Axios has made $1M in revenue from its eight-month-old software licensing business

October 14, 2021

By Kayleigh Barber

Axios has spun up a seven-figure software licensing business in less than a year.

In February, Axios launched Axios HQ, its software-as-a-service business that is designed to teach companies how to write it its trademarked editorial style of “Smart Brevity” for internal communications. After just eight months, HQ has earned over $1 million in software licensing, which starts at $10,000 for an annual contract, and is projected to hit $1.5 million by the end of the year, according to Axios HQ’s general manager Jordan Zaslav. The business made an additional $2 million from its professional services offerings, which provides clients with white-glove management training in “smart brevity.” To date, 30 clients have paid for these services in addition to the software licensing, some paying upwards of six figures for an annual contract.

“I view this as, ‘Can we be a Bloomberg? Can we have a terminal business and a news business?’ In our case, we would have this communication business and a news business,” said Roy Schwartz, Axios’s co-founder and president.

Through Axios HQ, Axios provides licensees with email templates for different types of memos (currently there are six templates available); an AI editing program, similar to Grammarly, that provides suggestions for succinct and thoughtful phrasing; and analytics software that tells senders info about any given email sent through the platform, like open rates and engagement.

Currently, HQ has 150 clients, many of which fall in the expected category of small- to mid-sized companies, but also includes blue-chip companies, like Delta Airlines, local governments, and even educational institutions, like Austin Independent School District, which uses HQ to communicate with parents, students and staff. A small portion of these clients have previously advertised with Axios, but Zaslav said his team is not trying to sell HQ as an add-on to media buys. He did not give precise pricing for extended HQ contracts.

The buildup of Axios HQ could help address criticism that Axios, as a media company, has not sufficiently diversified its revenue streams. Media conglomerate Axel Springer had been in talks to acquire Axios but eventually decided against the purchase because of Axios’ lack of revenue diversification, Digiday previously reported. Axios’ revenue diversification efforts have extended beyond HQ to include becoming a local news publisher in 25 markets across the U.S., creating a $5 million business in one year. This past spring, the newsletter publisher toyed with the idea of merging with digital sports publisher The Athletic and forming an SPAC in an effort to acquire a subscriptions business but seems to have decided against that.

Axios HQ is currently operated by 45 people, 27 of whom were hired after Feb. 1 of this year. In growing this team, the company promoted Zaslav from senior director of strategy to general manager of Axios HQ and is in the process of hiring a chief technical officer who will focus exclusively on the HQ business.

The experts who helped craft the “smart brevity” style are …read more

Source:: Digiday

      

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