By VICTORIA ANNA GIL.
It is common for organizational structures to vary from company to company, but there are a few things you can expect from most media agencies, whether we are talking about a small online publication, Axios or even Reuters.
Axios’ business is organized following a functional form of organizational management, which translates to the company being divided into different departments based on areas of expertise. These departments serve as functional units and are overseen by different managers or department heads. Some examples of these departments are: Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, Public Relations or IT. When understanding how these departments delegate responsibility, the organizational chart of the company comes in handy. This is a diagram that visually conveys the company’s internal structure by detailing the roles, responsibilities, and relationships between the workers. Most media companies, including Axios’, work in the following way:
Axios is run by a group of Co-founders, them being Roy Schwartz, Jim VandeHei (who is also CEO) and Mike Allen (who is also Executive Editor). The position of founder belongs to the person or people who first setted up the company. They thought of the original profitable idea for the service and started the business. Hence, a founder does all of the initial work to research and start their company, which includes the provision of the initial funds. It is called Co-founder when referring to companies started by a group of people.
Inside the Editorial Department of Axios we find Mike Allen, who apart from being co-founder of the company also does editorial work, and Nick Johnston, who takes the role of Editor-in-Chief. People in this position are in charge of leading the editorial team, assigning stories, and representing the editorial team in important and controversial matters. They have the most experience and usually write less because more of their time is spent managing the team.
Axios’ Executive Editor position belongs to Sara Kehaulani Goo. This position is on the same rank with the company’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief. Together, they often bridge the gap between editorial and business because, in most cases, the editorial side of the company is separated from the business side. The reason for this is so that the editorial of the company does not end up influenced by business decisions or deals.
Inside Axios we also find different Managing Editors/Directors for each of their writing departments: Scott Rosenberg in Technology; Aja Whitaker-Moore and Kate Marino in Business; Margaret Talev in Politics, David Nather for Special Projects, Raisa Zaidi for Axios on HBO, Ryan Kellet and Kim Schaich in VP and Audience…
On the business side, the CEO runs the show, in Axios, this role belongs to Jim VandeHei. They are in charge of development and design, ad sales, marketing, public relations, human resources, event and conference teams, all fall within this group. Again, the CEO doesn't usually try to influence the company’s editorial coverage since it is still taboo to break the invisible barrier between the two. However, the lines between these company branches are expected to start blurring within the next few years, since at smaller companies and digital publications it is getting tougher to hire both a CEO and an Editor-in-Chief.
Finally, the writers, who are usually the core of any great media company. To achieve success it is essential to have a strong pool of full-time writers and reporters who report on news and provide opinion and commentary. Axios’ team of writers is composed of 76 newsroom writers and 34 newsletter writers. Axios also counts with junior editors or assistant editors who keep the newsroom running, provide grammatical aid, edit stories and do administrative tasks for the Editor-in-Chief. But they don’t write often.
WORKING AT AXIOS
Axios employees have answered questions about what life is like behind the scenes at their company, including queries about culture, leadership, professional development, and compensation. They generally work between 9 and 10 hours per day and they claim that the work pace is extremely fast. However, this does not make the job any more appealing, since most of the employees enjoy going to the office and look forward to interacting with their teams each day. On top, they typically get valuable feedback on how to improve their work every week.
These are some examples of anonymous statements people on AXIOS have put out in relation to their time in the company:
“This has been the best job I have ever had. There are amazing people to meet, learn from, and collaborate with. There's also super exciting opportunities career wise since we are a start-up.”
(Customer Success Department)
“Mental Health Days are my fav!”
(Human Resources Department)
“The leadership team is clear with their message. They are transparent with all employees on every level. It's refreshing to be in a space with shared respect for each other and they actually listen to help make Axios an even better place to work!”
(Human Resources Department)
These messages make it clear that the functional form of the organization system that Axios is built on works well and that the company's internal ethics are more than satisfactory to their employees. This is important in any company, but more so in one that wants to thrive, since quality work comes from keeping employees happy in their workplace.
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