20VC: The Information's Jessica Lessin on The Future For Online Journalism & The Benefits Of A Subscription Based Business Model

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The Twenty Minute VC

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4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jessica Lessin founder and Editor in Chief of The Information. Prior to The Information, she covered Silicon the technology industry for eight years at the Wall Street Journal where she wrote nearly 1,000 articles for the paper, consistently breaking news about major products, management changes and strategy shifts. Jessica was also part of a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Now you can follow both Jessica and me on Snapchat on @jlessk and @hstebbings

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Jessica come to found The Information following The Wall Street Journal?

2.) Marc Andreesen: 'print journalism is converging in quality and technique with blogs and Wikipedia'. Does Jessica agree with this? Has revisability has led to a lower quality initial publication?

3.) How does Jessica view the competitive landscape for journalism today? Who are competitors and what would Jessica say is complimentary to The Information??

4.) We have seen the decentralization away from the central forms of authority in journalism. What effect has this decentralization had on distribution? Competition? Market size?

5.) What is the monetisation strategy for The Information? Why choose that strategy over the more prevalent others such as advertising?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:

Jessica’s Fave Book: Ben Bradlee: A Good Life

Jessica’s Fave Blog: Doug Young

As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jessica on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to part two of Romance Week on the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings.
0:04.9	Now on Wednesday we heard the journey of Sam Lesson. So now it's time to hear the journey of his other half, Jessica Lesson, founder and editor-in-chief of the information.
0:13.4	Now, prior to founding the information, Jessica covered Silicon Valley and the technology industry for eight years at the Wall Street Journal, where she wrote nearly a thousand articles for the paper, consistently breaking news about major products, management
0:25.9	changes and strategy shifts. She was also part of a team that was a finalist for the Puleet
0:30.4	surprise in 2011. Now you can also follow both Jessica and I on Snapchat. For me, it's at
0:36.4	H. Stebbings and for Jessica is at J-L-K,S-K. That's J-L-E-S-S-K.
0:42.7	I also want to give a personal recommendation of the information. That and Matamark Daily are all I need to stay on top of everything in the world of tech and VC.
0:50.7	So if you've not already signed up for the information, it really is absolutely fantastic.
0:55.0	But before we dive into all things, the information, if today's dual romance episodes with Sam and
0:59.9	Jessica Lesson have got you feeling romantic, then you can head over to Lisa.com forward slash VC
1:05.5	and surprise your other half with a Lisa mattress. Nothing says I love you like three unique layers, one of memory foam,
1:12.4	one of latex light foam designed to keep you cool at night. That's if your other half really loves
1:17.2	the mattress. And if that fails to win them over, tell them that you save money as Lisa has no retail
1:22.1	stores so they pass on the cost savings to you, the consumer, seen in the pricing. And if that fails,
1:28.4	tell them they do not even have to do anything as it's delivered to your door in a matter of days. And if that fails,
1:32.9	hey, there's always Tinder. So don't resort to Tinder. Head over to leisa.com forward slash VC
1:38.0	and enter the promo code VC75 for a whopping $75 off at checkout. Now it's time to meet the fantastic Jessica Lesson,
1:47.2	founder and editor-in-chief at The Information.
1:52.0	Jessica is so awesome to have you on the show. I've been a big fan of the information for a while
1:56.7	now and really love the podcast. So first of all, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for
2:02.4	having me, Harry. Now, I'd love to start today with a little background on you and how you came to found
2:07.9	the information. Sure. So I started the information about two and a half years ago after eight years
	...

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