Expect conservative outlet Newsmax to go on an editorial hiring spree, according to the New York Post.

Post media man Keith Kelly writes:

Christopher Ruddy, the founder of the right-leaning Newsmax Media, may have been thwarted in his bid to buy Newsweek from the Washington Post Company, but his 12-year-old company is still going to aggressively expand its editorial brand.

Newsmax, which has a fast-growing monthly magazine and a booming Web site aimed at the Republican-leaning heartland audience, has a $2 million war chest that it intends to pump into expansion of its editorial staff, primarily with additions to its New York and Washington DC offices.

Ruddy says he wants to expand the New York office from four editorial employees to 24 to 25 over the next 18 months and to add about a half dozen in Washington DC.

He said revenues last year were in the $34 million range and he expects them to hit $50 mil lion this year, all by aiming at an audience of Republican-leaning consumers in the 50-plus age bracket. As part of his expansion, the company just hired Matt Belvedere, who had been running the video group for US News & World Report, to be in charge of its video news operation out of Washington DC.

Media Matters has long noted Newsmax's unflattering moments. When the publication was among the Newsweek suitors, outgoing Newsweek scribe Michael Isikoff told me it was not his “preferred owner” of Newsweek.