Politico* co-founder Jim VandeHei unveiled Axios — his new website — last week, and there’s still very little that we know about it, except for how much a subscription may eventually cost. VandeHei, who appeared onstage at An Evening with Code Media, said he’s eyeing a subscription that is somewhere in the range of $10,000.
Jim VandeHei’s new site wants writers with newsletters that have 10,000 or more followers
But that doesn’t mean the model will look exactly like Politico, according to Dan Primack.
Becca Farsace for Recode
We also know that the site, which will cover a range of topics including tech and politics, has prioritized finding writers with experience in crafting newsletters — a staple of Politico’s business model — with a loyal fan base. On Sunday, VandeHei tweeted that he was looking for writers that had a following of 10,000 or more readers.
It was already pretty clear that the site, which will launch in January, would involve newsletters in some fashion. Axios co-founder Mike Allen authored Politico’s original Playbook — a newsletter that quickly became the go-to source on all things politics. The company also hired Dan Primack away from Fortune where he wrote what is arguably the tech industry’s version of Playbook, called Term Sheet.
When asked for more details on what the newsletter model would look like, Primack said “no comment,” but added “if I had wanted to join Politico, I would have joined Politico. Don’t mean it negative toward Politico, but this isn’t Politico II.”
Primack wouldn’t go into more details on what sets Axios apart from Politico but expects the site to reveal more when it launches.
* I started my career at Politico’s New York site — then called Capital New York — as a media reporter.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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