When executives at Axios wanted to launch a TV program in 2018 to spotlight its insider-y reporting and journalism chops, they turned to HBO. Now, the upstart news hub has new plans for video outreach — and is going solo.
“The Axios Show,” a five-episode video series from the outlet known for delivering big news in concise descriptions, is slated to debut later in September, and will run through the end of the year. The company has enlisted Uber as a presenting sponsor of the program, says Aja Whitaker-Moore, Axios’ editor in chief, during a recent interview. The series will surface on Axios’ own properties, YouTube and X, with clips distributed via other digital media, she says, and the company will determine at some point if there is support for producing more episodes.
A series on a glitzy traditional media outlet still has value. After all, “Axios on HBO” won an Emmy before ending a 57-episode run in 2021 as the Warner Bros. Discovery outlet focused less on news programming. Yet “a lot has changed in years since the show ended,” says Whitaker-Moore, “and I think not just as a new producer, but as a news consumer, people are consuming information and news in a very different way than they have previously, and we think that our YouTube audience, our X audience and the audience we’ve built on our website –- this is the way they want to receive information now.”
In a not-too-distant era, emerging new-media outlets including Vice and Buzzfeed found added cachet by teaming up with traditional media companies. Like Axios, Vice had a news series on HBO, while Buzzfeed counted NBCUniversal as one of its more significant investors. Now with the barriers to entry to publishing information largely eradicated by social media and technology, such alliances may not be as immediately essential.
Axios isn’t the only journalistic entity learning the lesson. A horde of former mainstream editorial practitioners have jumped from outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other venues to run their own newsletters, digital-video programs and other creator-driven projects. In some cases, these ventures prove scalable and easily monetized. Still, not everyone can create an instant hit.
Axios sees the video series as one more piece of a portfolio that includes the company’s signature newsletters as well as live events and other revenue generators. Executives hope the series brings new eyeballs to its products, says Whitaker-Moore, while expanding the engagement the company already has with current customers. “We are always trying to branch out and find new audiences because the way to bridge the gap between the divides that we have in this country is bringing clinical factual information to everyone, everywhere, when they need it,” she says.
She offered no immediate word on subjects or guests for the episodes but said the program would embody Axios’ “smart brevity” format. Episodes will likely last 20 to 30 minutes, not an hour. They may feature Axios founders Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, she says, but will also include the company’s many journalists offering “fresh, timely conversations that take you beyond the headlines of the day.” Newsmakers from the worlds of politics, business, technology, media and culture could appear in the series.
Axios’ HBO program gave its staffers added visibility on their beats just as the company, which launched in 2016, was building on early business momentum. One former Axios reporter, Washington correspondent Jonathan Swan, gained viral recognition for an interview he did with President Donald Trump late in his first term as the coronavirus pandemic swirled around the world.
“If somebody has an amazing breakthrough interview and becomes a meme, we support that,” says Whitaker-Moore. “We welcome bigger halos for our reporters, always.”
