Roll Call

U.S. center / nonpartisan trade press

Background

Founded in 1955 by Sid Yudain as a small Capitol Hill community newspaper, Roll Call grew into one of the most established outlets covering Congress. It was sold to Arthur Levitt Jr. in 1986, then to The Economist Group in 1993, which merged it with Congressional Quarterly (CQ) in 2009 to form CQ Roll Call, then the largest newsroom dedicated to Congress. In 2018, FiscalNote acquired CQ Roll Call from The Economist Group for $180 million, with The Economist Group taking an 18% equity stake in FiscalNote; FiscalNote went public on the NYSE in August 2022. Roll Call's core business remains subscription-based legislative tracking and reporting aimed at lobbyists, congressional staff, and policy professionals, alongside free-access news coverage. It has built a reputation for detailed, sourcing-heavy coverage of legislative mechanics and election forecasting (including its widely cited race ratings), with media-bias trackers such as AllSides, Ad Fontes Media, and Media Bias/Fact Check rating it near-center with high factual reliability. It has not been a significant source of editorial controversy, distinguishing it from more opinion-driven Washington outlets.

Sources

1. About – Roll Call
2. FiscalNote Completes $180M Acquisition of CQ Roll Call From The Economist Group
3. CQ Roll Call owner goes public on the NYSE - WTOP News
4. History of CQ Roll Call – CQ Roll Call
5. Roll Call - Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check
6. Roll Call - Media Bias & Ratings - AllSides
7. Roll Call Bias and Reliability | Ad Fontes Media

Profile compiled 2026-09-24; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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