Jim VandeHei
Co-founder and CEO, Axios. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutivejournalistauthor@JimVandeHei ↗axios.com ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗
After working as a national political reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, he co-founded Politico in 2007 and Axios in 2016. Known for pioneering the "Smart Brevity" news format, he co-authored the book Smart Brevity and wrote Just the Good Stuff.
2shows
2appearances
34statements
6resolved
5supported
1contradicted
83%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Jim VandeHei said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
VandeHei: Venture investors seeking 10x returns should avoid media
“If you're an adventure guy or woman, and you're trying to get a 10 X, Get the hell out of media. Go to healthcare, or go to energy, or technology places that you're much more likely to get that kind of return.”
VandeHei: Twitter ruined mainstream journalism by exposing reporter political bias
“In my personal view on Twitter, in terms of its effect on journalism, is it, ah, I think it ruined a lot of mainstream journalism because a lot of the habits that people thought And suspected about reporters in terms of their bias and their ideology, they were…”
VandeHei predicts that the majority of media companies will go under
“I think that most media companies are going to go under”
VandeHei: Journalists have a genetic flaw of hiding facts in word vomit
“Basically, one of the genetic flaws in journalists is that they're not great writers, and they often bury what matters, and they often hide it in a vomit of words.”
VandeHei: Only four or five internet media companies reached durable profitability
“If you look at the history of the internet, there's only arguably four or five successful media companies that have either sold or have gotten to a place of durable profitability, so it's a really hard space.”
VandeHei: Axios bans opinion pages and reporter political posts
“We don't have an opinion page. We ask our reporters to stay off of Twitter and social media platforms expressing their personal opinions.”
VandeHei: Most local TV stations and newspapers will die within ten years
“I think most local television stations that you watch today are dead. Most newspapers that exist today in cities and towns, either dead or a tiny shell of them, former selves.”
VandeHei: Political scoops essential to insiders inherently interest broader audiences
“If we can get something that is so interesting to the most powerful people, it's gonna be interesting to anybody who cares about politics.”
VandeHei: The 'great man' startup narrative is completely false
“That's why I hate the great man stories. These one person visionaries who willed something into existence. That's bullshit. Like nobody wills something into existence alone. You have a lot of people Who are helping you, who've helped you in the past, who are h…”
VandeHei: Performative social media dynamics will continue deterring qualified political candidates
“And I don't see that changing. And now, because of that performative dimension, it gets harder and harder to get the people that you know in your life that you think should run for office, that you want to run for office, that you pray run for office, no sane …”
VandeHei: Media will reach information nirvana in 10 years
“But I think it's going to be much closer to information nirvana for most of us 10 years from now than it is today.”
VandeHei: Niche trade publications are crucial training grounds for top reporters
“I mean, it's one of the little, it's one of, like you said, it's one of the little known training grounds for many of the reporters that you see around town today, and you learn because you have to learn how to do a beat. You have to learn, you're, you are cov…”
VandeHei: First to report Republican secret basement meetings regarding Clinton impeachment
“I was the first person back then to report that Republicans were meeting secretly in the basement. And trying of the capital and trying to move money from a slush fund to lay the groundwork to impeach Clinton.”
VandeHei bluffed Congress members about meetings to unlock early political scoops
“And then I was very good at figuring out what moves will somebody else make next based on what I've seen them do in the past. Which would then allow me to pick up the phone and call a member of Congress and say, I know you're meeting on this, even if I didn't …”
VandeHei: Media can monetize by selling corporate ads targeting political elites
“If you get really influential people to read content, you can sell ads to companies who care about their image in front of that audience of DC elites.”
Don Graham warned VandeHei that leaving The Washington Post was catastrophic
“Don Graham and his leadership team calls us in and explains to us why it's a dumb idea for us to leave, and Don, who couldn't be a sweeter guy and a smart guy, turned to us and just said, I've never said this to anybody. You are making a catastrophic mistake.”
VandeHei: Willing a startup into existence requires provocative P.T. Barnum showmanship
“And part of willing something into existence is having a little P.T. Barnum in you. Understanding that you need people talking about you, even if it's not always in flattering ways. You need to be part of the conversation.”
VandeHei: Media companies need subscription revenue to survive ad downturns
“We believe that you couldn't be solely dependent on advertising, and to be a really big, durable company, Roy and I were super confident that you needed this subscription leg of the business.”
VandeHei attributes CEO skills to reporting, and reporting to playing poker
“Everything I know as a CEO, I learned from being a reporter. Everything I New as a reporter, I learned from playing poker.”
Media data unambiguously proved that audiences skim rather than reading articles
“The data was Unambiguous. That most people were skimming and scanning, and they weren't reading most of the words that any of us in the media were writing.”
VandeHei: Data shows bullet points significantly increase reader retention and completion
“And we had seen from the data that if you take multiple ideas and break it into bullets, you're much likelier to get people to keep reading and to retain.”
VandeHei: Media is the most cost-effective way to build a brand
“One of the upsides of media is that it's one of the easiest and most cost effective way to build a brand that has real meaning and real resonance with a big swath of people.”
VandeHei: The Washington Post and WashingtonPost.com were separate companies in 2006
“Back then, the Washington Post and WashingtonPost.com were separate companies in separate buildings on two different sides of the Potomac.”
The other half of the tape: Jim VandeHei's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 1
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Jim's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-founder and CEO, Axios | 1 | 26 | 80% 4/5 | full record on How I Built This → |
 a16zLEDGER | Co-founder and CEO, Axios | 1 | 8 | 100% 1/1 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |