Axate CEO and Founder Dominic Young speaks at the ICNN conference for local news
This week Axate's founder Dominic Young spoke at the ICNN conference on building a sustainable future for community journalism. The ICNN’s belief in the opportunity to build a sustainable, vibrant, inclusive future that has communities at its heart chimes very much with Axate’s thinking. We believe that journalism at all levels can be sustainable as long as the commercial model is appropriate, which is what Axate enables. Local communities are some of the best places to do this, as the conference really highlighted.
The conference saw community journalists, academics, policymakers, innovators, and technologists come together to explore and share ideas. It was inspiring, and it reminded us that innovation and passion are alive and well in the news industry. Presentations came from ardent practitioners, generously sharing new ideas, successes, skills, and tools with each other to help build the next generation of community and hyperlocal news.
Dominic spoke about how Axate is supporting local and hyperlocal publishers with innovative new revenue models, helping them to build a more sustainable future for their businesses. Axate has gained real traction with local news, and we’re now live on several hyperlocal like Cornwall Reports, the Lochside Press and Gedling Eye, as well as regional publishers like The Yorkshire Post and The Maidenhead Advertiser.
As well as opening up numerous flexible options for payment, Axate creates a network of sites and users which can be built collaboratively, linking communities and finding new ways to drive commercial and editorial success. Axate’s model is great for local news: it’s simple to implement and works by sharing revenue, which means we’re real partners with our clients, not just service providers sending out invoices. This means we have seen real traction with local news publishers, and the hyperlocal sector specifically, and we’re proud to support the growth and innovation in this key sector.