Quartz on June 26 laid off business-side employees for the second time this year, Digiday’s Max Willens reported today. The most-recent round of layoffs included seven employees; the previous one included four.
Nearly 10 percent of the company’s total staff has departed over the past 12 months, Willens’ report stated. It elaborated:
The layoffs come as Quartz shifts its focus to paid subscriptions. Site traffic is down 50% year over year, according to Comscore data, sliding from 12 million monthly unique users in May 2018 to 6 million unique users in May 2019. That slide began in 2018, months before Quartz introduced a metered paywall in May 2019. The paywall has had a negligible effect on Quartz’s traffic, multiple sources said. A number of factors, including a focus on content that creates loyal readers rather than fly-by ones, and reporters working on members-only content in addition to their daily responsibilities, played a role in the drop, a source inside Quartz said.
In addition to the rounds of layoffs, several long-standing, high-profile employees have left on their own, including chief revenue officer Joy Robins, who joined The Washington Post in March. Two sources familiar with the matter said that some of the sales-side departures were motivated by feelings that there is a lack of opportunity in the department, as most of Quartz’s resources going toward the site’s membership program.
Read Willens’ report here.
