Quartz looking to change business journalism

Marie Griffin of BtoB Magazine writes about Quartz, the new business news site coming soon from The Atlantic that hopes to present business news and information in a different way.

Griffin writes, “While the Quartz user interface is under wraps until its debut, Smith said it has been built in HTML5, making it browser-based and viewable on any mobile device. Users will be able to bookmark the app to their mobile screens for an experience similar to apps designed exclusively for operating systems from Apple (iOS), Google (Android) and others. Quartz will also employ responsive design so that the format will adapt automatically to the size of the viewer’s screen.

“With an advertising-supported business model, Quartz will not put what Smith calls ‘the friction of a paywall’ between its content and the audience. That differentiates Quartz from the Financial Times and The Economist, which have digital subscription models and serve the audience of C-suite and senior-level global business professionals that Quartz is also targeting. Smith estimated Quartz could ultimately reach an audience of 10 million to 15 million.

“Meanwhile, the journalistic quality of Quartz is expected to be on par with other top business sites. Smith brought in Kevin Delaney, a former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Online, as editor in chief.

“‘The core and majority of our content will be original, but we are very interested in the open Web and aggregation,’ Smith said. ‘We are also building a large body of commentary.’

“Social networks will play a key role, too. ‘Social distribution has been at the center of the traffic growth strategy of TheAtlantic.com and represents a similar opportunity for Quartz,’ he added.”

Read more here.