Quartz is getting back into the podcast business

Business news publisher Quartz announced the launch of a free, weekly podcast called Obsession that will premiere Oct. 12 and signals its foray back into podcasting, reports Mark Stenberg of Adweek.

Stenberg writes, “Based both on its signature Obsession newsletter and the Quartz habit of structuring its content into verticals called Obsessions, the 20-minute podcast will explore one object or idea, such as Japanese whiskey, cash or kudzu, in detail, editor-in-chief Katherine Bell told Adweek. The series will release in ten-episode seasons, though Quartz members will get exclusive access to an eleventh episode.

“The podcast will not be paywalled, but the publisher is open to the possibility of launching other, members-only audio products in the future, Bell said. Obsession will monetize exclusively through advertising, and it has secured a brand sponsor for its first season. Quartz declined to name the company on the record or offer financial specifics of the deal.

“The debut of Obsession marks the first foray from the independently-owned media company into the world of audio since its previous podcasts, a partnership with WaitWhat called Should This Exist? and an owned-and-operated venture called FWD: Thinking, ended in 2018 and 2019, respectively.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.