What’s behind Quartz’s Africa strategy

Sarah Scire of Nieman Lab writes about the strategy behind Quartz offering membership for its Africa tech and entrepreneurship content.

Scire writes, “Subscription revenue has grown as a share of revenue, but advertising still accounts for the majority of Quartz’s earnings, the company confirmed.

Editor-in-chief Katherine Bell said that though Quartz Japan and Quartz Africa are both geographically focused, the new verticals are ‘actually quite different’ from one another.

“‘Quartz Japan translates the Daily Brief and other Quartz stories into Japanese, and produces some local stories about business news,’ Bell said. ‘Quartz Africa will be aimed not only at readers on the continent, but also readers in the African diaspora and investors and entrepreneurs around the world who are interested in Africa.’

“A full-time team of four covers the entire continent. Editor Ciku Kimeria is based between Nairobi, Kenya and Dakar, Senegal; two general reporters are based in Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi; and a climate change reporter writes from Cairo, Egypt. Kimeria also relies on a team of about 20 freelance reporters — based in cities like Addis, Abidjan, Harare, Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, and Douala — to ‘give readers a taste of what innovation looks like in a diverse continent, with 54 nations, lots of cities, and growing tech hubs.'”

Read more here.