CNET Sold For a Pittance; Axios Lays Off 50
August 7, 2024
4:56 am
Red Ventures paid $500M for CNET/ZDNet in 2020 and this week sold them for $100M. Kaput went its plan to use AI to monetize content.
>> Axios
Axios Will Outflank AI By Lionizing Edit Stars
April 12, 2024
10:47 am
That’s the strategy as expressed to NYT’s Katie Robertson by Axios CEO Jim VandeHei. First up: Eleanor Hawkins, Sara Fischer and Dan Primack.
Pitch Advice from 6 at Axios
August 24, 2022
9:41 am
A recent edition of the new Axios Communicators newsletter offered pitch advice from five Axios reporters and a co-founder. Newsletter author Eleanor Hawkins polled her colleagues on what PR folks need to be told.
Odds & Ends
May 12, 2022
9:57 am
Bradley Davis left the New York Post to become director of business news at Insider. There he will oversee reporters who cover breaking news for
Axios Launches Five Vertical Newsletters
January 27, 2022
8:25 am
Axios Pro officially launched last week. It comprises three verticals focused on “PE, VC and M&A” news in fintech, health tech and retail. Later this year, look for climate and media verticals. Price: $599 a year for each vertical, after a 14-day free trial.
Odds & Ends
January 13, 2022
11:06 am
Former InformationWeek reporter David Carr has joined Similarweb as senior insights manager. He’ll be mining data and sharing analyses on Similarweb’s blog. SWMS will be
Odds & Ends
November 30, 2021
9:33 am
Peter Allen Clark left Time to become technology editor at Axios…Lucinda Shen left Fortune to join Axios, too — she will cover fintech there… Kyle Alspach left CRN to cover security for VentureBeat…
Two Questions: Kia Kokalitcheva, Axios
April 29, 2021
8:07 am
SWMS contributor Rhiannon Pacheco writes: “Growing up in the heart of Silicon Valley, Kia Kokalitcheva grew up discussing tech over the dinner table with her engineer father — it was inevitable that she’d end up working in tech. As VC and tech reporter at Axios, and in her former work at Fortune and VentureBeat, she’s had access to the tech scene’s who’s who.”
Profile: Ina Fried, Axios
July 20, 2020
5:06 pm
Axios newsletter author Ina Fried discusses her views of virtual events large and small, and the single most important thing PR pros should do when preparing to pitch.
Axios ‘Smart Brevity’ — A New Standard for Internal Comms?
September 20, 2019
1:35 pm
By now you know about Axios and its “smart brevity” (which an Axios comms pro once described as “going deep, writing short”). More than a slogan, smart brevity is a bullet-based, easily scannable writing style designed to convey information clearly at a glance. And now it’s more than a writing style…
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FRIDGE NOTES
Follow Anthropic’s Steve Mnich For Guidance on Claude
September 9, 2024
Steve is a longtime friend of SWMS and worked at subscriber LaunchSquad before moving on to IBM, Salesforce and now Anthropic. Steve knows exactly how to harness Claude’s power for comms purposes. Follow him and learn.
Google Hoses Publishers
September 5, 2024
Press Gazette has a great story about Google reintroducing AI summaries into search results — less so in queries about breaking news, but definitely when someone searches for trend or how-to info. Convenient for users, maybe… but publishers stand to lose a ton of long-tail traffic because of this. No wonder the vast majority of publisher “innovation” is about commerce or consulting and no longer builds upon journalism.
MIA: CNBC’s ‘My Biggest Lessons’
September 5, 2024
CNBC Make It had a popular video franchise called My Biggest Lessons, in which CEOs shared something valuable that they learned along the way. No new segments have appeared since May 31. We’ll monitor this for you.
Fortune Succeeding In Edit But Not In Sales
August 29, 2024
Great reporting from Mark Stenberg at Adweek. Two departures on the sales side seem to have hurt. The story also suggests that former Fortune CEO Alan Murray — who said he was retiring — may turn up at WSJ. Fortune is said to have released Murray from his noncompete, taking his word that he was ending his career.
Adweek subscription required.
The Fortune Five: Where Are They Now?
August 24, 2024
Ten months ago SWMS spotlighted five up-and-coming Fortune reporters, suggesting that PR get to know these rookies. Where are they now? Jane Thier continues to excel in the Success section. Ruth Umoh now edits Next To Lead. Kylie Robison split for The Verge. Rachyl Jones is a fellow at Semafor. Alexandra Sternlicht this summer won a Knight-Bagehot fellowship at Columbia. Competition for this is brutal — congrats Alexandra!