<\/p>\n
Axios has cut 11 newsroom roles as it pivots away from general assignment reporting towards specialist journalists with deep subject expertise.<\/p>\n
The move underscores a broader shift in digital media, where publishers are betting that authority and niche knowledge , rather than scale , will drive audience growth and revenue, particularly as artificial intelligence reshapes how news is produced and consumed.<\/p>\n
The layoffs affect staff across national and local coverage, including the news desk, visuals and social teams. In a memo to employees first reported by the New York Times, publisher Nicholas Johnston said the cuts were part of building a \u201cnewsroom of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The changes follow a clear shift in hiring strategy. Last week, chief executive Jim VandeHei posted a recruitment message on X calling for \u201ctrue subject matter experts\u201d and pointing to correspondents Barak Ravid and Sara Fischer as models.<\/p>\n
\u201cObsession, experience, and a desire to dominate your topic are must-haves,\u201d said VandeHei, chief executive of Axios. \u201cNot interested in generalists or ideological writers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the company is open to hiring journalists, independent writers and industry specialists willing to move into reporting roles.<\/p>\n
Johnston said Axios would continue expanding its Axios Local network while introducing more automation into newsroom workflows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re starting to see how AI can help us automate some tasks to focus humans on our most consequential work,\u201d said Johnston, publisher of Axios.<\/p>\n
He added that the company would continue to \u201cfocus our energy where human journalists win.\u201d
\nThe cuts follow earlier reductions, including 50 roles in August 2024 and 19 business-side positions in November. Despite this, Axios said it exceeded its revenue targets for 2025.<\/p>\n
VandeHei has argued that constant change in technology and audience behaviour requires media companies to adapt quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are just shifting faster than at any point in humanity,\u201d said VandeHei, chief executive of Axios. \u201cYou just have to find ways as a business and as an individual to keep up and to evolve, and that makes people nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Axios has cut 11 newsroom roles as it pivots away from general assignment reporting towards specialist journalists with deep subject expertise. The move underscores a broader shift in digital media, where publishers are betting that authority and niche knowledge , rather than scale , will drive audience growth and revenue, particularly as artificial intelligence reshapes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-publishing-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21748,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21746\/revisions\/21748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}