Local journalism in the US has spent the better part of two decades on life support.
First came widespread digitization, 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 run by skeleton crews.
Add 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.
That 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.
