BREAKING: Axios lays off 10% of total staff

In a memo sent to employees, obtained by The Washington Post’s Katie Robertson, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei said the company was making "some difficult changes to adapt fast to a rapidly changing media landscape."

"We’re eliminating around 50 positions to get ahead of tectonic shifts in the media, technology and reader needs/habits. This is a painful but necessary move to tighten our strategic focus and shift investment to our core growth areas," he wrote.

He said the decision to layoff staff came "because of changes in the media business."

"As I've said before, this is the most difficult moment for media in our lifetime. Only those who move fast — and make difficult, decisive moves — will thrive," he said, adding that the company will "continue to fire in key areas" but they "cannot ignore the changes around us" that include a shift in reader attention and behavior, AI "pushing us to a technological inflection point where models can summarize news, at the same time Facebook, X and search are faltering as reliable traffic standbys," and "New rivals are emerging to go after our core business and out top talent."

"Yes, we’re doing better than others in our competitive set — by growing readership, rapidly expanding events and high-end subscriptions, and cranking out vital content for a demanding audience," VandeHei wrote, adding that "yes, we’ll grow revenue and audience year-over-year. But we need to stay steps ahead of changes unfolding fast across American media."

He said that those whose jobs were affected would receive a company email shortly after they received the memo with information about severance packages and an invite for a meeting with a leader of their team and a member of the People Team. "We wanted to tell each of you in person first, but the mechanics of that proved infeasible."