Journalism that tries to see around corners

Kevin Delaney, the editor in chief of Quartz, the business news site from The Atlantic, writes about its coverage on the one-year anniversary of its launch.

Delaney writes, “There was skepticism. Some people asked whether the world really needed yet another business news outlet. What, they asked, would distinguish Quartz? We always said that was really a question for our readers. If they showed up to qz.com — and more importantly, kept coming back — then we would know we were doing something right.

“Well, thank you. More than 21 million people have visited Quartz since we launched. We’ve surpassed all of our goals, and are now targeting even greater audience growth for the year ahead. We were named one of the 50 best websites of 2013 by Time magazine and made it onto TED’s 100 favorites, as well.

“Quartz’s readers include CEOs, government officials, investors, thinkers, entrepreneurs. We know this because you share our content every day with friends on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Sina Weibo and other social platforms. In fact, social media has been the key to our growth, accounting for more than half of Quartz’s traffic.

“Our journalism, we like to say, tries to see around corners. The obsessions we focus on and the stories we write often deal with the cutting edge of industry: 3D printing, natural gas exploration, mobile payments, Arctic shipping, bitcoin. The day Quartz launched our top story was ‘Facebook’s plan to find its next billion users: convince them the internet and Facebook are the same.’ In the year since, that topic — the next billion people to come online, almost all of them using mobile phones — has become an issue of global focus. We’ll even be hosting a conference about it in November.

“But equally important to our journalism is the design and technology behind it. Quartz looked pretty different than most news sites when we launched a year ago. The design is intended to get out of your way and let the content shine above all.”

Read more here.