{"slug": "axios-partners-with-openai-to-automate-local-journalism", "title": "Axios Partners With OpenAI to “Automate” Local Journalism", "summary": "Axios, a for-profit media company majority-owned by Cox Enterprises, has signed a three-year agreement with OpenAI to underwrite 13 local newsletters, giving OpenAI access to all Axios content to train ChatGPT while Axios staff get free access to OpenAI's content-generating tools. Co-founder Jim VandeHei told the Columbia Journalism Review that staff have 'no choice' but to embrace AI, saying 'If you're scared, if you don't like it, we don't care — you have to embrace it.' The move raises conflict-of-interest concerns as Axios routinely covers OpenAI.", "body_md": "Local journalism in the US has spent the better part of two decades on life support.\n\nFirst came [widespread digitization](https://time.com/archive/6907428/a-brief-history-of-digital-news/), which guttered subscriptions and left newspapers and magazines in shambles. Then private equity swooped in, snapping up publications like candy and [turning them into digital ad farms](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/18/is-wall-street-to-blame-for-the-collapse-of-newspapers-00141920) run by skeleton crews.\n\nAdd to this a steady erosion of trust in journalism and a drop-off in literacy overall, and the industry looks to be in worse than perhaps ever before. Yet, as the saying goes, things can always get worse — and one media company seems determined to drive the final nail into local news’ coffin.\n\nThat company is *Axios*, a for-profit media corporation majority-owned by communications giant Cox Enterprises. Founded in 2016, *Axios* rose to prominence by offering dispatches in the form of short, clinical bullet-point lists instead of traditional narrative stories.\n\nDetractors who [blasted the brand](https://newrepublic.com/article/152005/axios-distillation-political-journalisms-worst-instincts) for its cynical approach to journalism probably had no idea how bad things would get. Now, the company’s founders seem hell bent on automating their already pared-down editorial process in an all-out embrace of AI — and using the template to remake local journalism.\n\nSpeaking [to the Columbia Journalism Review](https://www.cjr.org/feature/axios-wants-to-save-local-news-with-ai-jim-vandehei-tech-newsletters.php), the publication’s co-founder Jim VandeHei described himself as an “AI lab rat” after\n\n*Axios*inked a three-year agreement for OpenAI to underwrite 13 local newsletters that will get free access to its content-generating tools. In exchange, OpenAI will get open access to all\n\n*Axios*content to train ChatGPT.\n\nAsked about the perception of his embrace of AI, VandeHei said “we try not to get distracted by what other people in the quote-unquote media think.”\n\n“I’m not delusional,” he continued, “I just don’t have a whole lot of time for people who are AI deniers. Like, good luck.”\n\nAs journalistic standards go, the move is dubious. *Axios* routinely covers developments in the [tech industry](https://www.axios.com/technology/automation-and-ai) in general, and [OpenAI](https://www.axios.com/2026/08/06/openai-chatgpt-upgrades-luna-free-paid) in particular — meaning there’s a major conflict of interest undergirding the pair’s relationship.\n\nVandeHei, in turn, has been pretty explicit about what that means for his writers: embrace AI, or good luck finding another job in journalism.\n\n“We were early to basically telling our staff that ‘you don’t have a choice,'” the *Axios* co-founder [said](https://forum.openai.com/public/videos/ai-in-newsrooms-responsible-innovation-and-the-future-of-journalism-2026-03-19) during a panel hosted by OpenAI. “If you’re scared, if you don’t like it, we don’t care — you have to embrace it.”\n\n**More on AI and media: **[Remember the Publisher That Put Fake Writers in Sports Illustrated? It Just Rebranded as an AI Company](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sports-illustrated-the-arena-group-paradium-ai)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axios-partners-with-openai-to-automate-local-journalism", "canonical_source": "https://futurism.com/future-society/axios-ceo-ai-journalism-openai-chatgpt", "published_at": "2026-08-16 11:02:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-16 11:11:33.285833+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Axios", "OpenAI", "Cox Enterprises", "Jim VandeHei", "ChatGPT", "Columbia Journalism Review"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axios-partners-with-openai-to-automate-local-journalism", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axios-partners-with-openai-to-automate-local-journalism.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axios-partners-with-openai-to-automate-local-journalism.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axios-partners-with-openai-to-automate-local-journalism.jsonld"}}