Axios preps new Axios Direct feeds for AI models, agents as revenue tops 2026 goal

“We believe that there are three pathways where we could make net-new revenue impact to the bottom line,” Cameron said. “The first pathway is to working with clients who will take an action off of that information. We think of them as investment companies with high assets under management.”

This first Axios Direct feed is akin to what Bloomberg has done with its terminals that companies install and through which customers receive lightning-fast access to market-moving reporting. The aim is the same with Axios Direct, though without the need for a physical terminal device, Cameron said.

Companies will pay an annual fee to access the first Axios Direct feed. That fee will vary and be based on the company’s size as well as the value of the assets under management for that company. These companies are likely already subscribers to the existing Axios Pro Deals product that provides financial news, such as merger-and-acquisition and investment reporting. “We have these companies already working with us [via Axios Pro Deals], and so this is now an important upsell for them,” Cameron said.

That upsell opportunity can help Axios to continue its revenue growth trajectory. The publisher achieved its revenue goal for 2026 in September, said Cameron. She declined to share specific figures but noted that revenue grew somewhere between 10% and 50% compared to 2025.

“Year over year, we are posting a significant double-digit growth yet again, and much earlier this year than what I had originally anticipated. Last year we hit our number at the end of October, and this year we hit it early September,” Cameron said. 

She attributed that growth, in part, to how Axios pre-books deals with companies, with “the vast majority” of its deals set in motion starting the previous July, a la TV advertising’s upfront market. “I knew that we were going to be in a real position of strength on Dec. 31 at like 11 a.m. when we hit the pre-book goal last year,” she said.

The way that Axios is structuring the Axios Direct deals will similarly give its revenue a leg up not only for next year but stretching into 2028. The publisher is structuring the first Axios Direct feed deals as two-year deals. That will allow Axios and its customers to further develop the product ahead of renewal talks.

“We think that two years is really helpful because it allows us the opportunity to experiment and to fine-tune and to deliver on what could be a changing need from these clients within the contract terms,” Cameron said.

Within that timeframe Axios will likely introduce two more Axios Direct feed products. 

The second will be designed for companies that have internal AI models and will allow those models to ingest Axios’s content feeds directly. Axios is currently discussing the development of this feed but has not set a timeframe for its launch. 

“We believe that there is a potential pathway for our feed to inform those systems that are being built out for corporate employees,” Cameron said. 

This second Axios Direct feed is a different approach to the one that publishers have taken with AI content marketplaces, such as Microsoft’s, in which publishers make their content available via a third-party marketplace for companies to pay to access that content for companies’ internal AI use. Axios’s direct approach with, ahem, Axios Direct mirrors the publisher’s preference for dealing directly with its customers.

“About 52% to 54% of our revenue this year will be direct through client,” Cameron said. She added, “we find that going to our clients directly, especially with a new product where there will have to be trust involved in the discussion, we believe that it’s best to start client-direct.” She noted that Axios has not ruled out participating in AI content marketplaces — “I expect that Axios will at some point be there as well” — and said she has had conversations with Snowflake about its Snowflake Marketplace.

Cameron also has not ruled out slotting branded content or AI agent-aimed ads into its content feeds, as publishers like Time have done. That could provide a supplementary revenue boost for all of the Axios Direct feeds but especially the third one.

The third Axios Direct feed will provide a way for individual subscribers to receive Axios’s reporting directly via their personal AI agents. Think: an RSS feed designed for ChatGPT, Claude, etc. This third feed is at the earliest stage of the lot and will be explored more deeply in 2027.

“If you think about how many of us in this room have personal agents or agents that are helping us at work, I would bet that that number is quite high. We’re probably early adopters in this room. We believe that that’s where the marketplace is going, and so having the ability for a person to subscribe to a feed and gain access, like their agent gain access to that feed, is a third potential pathway for us to drive revenue,” Cameron said.