Axios Finish Line: Most difficult media moment ever
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
William Lewis, publisher of The Washington Post, and Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal — two British leaders pushing radical changes at two revered American media brands — are getting pelted with criticism and constant leaks by their staffs.
- The gripes: The execs are moving too fast, too bluntly, too haphazardly to change their storied newspapers, knowing little about how U.S. media really works. Media writers lap it up: It's a juicy story. Deep down, they — like other reporters — fear they could be next.
Why it matters: It's fair to fault stylistic choices. Lewis — facing continuing investigations of ethics controversies from his work in his native U.K. — has trashed the Post's plummeting traffic and even his own reporters. But Lewis and Tucker are spot-on in their belief that media — even their great American brands — is broken. Only urgent, dramatic change will save most companies.
The big picture: We've had a front-row seat for this startling reality. We co-created Politico in 2007, the dawn of the Great Media Disruption, then Axios in 2017, in the thick of our industry's precipitous decline. We got lucky: We built both companies in Washington, with a big emphasis on politics and power — two topics that to this day drive lots of readership and revenue.
- So I can say this with full confidence and humility: This is the most difficult environment for media in my lifetime. And it's not close. And it's not easily fixed.
Everyone in media must understand the indisputable facts:
- Social media is dying as a reliable source of readers. First, these platforms gobbled up the attention traditional media once dominated. Then, they ate the vast majority of our revenue by micro-targeting ads to their massive audiences. Then, they seduced publishers with promises of riches to create content for them. Now, they're downplaying news. Facebook accounted for 30% of Axios traffic two years ago. It was about 1% in May!
- Speaking of traffic, almost everyone is losing it. A lot of it. At Axios, we're still growing ours, but that's an anomaly when you look across the landscape. Lewis found the Post has lost half its monthly audience since 2020. Imagine half as many people going to a car dealer or restaurant.
- Oh, it's going to get worse. Even if generative AI turns out to be wildly overhyped, which I don't think will happen, the one thing it has the potential to do amazingly well — if it solves its problem distinguishing fact from fiction — is synthesize and answer questions about the news.
- Consumer subscriptions are seen as a possible savior. It's a mirage. The people most likely to pay for news already have, to the benefit of The New York Times, the Journal and a few others who captured these readers early. The new reality: Each new subscription is harder than the last.
- Finding new readers anywhere is growing harder by the day. Our news ecosystem has shattered into dozens of pieces — kids on TikTok, young women on Instagram, moms on Facebook, right-wingers on right-wing islands, left-wingers on left-wing islands. One edgy voice can command the attention of hundreds of reporters at a big media company.
What's next: We in the media need to do more with less; demand excellence at all levels at all times, like other free-market industries; confidently and quickly throw out ideas that no longer work; jump on new ideas and technologies to do things better, faster and more efficiently; and listen closer to what readers like you want or need — then deliver it without dithering.
- There'll be zero market for mediocrity — or long, boring stories that might win prizes but go unread.
The bottom line: What we do at our best — great, reported attempts to get to the closest approximation of the truth — matters profoundly. It's getting harder — and we need you more than ever.
What you can do: If you value the clinical, insightful coverage of Axios, invite your friends and colleagues to sign up here.
