Quartz makes design tweak

The Atlantic’s business news site Quartz has made minor changes to its design, reports Peter Kafka of All Things D.

Kafka writes, “The more interesting thing to note about Quartz’s overhaul is that it is one of dozens of changes Atlantic Media’s newest property has made since it launched seven months ago. Quartz editor Kevin Delaney says the site has pushed 73 code chages since Quartz first debuted, most of which have to do with the way the site’s guts function.

“The reason Quartz can do that, Delaney argues, is because of its decision to rely on an HTML5 design which essentially serves up the same page to every reader, no matter which which device they’re using to access the site. If you want to change the way an HTML5 site looks or behaves, you can simply change it — no need to monkey with an app that’s already downloaded to someone’s iPhone or Android.

“That runs counter to a lot of current digital distribution thinking, which holds that every Web distributor — from newspapers to Facebook to Netflix — needs to be thinking app first.

“No need to beat the debate into the ground — it’s really only relevant to a few thousand people, and it can take on a religious overtone — but it is worth noting that it seems to be working for Quartz. Delaney says his site is now attracting two million users a month.”

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