The Takeaway

A year ago today, The Information launched TITV, our daily video show breaking down the biggest stories in tech. It made sense: the team known for breaking the biggest news in technology should break it on video, too. Our journalists were ready. Our guests were booked. We were all in.

The launch did not go smoothly, to say the least. 

The audio in my interview with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t work, forcing thousands of viewers to look at my silent bobbing head while I was tuning out control room panic in my ear. The haters circled online, mocking me, the network’s name and even accusing us of stealing the idea of a daily video show. I was certain TITV was doomed. 

But nearly 1,000 interviews and 25 million views later, I feel so deeply blessed for this network and the growing team that produces it every day. I could never have imagined that we would be reaching so many people at 10 a.m. PT Monday through Friday and on so many different services. 

We set the agenda with big scoops and big gets. Among our biggest moments: SpaceX acquiring xAI; OpenAI’s now infamous Code Red; investor Vinod Khosla on how he justifies AI’s unconventional financing. 

We talked AI, commerce and President Trump with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy at Davos and grilled Silver Lake Co-Founder Glenn Hutchins on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. TITV has emerged as a newsmaker to be reckoned with in very little time. 

On top of that, the business has defied even my rosiest expectations, thanks to the incredible work of our brand partnerships team, and we are on the cusp of several soon-to-be announced new video shows. 

And when I look back on the utter despair of day one, I can’t help but reflect on the lessons it has taught me. And, as painful as some of them were, the lessons of TITV have made me deeply optimistic about the future of media and the ability of a small team to continually do great things—one day at a time. 

Three big lessons stand out.

Stick to your guns: Gosh, people were nasty when we launched and full of opinions on what we should or shouldn’t do. Trolls on X mocked each guest’s appearance and there was no shortage of criticism of our fonts, color palettes, and lots of other stuff that frankly didn’t matter. It would have been very easy to freeze and rethink every aspect of the show. But we didn’t. We knew that it would be a work in progress, and we just kept on going. We didn’t let the criticism kill us. We listened and evolved but on our terms. 

People are everything: I get choked up thinking about this one. Our TITV host Akash Pasricha, our head of design Clark Miller and I had a vision and, to be honest, not much else when we decided to launch TITV a few months before it went live. Collectively, we had exactly zero professional video experience, and clearly that was a mistake. But we had good instincts about what our audience wanted and how our journalists and guests could connect with them. We had enough will to keep going. 

One year later, this platform has brought so much amazing talent to The Information, I can’t believe it. Our daily show, along with myriad breaking news specials, is run by the inimitable Sydnee Fried and powered by a growing cohort of producers, an established video editing team and a thriving audience team. 

When I told the team I wanted to film an interview with Jassy at the World Economic Forum in Davos and edit the video to go up before his scheduled appearance on CNBC the same day—in other words, going head-to-head with the most experienced video team on the planet, many time zones away—they stayed into the early hours of the morning to make sure I actually made the early taping. They got the interview out so fast I missed the airing because I was taking a nap. 

Finally, the last lesson: One day at a time. When our audio was busted on day one, I got a text from the former head of a major news network. “Push forward,” he wrote, advising we put out a clip right away, the whole show the following day and then do it again. So we did. And we kept on going, thinking just about the next show, and then the next. The great editor Ben Bradlee liked to say, “Our best today; better tomorrow.” And boy that is true in video. 

So many things are outside our control, from the quality of our guests’ internet connections to the transfer speeds of video halfway around the world. But we keep on going and improving—five days a week, no breaks. 

***

As I look to year two, I want to thank our amazing partners, especially PwC, Google, Adobe and AWS. These companies took a chance on us. Their trust, especially in those early weeks, meant the world to me, and I’m proud and excited that we can now deliver for them in bigger ways as we scale. 

I want to also thank my husband, who has the unfortunate memory of me melting down at an anniversary dinner the evening of launch. Forever, we will have that memory of my tears and crab cakes. Thank you for understanding and for all your support! And to my brother who, when it was clear our video editor wouldn’t cut it, got in and spent all night cutting a first full episode. And probably the second and the third. 

Some things you, thankfully, forget. But the lessons of the last 365 days, I surely won’t. 

Tune in today at 10 a.m. PT / 1 ET for our special anniversary show!