How The Information gets people to pay for a subscription

Recode’s Peter Kafka interviewed The Information CEO and founder Jessica Lessin about how she has gotten people to subscribe to the seven-year-old technology news site.

The Information has in the “tens of thousands” of subscribers, who pay $399 a year, and has a staff of more than 40. It expects to add 10 to 20 staffers in 2021.

“We try to be relevant to an audience of business leaders who want to understand what’s going on in Silicon Valley and beyond,” said Lessin.

She said that she does not see why tech companies and executives are chafing about how they are covered by the media.

“In no way do we need to pull back,” said Lessin. She said that efforts by people in technology and venture capital to create content blurs what consumers think is journalism and fact-based stories.

To listen, go here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.