Jim VandeHei Talks About Everything Axios, Past and Future

My guest this week is Jim VandeHei, co-founder and CEO of Axios. In this hour long conversation, we talked about the importance of advertising for the main business and why they never paywalled that, the company’s expansion into niche subscriptions, events, local news, entertainment, and software, how they've structured the team to build these various division. We also dug into a couple of M&A what-ifs tied to Politico and The Athletic, and then ended with his new book, Just the Good Stuff. I hope you enjoy our discussion.

Om Podcasten

A Media Operator is a community for entrepreneurs and operators in the digital media space. This podcast is a natural extension of the newsletter (www.amediaoperator.com) and community that has already been built. Each week, I will interview entrepreneurs and operators that are building these media companies. Over the course of approximately an hour, we'll discuss their businesses, their success and failures, and, ultimately, what they learned about building media companies. This podcast will provide actionable insights for current and prospective media operators. That means we're not only talking strategies in media, but also the tactics. We'll be diving into business models, audience development, subscription, commerce, advertising, audio, video—you name it, we'll be discussing it. A Media Operator is also very much about niche media. That doesn't mean small. To me, niche media means depth. We should celebrate these stories and there are plenty of them. On this podcast, you'll finally hear them. Wherever you listen to podcasts, hit that subscribe button so you know when I release an episode. As the show starts, considering rating it and leaving a comment so I know how I'm doing. I view A Media Operator as a tool for you; if I'm failing, I want to know. Thanks for tuning in today and I'll be talking with you soon.