Right now, the universe of startup news sites is getting really crowded.

There are more and more new ventures, which leads me to wonder which ones are most likely to succeed,

which business models are most likely to be part of the future of news.

And what about this influencer journalist trend?

Those are a few of the questions for this week's reliable sources podcast.

So, let's cue the music.

I'm Brian Stelter and this weekly podcast is our chance to go in depth with media leaders,

with newsmakers. Talking about how the media world really works.

And if you follow our newsletter or if you follow any media reporter on Twitter,

you know there's a lot of energy and a lot of attention right now,

around various news industry startups.

Some of the new brands in recent years are already really well known.

Names like Axios and Punchbowl News in DC.

Sites like the 19th. There's a mixture of for-profit and non-profit.

There are a lot of new startups making waves and earning attention.

And it seems like every day, every week, there are more announcements.

Just this week, a website called Grid launched and there's a non-profit called Capital B

launching layer this month. There's a lot of energy right now around startups in the news space.

But which models make the most sense?

That's what I want to ask Jessica Lesson about. She's the founder of the information.

That's a startup now nearly a decade old that has proven itself covering the technology world,

mostly through a subscription business model, but it is expanding too.

...