Feb 27, 2023 · 1h 20m · how-i-built-this
Politico & Axios: Jim VandeHei
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In this episode of How I Built This, host Guy Raz interviews media entrepreneur Jim VandeHei about his journey from a struggling student to co-founding Politico and Axios. VandeHei breaks down the innovative editorial formats, subscription business models, and leadership strategies that allowed him to build two of the modern era's most influential and profitable news organizations.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 33.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.2 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 1.4 Guy pushing back 1.5
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 1:17:03 VandeHei dismisses the great-man theory of entrepreneurship
VandeHei forcefully pushes back against standard founder mythmaking, bluntly labeling the notion of solo visionaries willing companies into existence alone as total nonsense.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 41:10 Raz presses VandeHei on aggressive management styleRaz directly challenges VandeHei on how he managed to push young reporters to grueling limits without crossing into toxic leadership.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:07:02 VandeHei deconstructs the flaws of traditional journalism writingVandeHei provides a comprehensive breakdown of why traditional reporting fails modern readers and details the exact hierarchical structure of Smart Brevity.
Guy holds their own ▶ 15:09 Raz breaks down DC trade publication business modelsRaz demonstrates deep industry expertise by explaining how expensive, niche newsletter publications serve targeted DC power audiences.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Treacherous Business of Modern Journalism | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Host monologue framing the difficult economics of modern media startups and setting up Jim VandeHei's background with Politico and Axios. | |
| From Underachieving Student to Local Sports Reporter | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Raz asks biographical questions about VandeHei's poor academic record in Oshkosh, high school pizza delivery jobs, and early foray into sports reporting. | |
| Running a Small-Town Paper at the Brillion News | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | VandeHei recalls running the Brillion News single-handedly during a summer break and learning through an embarrassing column layout printing mistake. | |
| Arriving in Washington and Niche Trade Reporting | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz demonstrates strong familiarity with DC trade publishing economics while VandeHei recounts his start at New Fuels Report. | |
| Breaking Scoops at Roll Call during the 1990s | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | VandeHei recounts covering the 1994 Republican revolution on Capitol Hill and breaking national scoops at Roll Call that led to national TV appearances. | |
| Star Political Reporter at The Washington Post | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | VandeHei describes his reporting techniques and pattern-recognition skills while working for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. | |
| Conceiving Project X: Reimagining Political News | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | VandeHei shares the catalyst moment when Google acquired YouTube, prompting him and John Harris to conceptualize Project X to challenge legacy print media. | |
| Backing from Robert Allbritton and the Decision to Leave | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Raz and VandeHei discuss partnering with Robert Allbritton and Washington Post publisher Don Graham warning that leaving was a catastrophic mistake. | |
| Overcoming Cold Feet and The Famous Coffee Walk | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | VandeHei describes John Harris getting cold feet during their coffee walk and how VandeHei's wife intervened with an inspiring memo to keep them on track. | |
| Launching Politico and Surviving the First Edition | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | Raz pushes VandeHei on why he made aggressive public promises about beating The Post while facing terrible initial copy on launch night. | |
| Building the Politico Culture and Editorial Formula | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Raz asks VandeHei how he managed young, ambitious reporters without alienating them, prompting VandeHei to detail his intense coaching style. | |
| Early Financial Success and Friction with Ownership | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Raz probes the financial realities of original reporting against aggregators and addresses external reports labeling Politico a sweatshop. | |
| The Creation of the Politico Pro Subscription Model | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | VandeHei describes hiring Roy Schwartz and battling internal skepticism to establish the high-priced Politico Pro subscription model. | |
| Becoming CEO and Reaching an Impasse at Politico | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | VandeHei discusses stepping into the CEO role, facing disagreements with Allbritton over equity sharing and governance, and deciding to leave. | |
| Founding Axios and the Philosophy of Smart Brevity | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Raz challenges how hard building a new media brand is after Politico, while VandeHei explains the market data behind launching Axios with Smart Brevity. | |
| Deconstructing the Smart Brevity Editorial Structure | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | VandeHei outlines Mike Allen's unmatched newsletter workflow and explains the precise editorial architecture that defines Smart Brevity. | |
| Navigating the Trump Bump and Creating Axios HQ | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Raz and VandeHei examine the double-edged sword of the Trump news cycle and the unexpected emergence of enterprise software Axios HQ. | |
| The $500 Million Acquisition by Cox Enterprises | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Raz questions why VandeHei sold Axios to Cox Enterprises for over $500 million after just five years when independence had been his primary goal. | |
| Reflections on Serendipity, Teamwork, and Luck | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | VandeHei strongly rejects the great-man myth of entrepreneurship, emphasizing serendipity, timing, and teamwork over solo genius. |
Statements from this episode (27)
VandeHei: Almost Flunked Out of UW-Oshkosh With 1.49 GPA
“I got good enough grades to get into the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and then I turned in my 1.491 grade point average and had myself on the verge of not being in college much longer.”
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.”
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.”
Washington Post offered VandeHei an internal venture called Post Politics
“What if we created a company inside the company and called it post politics? Don't do it there. Do it here. If you think the future's digital, build it out here.”
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: John Harris tried to pull plug on launching Politico
“He very much wanted to back out, and there was a moment that we now refer to as the famous coffee walk, where he basically had convinced himself that we can't do this, that he was gonna pull the plug.”
VandeHei: Politico would not exist without Robert Allbritton's financial backing
“And Robert, who, you know, if it weren't for his money and his courage in, in taking a chance on us, Politico doesn't exist.”
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: 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: Politico reached break-even or profitability by year three or four
“I think we brought in three or four million in year one, if my memory serves me correct. So it wasn't, there was money coming in. And I think by year three, we broke even, or might even have made money that, that third or fourth year.”
VandeHei: High-end B2B news subscriptions require heavy upfront editorial and sales costs
“And it's an expensive business up front because you got to hire a lot of reporters. You got to hire, like, a real sales team because you're asking companies to pay, you know, tens of thousands of dollars for a subscription.”
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 predicts that the majority of media companies will go under
“I think that most media companies are going to go under”
Mike Allen missed only 10 days writing daily newsletters over 15 years
“He's written a daily newsletter every day but 10 days for 15 years straight.”
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: 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: Axios launched with $10M cash and upfront advertiser commitments
“One, we raised money, so we launched with ten million dollars in cash, and then Because we had done Politico when we left, I probably had four or five companies call me and say, I don't care what you're starting. Like, we've allocated X amount to advertise wit…”
VandeHei: Axios turned profitable by its second year of operation
“I think by year two, or by year two, we're profitable. Not by design, by the way. Like, we were trying to be in investment mode. The business was doing better than we thought. Hiring is tough in media, but we were breaking even, like we were doing, we were, we…”
VandeHei: Axios raised roughly $35M to $40M in total funding
“I think we were probably 35 to forty million all in.”
VandeHei: Axios leadership committed to a minimum six-year stay post-acquisition
“I mean, I could leave whenever, I guess, but our commitment to them is, you know, a minimum of six years and probably a lot longer.”
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…”