Quartz aims for profitability

Roger Yu of USA Today writes about Quartz, the business news website from The Atlantic.

Yu writes, “Quartz’s challenges include amassing more stories, as well as more readers and advertisers (it has about 60 of the latter). The site doesn’t post enough content to sustain a long-term business, says Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst who writes the blog Newsonomics.com and has written about Quartz’s evolution.

“‘They’ve got to scale up,’ he says. ‘If you’re going to bid for a serious business audience, the product has to be substantial enough.’

“Quartz’s recent business decisions acknowledge the problem. It plans to add about 30 more positions — about half in editorial — augmenting the current roster of 50. And it’s stepping up efforts to diversify revenue sources.

“In early June, Quartz launched an edition aimed at India, part of an effort to target new audiences and attract advertising from multinational corporations. For now, it will feature feature stories by a staff of journalists in India who are managed by a third-party partner, Scroll.In. Prior to the launch, India was among the top traffic originators for Qz.com, Lauf says.

“From the start, sponsored events have been part of the game plan. Advertising and corporate sponsorship at its conferences and meetings generate about 10% of Quartz’s total revenue. Its first paid-admission conference — a global population themed show called ‘The Next Billion’ in June — was sold out.“

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