The Information’s Lessin: We want to spend as much as WSJ, NYTimes on journalism

Jessica Lessin, the founder of tech news site The Information, wants it to be spending as much on producing its journalism as is currently spent by The Wall Street Journal and New York Times, reports Lucia Moses of Business Insider.

Moses writes, “‘Our ambition isn’t to build a subscription business — our goal is to build the most impactful news organization for the next century,’ the former Wall Street Journal tech reporter told Business Insider. ‘Ten years from now, we could be spending more on journalism than The Wall Street Journal or New York Times. That may sound crazy, but newsrooms like The New York Times are probably spending $200 million or $100 million on original reporting. Being able to grow our revenue like that is very much the goal and in our sights and what we aspire to do.’

“That might seem far-fetched today, given The Information has 35 people in all, including 24 in editorial. Lessin said The Information has in the ‘low tens of thousands’ of subscribers. If we assume it has 20,000 subscribers paying $400 a year, the most popular tier, that’s $8 million in annual revenue.

“Now, The Times is a $1.7 billion company. About half its revenue comes from advertising, which helps support its newsroom of 1,600 and growing — the Times added 120 journalists in 2018 alone.”

Read more here.