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How a Writer Built an 8-Figure Newsletter Tech’s Cream Want to Read at Any Cost

Rethinking the way of seeing Media Ads and Tech Coverage

Eugenio De Lucchi
5 min readMay 4, 2021
Image created by the author — original from Wikimedia Commons

In 2013, the newly announced business of Jessica Lessin collected several laughs in the face. For many media insiders, a $399-per-year newsletter for tech professionals was a nonsense way to fail after just a few days.

Who would have paid an expensive subscription to read industry scoops that other media could have reported for free?!

“Pay me $199 per year and I will tell you what they are writing about on @theinformation,” a Business Insider reporter tweeted cracking wise.

However, after eight years and an estimated $20 million in revenue, the last to laugh was Jessica Lessin. Today, according to the news, the 10,000 subscribers — unattainable at the beginning for insiders — are more than quadruple. And the newsletter boasts readers like Jeff Bezos, Evan Spiegel — the founder of Snapchat — and corporate clients like Google and Goldman Sachs.

Over the years, its success — measured by a readership of thousands and not millions — has been tempting to many. Before anyone else, the Financial Times, which met with Lessin for a possible acquisition. All takeover interests the young CEO sent back to the sender with a simple…

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Eugenio De Lucchi
Eugenio De Lucchi

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