How The Information has thrived in the past decade

Charlotte Klein of Vanity Fair writes about tech news site The Information, which was founded 10 years ago by Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin.

Klein writes, “The small-but-mighty Silicon Valley publication, which turns 10 this week, has spent the past decade rolling out ad-free scoops and analysis to a targeted audience willing to cough up $399 a year for total access. Back in 2013, when Lessin left The Wall Street Journal to start her company, it was generally accepted that ‘legacy media was where serious journalism was. And then there were a couple of upstarts trying to do new things, but trying to fuel it with venture capital and ad dollars,’ she says, adding, ‘Those businesses have evaporated.’ But The Information, fueled by subscriptions, has survived and seemingly paved the way for a new cohort of outlets offering niche industry reporting at a premium price, from Puck to Punchbowl News. Today, more outlets, like Axios and Politico, are also offering B2B subscription products along with their free content.

“‘There were a number of media start-ups around that moment, and she was very unconventional—that she was doing paid subscriptions and was not that interested in social,’ says Ben Smith, a former editor in chief of BuzzFeed News, who last year founded Semafor, one of the start-ups in which Lessin has invested. ‘It kind of pains me to say it, but obviously, she’s been totally vindicated, and most of her competitors are no longer around.’ Those former competitors include BuzzFeed News, the Pulitzer Prize–winning online news site that shut down in April. There was also Recode, a brand Vox retired in March; Quartz, which is still around but has changed hands multiple times over the years, most recently to G/O Media; and Vice, which, the Times, while reporting that the company had filed for bankruptcy in May, referred to as a ‘decayed digital colossus.’ Lessin was ahead of her time with the business model she adopted and the story she wanted to own.”