Media is evolving at the speed of AI: the open web is deteriorating, search is shrinking, LLMs are increasing, hyper-personalization is exploding, old revenue models are collapsing.
- AI threatens to end what algorithms started: completely upending journalism as we know it. The only certainty: what follows will be as different as the pre- and post-digital eras.
- After studying and experimenting with AI for the past two years, we’re betting big on how serious journalism can flourish in an AI world.
The big idea: We believe the value of verified, reported, distinctive truth and curated human connection will increase. The desire for human connection and the demand for human expertise will only increase.
The big picture: At Axios, we’re doing what we did ten years ago when we launched, and two decades ago at Politico: building the direction technology and the world are headed.
- We’re sharing our thesis – and our plans – to help spark a deeper, industry-wide debate about preserving the best in media for the future. Some parts are controversial or based on our own assumptions. We welcome this decline.
What’s next: We assume that Einstein-level intelligence will be available to everyone on all subjects. We envision a shift in media consumption toward new AI platforms and devices that know us as intimately as we know ourselves. Our lives and minds will be organized beyond imagination. Our knowledge, our habits, our tastes and our work will blend fully into our screens, our pins or our bracelets.
The biggest threat in this coming reality: Who needs “news” from journalists when their AI tells them what they need to know, when they want to know it?
- Indeed, we assume that passive news consumers will find AI curation totally satiating, much like they did with scrolling. Thus, general and indistinct news fades.
- But for serious news consumers – those who regularly seek high-quality information about their world, their passions and their community – the demand for human-reviewed and fact-checked content will increase.
- This is true for both the consumer and businesses: they will need information beyond what everyone else gets from machines alone, as well as verified information – and human audiences. They will demand more than AI can give them.
What this looks like for Axios
- Harnessing AI to save local journalism and serve communities. Adding to the power of Axios Local’s more than 100 journalists from coast to coast, we will soon unveil an Axios Local “super system” that uses AI to track government action, community data and upcoming events. This will give local journalists more time for their local reporting. We hope the Super System will allow us to hire journalists in hundreds, if not thousands, of communities and revitalize a dying industry. This will be one of the most impactful examples of using AI to create jobs in journalism and contribute to the public good at scale. It’s as big as the original Axios and is a great example of the benefits of AI.
- Getting a Head Start on AI Curation. We launch specific products based not only on topics but also job titles. We’re starting at the top with new verticals for CEOs, CMOs, CCOs, COOs, CFOs and other senior executives. All jobs move faster than anyone can handle them. It will therefore be vital to understand AI and current events from this angle. One of the most common elements of an AI prompt is stating what you are doing. Our products are therefore designed for today and for the next LLM shift. We will also continue to expand into new niches, such as forward-looking space defense, all written by journalists with deep subject matter expertise.
- Go beyond the open web. Search is dying and bots are polluting the web. So we created a new business line, Axios Direct, to sell clear, real-time feeds of our verified news and information to businesses and others. Companies create their own LLMs and pay to ingest truly quality reports, opening up a new revenue stream that incentivizes quality. We want to help clean up the information ecosystem: third-party data shows that the Axios format and expert-driven approach help us outperform in AI results. And we work with organizations to restructure their own content in a more user-friendly way to reduce misinformation about their work and products within AI.
- Accelerate human connection. We believe we are on the cusp of a renaissance of human connection: the better AI gets, the more people will crave and seek out in-person connection. So we are significantly expanding our global, national and local events, and experimenting with hosting dinners and meet-ups in communities large and small. The Axios Social Club recently brought together more than 1,300 readers in 40 Axios Local markets for dinner with their neighbors. This is the power of Axios in real life.
What will not change: Journalism is only valuable if it is reliable, useful and enlightening. Only journalists can get people to share or disclose information, fully understand the nuances of sources and stories, demand accountability, and offer in-depth analysis based on both data and person-to-person interactions.
- We have a responsibility, indeed a moral obligation, to protect and develop this vital information. A world moving at the speed of AI demands it.
Axios of the future
Axios 2028: Fast forward two years. Axios is dedicated to covering the most important stories, jobs and communities, with the broadest journalism presence in America. With teams on the ground everywhere, we are the most trusted human source for human-verified news and information.
- We connect people with truth, ideas and each other. We are proving the necessity and business value of the human layer beyond anything AI brings. And we do it while scaling the values and ethics that brought Axios to this new vision and mission. AI is leveraged at every level of every division with the goal of delivering human-verified truth.
Axios 2030: Content consumption is completely personalized and entirely orchestrated by AI and new devices. The transition from the open web to LLMs is complete. The economics and capabilities allow for breathtaking personalization: their company, their board of directors, their competitors, their children’s school district, their personal passions.
- Most content is packaged into individualized AI feeds, constantly adapting to minds and interests. Humans will crave distinction and connection. Axios will serve them inside and outside of LLMs, during physical events and perhaps encrypted streams beyond the reach of the AI.
The essentials: It seems futuristic, even strange, to write about this titanic change that is taking place. But the speed of change will only intensify. Media, like all industries, has a short window to adapt.
Gn tech
