--- title: "Axios Partners With OpenAI to “Automate” Local Journalism" description: "Axios co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei has swiftly embraced AI, telling his journalists that they \"don't have a choice.\"" date: "2026-08-16" modified: "2026-08-16" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/axios-ceo-ai-journalism-openai-chatgpt" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "Future Society" - "OpenAI" --- # Axios Partners With OpenAI to “Automate” Local Journalism ![A color-treated photo of a stack of newspapers.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* 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. Detractors who [blasted the brand]() 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. Speaking [to the *Columbia Journalism Review*](), the publication's co-founder Jim VandeHei described himself as an "AI lab rat" after *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 *Axios* content to train ChatGPT. Asked 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." "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." As journalistic standards go, the move is dubious. *Axios* routinely covers developments in the [tech industry]() in general, and [OpenAI]() in particular — meaning there's a major conflict of interest undergirding the pair's relationship. VandeHei, in turn, has been pretty explicit about what that means for his writers: embrace AI, or good luck finding another job in journalism. "We were early to basically telling our staff that 'you don't have a choice,'" the *Axios* co-founder [said]() 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." **More on AI and media:** *[Remember the Publisher That Put Fake Writers in Sports Illustrated? It Just Rebranded as an AI Company]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()