Axios and Quorum’s new tool could soon make following legislative developments easier

Staying on top of the many bills and lawmaking processes constantly flowing through Congress, from introduction to full chamber votes, can frustrate even the most seasoned Capitol Hill policy wonks and lobbyists. To help them and others, a major political news outlet partnered with a local software company to launch tech that makes navigating policy developments easier.

Axios and Quorum are designing an all-in-one platform for public affairs professionals to track policy and legislation while integrating relevant news. The tool, which does not yet have a name, will be available for paid subscribers of Axios Pro and Quorum in June. 

It’ll take bills, documents and statements from elected officials, and put them side-by-side with analysis and reporting from Axios — the “why it matters,” said Quorum CEO Alex Wirth.

“Our shared customers who have a subscription to both Quorum, as well as Axios Pro, have a complete view of everything going on on the hill,” Wirth said. 

This tool is the latest in a trend of news outlets working to make tracking policy more streamlined and accessible. The newsroom CalMatters developed a similar AI-powered platform, called Digital Democracy, that aggregates stories about policy interests and activities of California’s 120 legislators, among other information. In addition, the online news outlet Punchbowl News acquired 2022 RealLIST Startup Electo Analytics, a public affairs data software company that helps users decipher legislation, back in December. A newsroom and community organization collective called the Documenters Network also trains people to attend public hearings across the country and publish the information discussed. 

For functionality, this new tool will let users add a widget to their homepage dashboard that shows relevant Axios articles as they log into Quorum. It will also create legislator profiles where users can see Axios articles that mention an individual lawmaker. 

Furthermore, an email alerts component can let people set up notifications for mentions of specific topics across documents, including Axios Pro articles. 

This is easier than Googling a senator’s name to get the latest news on a certain bill they introduced, Wirth explained. Instead, the new platform will consolidate the information. 

“Before this partnership, you might have to have 30 different tabs on Google,” he said. “We’ve been able to combine that all into one singular view and make it much, much easier to both collect that information in the same place and then be able to navigate through it.”

Wirth said Quorum decided to partner with Axios because of the outlet’s unique style of writing, specifically its Smart Brevity format. This condensed article structure swiftly tells the reader the main points of a piece of news and emphasizes why it matters. Its brief but well-sourced, journalism helps people working in public affairs quickly learn about a specific piece of legislation.

“Elected officials are not always the best at Smart Brevity,” Wirth said. “So it’s wonderful for our users who are navigating through all this information that comes through elected officials to have that remedy immediately.”

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