as good as the original source.
Launched Feb. 3, 2000Co-founders John McIntyre, Tom BevanBased in Chicago
Started by a former options trader and a former ad executive, RCP curates op-eds and news from across the spectrum and is best known for its polling averages, which outlets of every political stripe cite. Its own commentary and selection lean right, and its founders have been open about their criticism of mainstream media bias.
Best for: polling averages and a single page of opinion columns from left and right.
A note on lists you will find elsewhere
Many "top conservative news sites" lists online are published by outlets that are themselves on the list, or are padded with blogs, social accounts and sites with poor accuracy records. Use rankings as a starting point, then check each site against the reliability steps below.
The big shifts in conservative media, 2025–2026
Cable audiences fell after the election-year peak. Fox News averaged about 2.59 million primetime viewers in Q1 2026 but about 2.06 million in Q3, per Adweek's quarterly reports. It still led all cable networks in total viewers.
Web traffic is falling across the industry. Press Gazette's monthly Similarweb rankings show most of the 50 biggest U.S. news sites losing traffic year over year in 2026, as search and social referrals decline. Conservative sites are not exempt.
Conservative media went public. Newsmax's 2025 NYSE listing made it the first Regulation A+ company to list directly on the Big Board.
Leadership turnover at digital outlets. The Daily Wire changed CEOs twice in about 14 months and cut staff in 2026.
Legacy media moved toward the center-right audience. Paramount's purchase of The Free Press and Bari Weiss's appointment at CBS News was widely read as an effort to win back right-of-center viewers.
How to judge the reliability of a conservative news site
The same tests apply to any outlet, whatever its politics. These five habits will catch most problems.
Check the label. Is the piece marked news, analysis or opinion? A columnist's argument is not a news report, even on a site you trust.
Look for original reporting. Named sources, documents, court filings and data are signs of real reporting. A story built only on another outlet's story adds little.
Read laterally. Open a second tab and see how two or three outlets across the spectrum cover the same event. If only one partisan site has the story, wait.
Watch for corrections. Reputable outlets publish corrections when they get things wrong. A site that never corrects anything is a warning sign.
Use independent raters, and read their methods.AllSides rates political lean using blind surveys of readers from left, center and right plus multi-partisan editorial reviews. Ad Fontes Media scores both bias (−42 to +42) and reliability (0 to 64) using panels that each include a left-, center- and right-leaning analyst. Both have been criticized from left and right, so treat them as one input.
The debate over conservative media
Supporters' case. Defenders argue that conservative outlets fill a real gap. They point to surveys showing that Republicans distrust most major news brands, and say right-leaning sites cover stories and viewpoints that legacy newsrooms underplay, from campus speech to border policy. They also note that outlets like the Free Beacon and City Journal have broken stories later confirmed and followed by mainstream media.
Critics' case. Critics argue that parts of the conservative ecosystem have spread false claims, citing the 2025 court ruling against Newsmax over its Dominion coverage and Fox News's own 2023 settlement with Dominion. They worry that audiences sorted into partisan silos see different sets of facts.
Disagreement on the right. The debate is not only left against right. The Dispatch was founded partly over concern about how closely some conservative media had aligned with the Republican Party, while populist outlets accuse such publications of drifting from the base. Reading across that internal divide is one of the best ways to understand the movement.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most popular conservative news site?
Fox News. Its cable channel led all cable networks in total primetime viewers through 2026, and FoxNews.com is one of the three most-visited news websites in the United States, according to Press Gazette's Similarweb rankings.
What is the oldest conservative publication in the U.S.?
Among outlets in this guide, the New York Post (1801) is the oldest, though it became a conservative paper much later. National Review, founded in 1955 by William F. Buckley Jr., is the oldest major magazine created specifically as a conservative publication.
Which conservative news sites are considered most reliable?
Reliability varies by section and by story. Outlets with dedicated fact-checking, frequent original reporting and clear news/opinion labels, such as The Dispatch, the Washington Examiner's news coverage and National Review's reporting, tend to score better with independent raters. Check AllSides and Ad Fontes Media for current scores.
Is The Wall Street Journal a conservative news site?
Its opinion and editorial pages are conservative, but its news reporting is generally rated near the center by media-bias raters. Pew's 2025 research found it was one of the few major sources used by both Republicans and Democrats.
Are there free conservative news sites?
Yes. Fox News, the New York Post, the Washington Examiner, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, The Federalist and RealClearPolitics offer most content free with ads. The Dispatch, The Free Press and parts of National Review put some articles behind a subscription.
What is the difference between a conservative and a libertarian news site?
Both favor free markets and smaller government. Libertarian outlets like Reason also tend to oppose restrictions on immigration, drug use and speech, and are more skeptical of police and military power, which can put them at odds with social conservatives.
This guide describes outlets for reference and does not endorse any of them. Audience figures, ownership and leadership change often; facts here were checked on November 4, 2026.
David Brown doesn’t just follow the news—he chases it down back roads, courthouse steps, and late-night diner booths. Years spent freelancing on shoestring budgets sharpened his instinct for the detail that cracks a story open, and that grit still shows in every piece he files for the American Drudge Report. Whether he’s unpacking a policy twist or spotlighting a forgotten voice, David writes with one question in mind: “Will this matter when the headlines scroll away?” His readers count on him for clear facts, honest angles, and a lingering nudge to keep thinking long after the tab is closed.
