Allison Murphy, COO of Axios, joined me to discuss the evolution of Axios Local five years in. Axios plans to be in 43 cities by the end of the year. It is adapting its franchise model to build around individual reporters. In this model, the journalist becomes “talent” for multi-facated businesses, with Axios providing the support structure, shared services and a small team. We touch on how using AI tools can enable this kind of small-team approach. Sponsored by beehiiv, the modern email platform used by major brands like Time, Newsweek and TechCrunch. See how beehiiv powers leading media brands Chapters: 00:00 Beehiiv Sponsor Spotlight 01:18 Meet Axios COO Allison 01:44 Whats Working Now 03:00 Revenue Events Memberships 04:02 Axios Local Five Year Check 04:24 Scaling Cities Lean Teams 06:37 AI Tools For Reporters 09:28 Profitability Through Scale 11:58 Local Ads National Buys 15:03 Utility First Local News 17:58 Original Reporting Vs Curation 20:03 Finding The Right Content Mix 23:23 Scaling Local Newsrooms 24:17 Next Wave Smaller Markets 25:16 Membership Contribution Engine 26:13 Perks Pricing And Growth 28:20 Building Star Reporter Franchises 32:51 Are Newsletters Still Core 35:55 Video YouTube And New Bets 38:01 AI Audio Automation Experiments 39:35 Reshaping Teams With AI 41:53 More Reporters Less Overhead 44:25 Transparent Future Of Work 45:01 Wrap Up And Thanks