Back in 2013, when we launched The Information, the world of journalism—and especially tech journalism—was a huge mess. Publications were so focused on pumping out content that they forgot how to do real reporting. So we started The Information to deliver the big, difficult-to-report stories that drive the conversation. And our business and community has grown.

It’s grown so much, in fact, that our readers now represent one of the most powerful communities of business and technology professionals in the world. And from here, we see another major opportunity: the chance to fix the broken world of building and maintaining connections online.

Online networking is broken. The general tech platforms have become one-stop shops for any feature that saps attention—trying to entertain and engage rather than create trusted connections. The chance of forging or finding meaningful professional connections through them is slim.

That is why today we’re rolling out a new suite of community features, free for all subscribers to The Information, which bring the relevance back to online networking and aspire to, above all else, be worth your time.

They are Profiles, Directory and Forum.

Profiles

For many years, subscribers who have chosen to comment on The Information have done so with their real name, linked back to a basic list of their past comments. Now we’ve overhauled those profiles entirely to make them significantly more useful. Subscribers can add areas of interest, their locations, whether they are recruiting for specific roles and much more. They can indicate what kind of connections they are interested in and if they are open to receiving messages from others.

Directory

Looking for ad tech specialists in New York? Founders of artificial intelligence companies? Executives open to new recruiting opportunities? Directory is an easy way to find trusted professionals who could help your business. It’s easy to use but very powerful. Oh, and did we mention—no bots?

Forum

We know we don’t have a lock on all the interesting and important news and information in the world—far from it. But finding trusted opinions and articles can be deeply challenging. So we created Forum as a place for any subscriber with a profile to post and start a discussion. Subscribers can “like” and comment on interesting content. To ensure they never miss an important conversation, they can also receive a daily digest of the most commented on and highly ranked posts.

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Today, by releasing these tools, we’re taking a big first step to building a new type of community online that’s unique across technology and business. We hope you will grow it with us. Like any good community, this one will take time to develop, and everything we’re launching today is opt-in. Subscribers will only have access to these features if they want to. Our subscribers’ privacy is of the utmost importance.

As always, your feedback is invaluable. We look forward to hearing from you and learning how you use our new products as we all navigate these challenging and unusual times in technology and business.

Jessica Lessin

Founder, The Information