Axios has launched "Axios Cincinnati" and "Axios North of Cincy" websites, providing another news source for Greater Cincinnati and Southwestern Ohio residents.
The two Cincinnati-area sites bring the total to 41 metropolitan local news sites for Axios, which is owned by Cox Enterprises, operators of the Dayton Daily News, the Journal-News for Butler and Warren counties, and the Springfield Sun. Axios already has Midwest news sites for Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Detroit and Nashville.
The sites were up and running Wednesday, shortly after a news story was posted by the Journal-News and Dayton Daily News. It’s part of Axios Local’s expansion during its fifth anniversary "made possible by Axios’ partnership with OpenAI," according to Editor & Publisher.
Staffing the sites are former WCPO-TV anchor-reporter Kristen Swilley and journalist Casey Weldon, who has written for many Cincinnati area news organizations since graduating from Xavier University in 2005.
"I'm thrilled to be joining Axios as a reporter,” says Swilley, who left Channel 9 two years ago to join Wordsworth Communications. She had worked at the TV station for 8-1/2 years, from October 2015 to May 2024.
Swilley had seen the Axios job posting online and her husband encouraged her to apply “because news has remained my passion despite the PR switch. Getting back into daily news has been something I've been wanting to do, and this feels like the perfect fit."
Weldon has written for the Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati/Kentucky Post, WCPO-TV and Movers & Makers magazine, in addition to doing city of Cincinnati communications for five years (2015-2020). After 20 years living in downtown Cincinnati, he moved to Middletown, according to the Axios announcement. He joined Axios in March.
Swilley and Weldon will report for both websites. They will also send a free Axios Cincinnati newsletter on weekdays beginning Monday, July 20, and a free Axios North of Cincy newsletter, focused on Warren County, on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning July 21.
The entrance by Axios to the Greater Cincinnati market comes the day Cincinnati Public Radio added reporter Lilley Halloran as an Adam R. Scripps fellow to cover Butler, Warren and Clermont counties, and as WCPO-TV promotes reporters assigned to cover Warren County (Jackie Bauer), Butler County (Stephen Knobel) and Clermont County (Sam Harasimowicz).
The nonprofit Signal Cincinnati news website, announced in 2024, also launched earlier this year. It’s an expansion of Signal Cleveland, which started in November 2022, followed by Signal Akron, Signal Columbus and Signal Statewide.
Axios, founded in January 2017 by former Politico reporters, was bought by Cox Enterprises in September 2022 for $525 million.
Most Axios stories are brief, generally under 300 words. They’re “engineered around a simple proposition — deliver the clearest, smartest, most efficient and trustworthy experience for audience and advertisers alike,” according to Cornell University’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
The Axios North of Cincy site has Weldon’s stories about Lindner Family Tennis Center renovations for the Cincinnati Open tournament; changes at the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester Township; tips for attending Kings Island; and a guide to the Traders World and Treasure Aisles flea markets at I-75’s Monroe exit.
Axios Cincinnati has stories by Weldon on Xavier University’s new medical school, the new Skyline Chili’s new Fountain Square restaurant and Cincinnati Water Works producing canned drinking water.
Over the years, Cincinnati news organizations have covered (and uncovered) Butler and Warren counties. A decade ago, WLWT-TV’s Karin Johnson exclusively covered Butler County, while Larry Davis reported for WKRC-TV from Butler County. Until the late 1990s, the Enquirer had four journalists covering Butler County full-time, and another in Warren County. Before a 2013 merger forming the Journal-News, Butler County had two daily newspapers, the Hamilton Journal-News and Middletown Journal.
"I can't wait to bring fun, interesting, water-cooler kind of stories to both the Cincinnati newsletter and the North of Cincy newsletter. I'll be working alongside Casey Weldon, who I've actually known and worked with for a decade now — across both the PR and journalism sides of things — so it already feels like a great partnership,” says Swilley, a 2013 graduate of Florida A&M University.
"I want our readers to send us their story ideas. We want to be their friends, their neighbors — the people they stay in conversation with about what's happening in their own backyard.
"We really want this newsletter to be useful for people, not just interesting. Whether that's helping someone figure out what to do this weekend, understanding a local issue that affects their neighborhood, or just giving them something fun to talk about at work — we want readers to feel like reading us was worth their time. My goal is for people to open the newsletter and get something out of it every single day — whether that's a laugh, a great recommendation, or a piece of information they actually needed," she says.
Axios has local news sites and newsletters in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Boulder, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Washington D.C., Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa Bay, the Twin Cities and other metropolitan areas.
The Cox company was founded in 1898 by James M. Cox, a Butler County native and former Ohio governor. Cox Enterprises, based in Atlanta, also owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kelley Blue Book, Autotrader, Cox Mobile wireless service, and Cox internet and cable TV systems in partnership with Charter Communications (Spectrum cable).
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