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Channels with Peter Kafka

How Jessica Lessin got people to pay for The Information

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4585 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2013, Jessica Lessin left her job as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal to start The Information, a subscription-based business publication. 7 years later, it’s thriving, and she’s more convinced than ever that her model can work for other publishers. Lessin sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to weigh to talk about what she’s learned, what she thinks about the Substack movement, and her concerns about tech leaders’ attempts to end-run journalists. Featuring: Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin), Founder & CEO of The Information Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

In today's fast-changing digital world, proving your company is trustworthy isn't just important for growth, it's essential.

0:08.8

That's why Vanta is here. Vanta helps companies of all sizes get compliant fast and stay that way, with industry-leading AI, automation and continuous monitoring.

0:20.3

So whether you're a startup tackling your first

0:22.8

SOC 2 or ISO-27-001 or an enterprise managing vendor risk, Vanta's trust management platform makes it

0:31.8

quicker, easier and more scalable. The results? According to a recent IDC study, Vanta customers slash over

0:40.4

$500,000 a year in costs and are three times more productive. Establishing trust isn't optional.

0:48.7

Vanta makes it automatic. Visit vanta.com slash Voxpod to sign up for a free demo today that's v a mta.com

0:59.2

slash voxpod

1:00.7

this is recode media with peter kofka that is me i'm talking to Jessica Lesson, the founder and CEO of the

1:11.9

information for second trip on this show. Welcome back, Jessica. Thanks for having me. I'd be better

1:16.6

if we saw you in person, but you all know why we can't. One day, one day I'll see you again in person.

1:21.9

You say you listen to this show and we talk about you on this show all the time because we spend

1:26.4

a lot of time talking about business models

1:28.2

and we often talk about paid subscriptions and your success.

1:30.8

So it seems right to have you back on to tell us how the information is doing.

1:35.1

I don't think there's anyone who doesn't know what the information is,

1:38.1

but if they don't, if they've never heard this before,

1:40.9

explain what the information is.

1:42.3

The information is a publication that covers

1:44.9

the technology business. We are a subscription business and we've been around for about seven years.

1:51.6

So that's what we do. We live and breathe the business of tech and we try and be relevant to

1:58.8

an audience of business leaders who's trying to figure out what's

...

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