Axios uses artificial intelligence to help its Local reporters produce more high-impact local journalism, the company said in a blog post.
The company says it applies AI across the workflow, from story creation to editing to distribution, to drive scale and efficiency so a single reporter can launch and sustain coverage in a city.
Axios built a custom GPT, the Axiomizer, to refine copy: reporters submit drafts and the tool suggests sharper headlines and clearer “Why it matters,” “What’s next,” and “Between the lines” sections, while adding editing and style checks so editors can focus on judgment calls.
“[AI] has already become central in how we do the work of Axios Local,” Allison Murphy, Chief Operating Officer, Axios, said.
Axios describes practical gains: the publisher launched one-reporter operations in Boulder and Huntsville, Alabama, and uses AI to pre-vet curated news roundups and to convert quarterly audience surveys into one-page city summaries in under a day.
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“We want to make it so that a reporter can spend all of their time doing the unique work that only an expert human reporter can do,” Allison Murphy said, and AI is framed as handling production busywork.
OpenAI has partnered with Axios to fund expansion of Axios Local to additional cities, the blog post says, and Axios also uses ChatGPT to support research, analysis, and drafts of internal communications as part of those newsroom workflows.
The recap
Axios deploys AI across story creation, editing, and distribution workflows
Axiomizer GPT suggests headlines, "Why it matters," and "What's next"
OpenAI funds Axios Local expansion to Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Boulder, Huntsville