Is Axios the Answer?
Axios put out a press release yesterday that produced nary a ripple in the industry but may very well provide a glimpse into the very future of the news business. The Arlington, Virginia based company announced the creation of a “Centralized News Hub” to bridge the newsroom’s national and local coverage. By way of background, Axios has a website and a very wide variety of daily newsletters that focus on national and international news. They also have local newsletters reporting on the goings on in about two dozen cities around the country. If things go according to plan, that number will expand to 100 cities in the not too distant future.
According to the Axios release:
“the centralized news hub will feature a new team of reporters and editors will synthesize reporting from Axios’ national news team and Axios Local cities to identify key stories and trends emerging across the country. Hub reporters will also produce data-driven coverage, special weekend reports, and city guides for Axios Local newsletters, breaking down how national trends impact readers’ communities, and the latest updates in key areas like entertainment, real estate and sports.”
And, just like that, a hub & spoke system featuring a single national/international and local news brand is born. Local news teams feed a national hub which aggregates the best of those stories while adding its own national and international news content. The Axios aspirational strategy has been apparent since launch in 2016, but becomes a reality at a time when local media, newspaper and television, are experiencing a tsunami-type upheaval with legacy brands losing relevance by the day or just disappearing altogether. On the TV side, the network/affiliate relationship has never been weaker and the idea of having to watch multiple newscast to get a full 360 view of the day’s events is well past obsolete. In fact, unless you’re 65+ it’s really a laughable notion. The newspapers that remain are a shell of their former selves and most haven’t been able to crack the code of a profitable digital transition.
One simple brand for everything I need, news-wise, is an attractive proposition from a consumer perspective. It’s also pretty cost efficient and expands the ad revenue potential of the company through expanded reach of both national and local content that moves from hub to spokes and spokes to hub. Of course, Axios isn’t the only media company moving in this direction. Scripps, Nexstar, and Sinclair, for example, have all made similar strategic moves, pursuing a TV based hub and spoke-type system with internal national news networks and a whole bunch of local TV stations. It’s clear they’re preparing for a singularity in brand as well, albeit a much more traditional and expensive version.
The Axios offering is relatively small, manageable, cheap, and more in line with the way news is being consumed these days, unlike the others that are really more akin to Hail Mary attempts in an effort to find a metric for relevance and continued existence. To date, the Axios product, like most newsletters, is text based. However, when they decide to efficiently add video to the equation - and I believe they should for all kinds of reasons - that could be game, set, match for our clunky, legacy media friends. Stay tuned…