Jim VandeHei: How Axios is navigating a post-news era
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Axios CEO Jim VandeHei writes:
America's information ecosystem is badly broken, deeply polluted and increasingly dangerous.
Too many people are lost. They don't know what or whom to trust, what actually matters — or what's even real. Confusion, anxiety and mistrust are soaring. AI will make this worse before it gets better.
- This is bad for everyone, bad for America.
Why it matters: Axios is hellbent on being part of the solution. We've succeeded, in our first decade, in making vital topics easier to consume and understand for smart professionals. But all of us, Axios included, need to help clean up how realities are formed — and informed.
We launched Axios to combat what we termed the "crap trap" — the perverted incentive of traditional media to mass-produce clickbait nonsense to drive engagement and higher valuations. We warned this was a fool's path.
- But the problem today is even bigger, deeper and more urgent than the "crap trap." We're losing our grip on a common reality, as news itself plays a smaller role in shaping it.
The big picture: We've entered the post-news era. Your reality — how you see the world — is no longer defined by "the news." Instead, it's shaped by the videos you watch, the podcasts you listen to, the people you follow on social media and know in person, and the reporting you consume.
- We've entered a period where everyone has their own individual reality, usually by age, profession, passions, politics and platform preferences.
- Our previous columns on what we call the "shards of glass" phenomenon show how attention is shattering into countless pieces.
What traditional news media companies can do is to be useful, trusted, illuminating sources of vital information that's vetted by experts held to high standards of accuracy and truthfulness. That calling is more important than ever.
- That's what Axios aspires to every day. We're imperfect — but proud of how we've helped millions get smarter, faster on what matters most. And proud we did this without an opinion page pumping out more partisan noise.
- Actual reporting — surprising, useful, previously unknown facts, rooted out by expert, trusted journalists, and revealed to the world on a trusted platform — is rarer than ever, and more valuable than ever.
Now, we want to grow even more useful, more clinical and more trusted by more people. So in 2026, we're committed to four big goals:
1. Focus on the three once-in-a-generation changes unfolding in real-time. Yes, we'll cover the most important news of the day. But three tectonic shifts will command our attention:
- The dramatic effects of AI on business, society and work: Our technologies — in the speed, power, and life-enhancing or society-crippling capacities of AI — are the story of our generation. We will bluntly cover the good, the bad and the ugly of AI.
- The dramatic shift in politics and governance: Both parties are reinventing themselves — and their tactics — in real time. We want to amplify the most sweeping and substantive changes.
- The equally dramatic shift in how our realities form based on where we get our information, whom we trust, and what and who controls our minds. We want to help readers understand and navigate this tectonic shift.
2. Help readers navigate this historic change. We're evolving the focus of our nightly Finish Line newsletter to include more practical, real-world tactics, tools and knowledge for navigating these big, fast shifts. This will include everything from how to use AI to how to build healthier media diets. Don't worry, Finish Line fans: We'll keep it upbeat and useful, and toss in our usual happiness and hopefulness hacks.
3. Fight fake fire with factual fire. We'll better arm you with real-time facts about the vital topics of the day. So much garbage gets shared on social media, whether memes, misinformation or AI slop. We'll use our news teams to combat this by offering clinical data, stats and facts to enable readers to fight fraudulent content with truth.
- All of us, deep down, want to help people get smarter, faster on the big, lasting stuff. We vow to do our small part.
4. Expand Axios Local to more cities and towns. We're finding it's often easiest to develop trusting relationships the closer you are to readers' homes. We're now in 34 cities, but will soon expand to seven new suburbs to test our ability to create viable businesses in smaller communities. This is part of building a local Super System to one day revive news in every community, large and small.
Our ask of you: Please be quick to share feedback and ideas. We serve a premium audience and deeply appreciate your input. We're humbled by the daily input, from CEOs to students. If you find us useful and trustworthy, please tell your friends and share our content.
- Nicholas Johnston, our publisher, reads and responds to every note, so hit him up here: [email protected]. (If you're interested in bringing Local to your hometown, email Nick about that, too!)
We realize this is an epic moment, with politics, technology and our realities changing with rare velocity. We want to help you navigate this with clinical, useful and illuminating coverage.
- Thank you for caring about truth & reality!
