Axios sees artificial intelligence coming, and shifts its strategy

In the view of Jim VandeHei, CEO of Axios, artificial intelligence will “eviscerate the weak, the ordinary, the unprepared in media.”

The rapid rise of generative AI — and its implications for how people will discover and consume news — has unsettled many media executives. Like them, VandeHei has spent the past year or so pondering how to respond.

Now he’s becoming one of the first news executives to adjust their company’s strategy because of AI.

VandeHei says the only way for media companies to survive is to focus on delivering journalistic expertise, trusted content and in-person human connection. For Axios, that translates into more live events, a membership program centered on its star journalists and an expansion of its high-end subscription newsletters.

“We’re in the middle of a very fundamental shift in how people relate to news and information,” he said, “as profound, if not more profound, than moving from print to digital.”

“Fast forward five to 10 years from now and we’re living in this AI-dominated virtual world — who are the couple of players in the media space offering smart, sane content who are thriving?” he added. “It damn well better be us.”

Axios is pouring investment into holding more events, both around the world and in the United States. VandeHei said the events portion of his business grew 60% year over year in 2023.

The company has also introduced a $1,000-a-year membership program around some of its journalists that will offer exclusive reporting, events and networking. The first one, announced last month, is focused on Eleanor Hawkins, who writes a weekly newsletter for communications professionals. Her newsletter will remain free, but paying subscribers will have access to additional news and data, as well as quarterly calls with Hawkins.

Membership programs will next be built around Sara Fischer, a media reporter, and business editor Dan Primack, who writes the daily Pro Rata newsletter, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans.

“I’m trying to align the company with the people who have a ton of talent: They thrive, we thrive,” VandeHei said.

Axios will expand Axios Pro, its collection of eight high-end subscription newsletters focused on specific niches in the deals and policy world. The subscriptions start at $599 a year each, and Axios is looking to add one on defense policy. The company just hired an executive, Danica Stanciu, to oversee the expansion into more policy areas. Stanciu was instrumental in growing Politico Pro, Politico’s premium subscription offering, into a thriving business.

“The premium for people who can tell you things you do not know will only grow in importance, and no machine will do that,” VandeHei said.

Axios was started in 2017 by VandeHei, cofounder of Politico, along with Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz.

VandeHei said Axios was not currently profitable because of the investment in the new businesses. The company has continued to hire journalists even as many other news organizations have cut back. An Axios spokesperson said that Axios Local now had nearly 2 million subscribers across 30 newsletters, and that Axios’ national newsletters had about 1.5 million.

In addition to figuring out how AI could change news consumption by the public, many media companies are racing to figure out how to address the ingestion of their content by AI chatbots. The New York Times, for example, sued Microsoft and OpenAI in December for copyright infringement, arguing that millions of articles were used, without authorization, to train the tech companies’ chatbots.

VandeHei said that although he thought publications should be compensated for original intellectual property, “that’s not a make-orbreak topic.” He said Axios had talked to several AI companies about potential deals, but “nothing that’s imminent.”

“One of the big mistakes a lot of media companies made over the last 15 years was worrying too much about how do we get paid by other platforms that are eating our lunch as opposed to figuring out how do we eat people’s lunch by having a superior product,” he said.