I’m Jessica Lessin, Editor-in-Chief of Information Magazine, and This Is How I Work
If you work in the media, you know that The Information is like a sensation factory, capable of such rigorous investigations that change markets, and vying for influence with the likes of the New York Times. If you’re just doing journalism to be better informed, you’ve probably been involved with some of the site’s work that appears regularly on your Twitter feed and sometimes shocks Silicon Valley and the larger tech industry.
The subscription publication is headed by editor-in-chief Jessica Lessin. As site manager, she has her finger on the pulse of everything her team of reporters and editors does. We recently spoke with Lessine about her need to run the news investigation department from her home and how she is being pulled back from the constant stream of news.
Running a news agency remotely is certainly possible these days, but what was the most challenging aspect of the transition and what did you do to get through it?
We had to work very hard to keep everyone on the same page, not just for the day-to-day strategy or the next big sensation, but for the whole strategy. Ironically, since we are all writers, we have more of a meeting / discussion culture than a document / note / memo culture. But we also added some in writing for a nice effect. This was facilitated by the pandemic, but also by the growing scale of our company. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have hired more than two dozen people, the vast majority of whom have never met.
How unpredictable is your daily life? The news is unpredictable, but in many ways I feel that management might not be so crazy and out of control. How do you strive for regularity in your daily routine?
Actually I am trying to go in the opposite direction. When my schedule is too orderly, it gets swallowed up by meetings, which may not reflect what needs to be done at the moment. And then there is no time to do other things, be it helping edit an important story or finding an important new employee. Right now, I’m aiming to combine repetitive appointments that feel like a routine, followed by a lot of unstructured work time. It was a little easier to find unstructured times when I didn’t have to travel a lot for work.
What are you doing to distract yourself from the news and keep your thoughts fresh? Did the upheavals of last year make this necessary?
Outdoors helps a lot. I write my best columns, come up with my best ideas, and I feel best when I’m off my desk – even for a few minutes. Music has been helping lately too. In a teleworking culture, you can be chained for hours to your desktop, the Internet, and the news cycle. I think it drained my creative thinking.
Is your organization considering migrating to a hybrid installation? How important is it for all of you to collaborate in the same physical space?
We plan to return to the office in the fall, when we have a few remote days, and some team members will work completely remotely, as we have always had. Most importantly, we’re going to try, see how they go, and revisit. Our culture thrives on face-to-face communication, which is why we strongly believe in the ability to spend time together, whether it’s discussing articles, working on a new product, or simply teaching each other’s reporting techniques.
Moving forward, how do you see the development and development of information?
More reporting on more topics without losing the depth of our signature. Technology is changing every business, and today only 49 percent of our subscribers are in the tech industry. We’re excited to work with professionals from a variety of industries who need to understand how tech companies work and what technologies (AI, AR / VR, cloud) will change the face of the business.
From a product perspective, we are thrilled to create new news products for our large and loyal community – staying on top of how people are following and building communities around them.