Axios is an American news website founded in 2016 by former Politico staffers Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz. It officially launched in 2017. The site's name is based on the ἄξιος, meaning "worthy".
History
Axioss founder VandeHei said he aimed for the company to be a "mix between The Economist and Twitter." The company initially targeted coverage of a mix of news about business, politics, technology, healthcare, and media. Founder VandeHei said Axios would focus on the "collision between tech and areas such as bureaucracy, health care, energy, and the transportation infrastructure". At launch, Nicholas Johnston, a former managing editor at Bloomberg LP, was named editor-in-chief. In the summer of 2016, Axios secured $10 million in a round of financing led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures. Backers include media-partner NBC News; Emerson Collective, the investment vehicle of Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs; Greycroft Partners; and David and Katherine Bradley, owners of Atlantic Media. The company had raised $30 million. It planned to focus on "business, technology, politics, and media trends." Axios generates revenue through short-form native advertising and sponsored newsletters. The company earned more than $10 million in revenue in its first seven months. Their advertisers include Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries. In January 2017, the company hired as an executive vice president, Evan Ryan, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs and a former staffer for Vice President Joe Biden. In March 2017, the company said it had 60 employees with 40 working in editorial. Axios had six million visitors in September 2017, according to comScore. As of November 2017, Axios said it had 200,000 subscribers to 11 newsletters, with an average open rate of 52%. That same month, Axios said it would use a new $20 million investment to expand data analysis, product development, fund audience growth, and increase staff to 150, up from 89. In March and April 2019, HuffPost and Wired reported that Axios had paid a firm to improve its reputation by lobbying for changes to the Wikipedia articles on Axios and Jonathan Swan.
Content
The content is designed to live on digital platforms, such as Facebook and Snapchat, as well as its own website. Reporters have made appearances on television news on NBC News and MSNBC through a deal with NBC. Its NBC Universal partnership has featured Axios co-founder Mike Allen on its show Morning Joe. Content is distributed via newsletters covering politics, technology, healthcare, and other subjects. Among the newsletters is a daily report by Mike Allen, who formerly wrote the Playbook newsletter for Politico. Typical articles are shorter than 300 words. In 2018 the editors of the literary magazinen+1 identified Axios as an example of a new style of writing that "is simultaneously careful and strident, low-key and declarative" in order to cater to impatient readers. They noted that "Axios, whose name is a cross between a defense contractor and an aggressive men's deodorant, has dispensed with everything but theses and bullet points."
