The Information’s Lessin: Information shouldn’t be free

Eric Johnson of Recode writes about tech news site The Information and its founder, Jessica Lessin, who spoke on a podcast with Recode’s Peter Kafka.

Johnson writes, “‘Just because, as a publisher, you say, ‘I want to charge something for my content,’ it doesn’t mean you’re attacking society or against the freedom of information,’ Lessin added. ‘Quite the contrary: It says, ‘I am going to support myself by doing good work that has value.’’

“Lessin previously worked at the Wall Street Journal for eight years, five of which were spent covering tech and media. She said she left to start The Information in 2013 because she believed the Journal wasn’t focusing its efforts on the right readers.

“‘As a reporter, there were a couple of frustrations,’ she said. ‘One, as a reporter, was ‘Who am I writing for?’ I was covering Apple at the time. I was getting a lot of encouragement from my editors for liveblogging Apple press conferences, stories that I just didn’t care — it wasn’t why I got up in the morning. I got up in the morning to write stories other people weren’t writing, to help business leaders make decisions.’

“On the new podcast, she explained that her goal for The Information is to do for technology what the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times previously did for finance — writing about how Silicon Valley is changing everything, as seen through the eyes of reporters with a decidedly techie mindset. And although the site currently has no advertising, she acknowledged that that could change.”

Read more here.