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Quartz
Available inEnglish
Key peopleJay Lauf, Zach Seward, Kate Weber
RevenueDecrease $26.9 million (2019)[1]
Net income-$18.4 million (2019)[1]
URLqz.com Edit this at Wikidata
CommercialYes
LaunchedSeptember 24, 2012; 9 years ago (2012-09-24)

Quartz is a business-focused, privately-held English-language international news organization. It launched in New York City in 2012. It publishes in the United States and Japan, and publishes regional editions in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Africa, and India.[2][3]

Audience and revenue

Quartz targets high-earning readers, calling itself a "digitally native news outlet for business people in the new global economy".[4][5] Sixty percent of its readers access the site via mobile devices.

In August 2017, Quartz's website saw about 22 million unique visitors.[6] Approximately 700,000 people subscribe to its roster of email newsletters, which includes its flagship Daily Brief.[7]

According to Ad Age, Quartz made around $30 million in revenue in 2016, and employed 175 people.[8]

In 2017, revenue decreased to $27.6 million as advertising shrank.[9] Uzabase (Japanese: ユーザベース) purchased the organization for $86 million.[10][1]

History

According to a press release, the name Quartz was chosen for reasons related to its branding and the unusual combination of two infrequently used letters, q and z, in the title.[4]

On September 24, 2012, Quartz launched its website, designed to deliver content primarily to mobile and tablet users. Its founding team members were from news organizations including Bloomberg, The Economist, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.[11][12] According to its website, Quartz's team reports in 115 countries and speaks 19 languages.[13] The publication was initially led by Kevin Delaney, a former managing director of WSJ.com, Zach Seward, a former WSJ social media editor, and Gideon Lichfield, a global news editor from The Economist, among other editors.[4]

Quartz's main office is located in New York. It also has correspondents and staff reporters based in Hong Kong, India, London, Los Angeles, Thailand, Washington DC, and elsewhere.[13]

In 2014, Quartz expanded into India, launching Quartz India. In 2015, it launched Quartz Africa.[14][15]

In 2015, it launched Atlas, a chart-building platform.[16]

In July 2018, Japanese company Uzabase acquired Quartz from Atlantic Media.[17]

In October 2019, co-CEO and editor in chief Kevin Delaney, stepped down from his position. Zach Seward, the company's second employee, became the company's new chief executive officer.[18] That same month Apple removed the Quartz app from its Chinese App Store, as part of the Great Firewall, for reporting on the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[19][20][21]

Revenue fell from $11.6 million in the first half of 2019 to $5 million in the first half of 2020. In November 2020, Uzabase sold Quartz to the publication's staff.[22][23]

Content

In traditional newspaper "beats", news is divided into sections such as domestic, business and finance, and world economy. However, Quartz is structured around a collection of phenomena or "obsessions".[24]

Quartz often uses charts, created through their Atlas tool. The tool is used by other media organizations, including CNBC, FiveThirtyEight, NBC News, New Hampshire Public Radio, NPR, The New Yorker, The Press-Enterprise, CEOWORLD magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.[25][26]

References

  1. ^ a b c Perlberg, Steven (15 June 2020). "Caught in the mushy middle: How Quartz fell to earth". Digiday. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  2. ^ "UAE". Quartz. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  3. ^ Jackson, Jasper (3 November 2015). "Quartz Africa site to launch in June". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  4. ^ a b c Sonderman, Jeff (17 September 2012). "5 things journalists should know about Quartz, Atlantic Media's business news startup". Poynter. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  5. ^ "About Quartz". Quartz. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  6. ^ "Thank you, readers: Quartz is turning five years old. Here's what comes next". Quartz. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Why Quartz has gone niche with newsletter topics". Digiday. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  8. ^ "Quartz said to near $30 million in revenue, without clickbait or standard ad units". AdAge. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  9. ^ "Quartz, Atlantic Media's Business News Start-Up, Is Sold to Japanese Firm". New York Times. 2 July 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  10. ^ Schmidt, Christine (13 May 2019). "Quartz, built on free distribution, has put its articles behind a paywall". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  11. ^ "The Atlantic Launches Mobile-First Business Publication". Mashable. 24 September 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  12. ^ "Atlantic Media business website, Quartz, staffs up and strategizes". Politico. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  13. ^ a b "Welcome to Quartz". Quartz. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  14. ^ Jackson, Jasper. "Quartz Africa site to launch in June". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  15. ^ "Africa rising: Why and how Quartz, GE (Media) want in". fipp.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  16. ^ "Quartz's Atlas becomes open platform for building charts, data visualizations". ijnet.org. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  17. ^ "Japan's Uzabase to acquire online news platform Quartz". The Associated Press. 3 July 2018.
  18. ^ ago, Sara Jerde|1 day. "Quartz Searches for New Editor in Chief After Co-Founder Departs". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  19. ^ Miller, Chance (9 October 2019). "Apple removes 'Quartz' news app from Chinese App Store". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  20. ^ Statt, Nick (9 October 2019). "Apple removes Quartz news app from the Chinese App Store over Hong Kong coverage". The Verge. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  21. ^ Leskin, Paige (10 October 2019). "Here are all the major US tech companies blocked behind China's 'Great Firewall'". Business Insider. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  22. ^ Reuters Staff (9 November 2020). "Japan's Uzabase sells Quartz news site to co-founder, editor-in-chief". Reuters. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  23. ^ Pompeo, Joe (2019). ""Journalism Needs Help to Survive This": Despite a Crushing Spring, the Media's Pandemic Reckoning Is Far From Over". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  24. ^ "The newsonomics of Quartz, 19 months in". Nieman Lab. May 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  25. ^ "The most important things we learned in our first two years of chartbuildering". quartzthings.tumblr.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  26. ^ "Quartz maps a future for its interactive charts with Atla". Nieman Lab. June 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
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