The future of news with Jessica Lessin, founder of The Information

Aba is back to host this episode with Jessica Lessin, journalist, founder, and editor-in-chief of The Information. Founded in 2013, The Information breaks exclusive stories and publishes deeply reported articles about tech and startups.

In this episode we talk about:

• What attracted to her to journalism in the first place, how she got her start at the Wall Street Journal, and why the distortion of the news industry's business model by the internet led her to start The Information.
• What she's learned after five years running The Information, her insights on leadership, and the importance of resilience and self-awareness.
• And of course, her take on the big tech trends on the horizon, including the possibility of tokenizing everything and the future of Facebook.

We also discuss some of her favorite products, including Google Maps, Google Photos, and Asana, which they use extensively at The Information.

We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Also, big thanks to AngelList and FreshBooks for their support. 😸

Quotes from This Episode

“I caught the reporting bug early. I thought being a reporter and never having to pick one job, but having license to learn about the world and ask smart people questions, is really just an awesome profession and also believe really passionately again that the news industry has in many ways been devastated by the internet and really needs to have a renaissance.” — Jessica

“Not only was digital advertising not going to pay the bills for these newsrooms, but it was also distorting the content, and I felt that the subscription business — which is what we are at The Information — was the antidote to that. It was the business that only worked if you delivered a quality product and earned your real relationship with your user and that loyalty. And so, in seeing what I felt was the bad reaction of the new industry to the internet, I felt like there was an opportunity to do it differently and approach coverage differently.” — Jessica

“You know, in studying and reporting on startups for so long, you see it’s never a smooth ride. What you see is only a fraction of what’s really going on.” — Jessica

Companies and Products Mentioned in This Episode

Asana — The task management tool, completely redesigned.

Google Maps — Essential mapping app.

Google Photos — Automatic backup and unlimited storage for all your photos.