“Everybody was having the same problem I was having at a personal level, which is getting hit with more content than ever before and not knowing what to trust at the same time.”
— Jim VandeHei, founder of Axios and co-founder of Politico
Before starting Axios, Jim VandeHei was inundated with news content. He didn’t know what to read first, what mattered, or what to trust. From there, he set out on a journey to create efficient, effective content consumption: a headline, quick synthesis, and a “why it matters” analysis. Readers also have the option to dig deeper with a longer article, which is always accompanied by an estimated reading time. With 11.8 monthly unique visitors, Axios’ format is changing content consumption rapidly.
On this episode of The Speed of Culture, join Jim and Suzy founder and CEO Matt Britton to explore Jim’s transition from journalist at The Washington Post to co-founding Politico and, ultimately, founding Axios and launching the Smart Brevity content format. They’ll discuss:
- How Jim’s time as a journalist prepared him for founding and becoming CEO of two companies: Axios and Politico
- Why effective advertising is imperative for the continuation of free journalism
- The idea that birthed Axios: efficient content consumption, and how it’s changing our media landscape
- Axios HQ – the software, and how it’s using the “Smart Brevity” format to help businesses disseminate essential information
