Quartz sets traffic record in September

Quartz publisher Jay Lauf and editor in chief Kevin Delaney sent out the following to the staff on Thursday:

Fellow Quartzians,

As we close out the third quarter and  mark our third anniversary, we wanted to commend everyone on the achievement of three (see a pattern?) particularly important numerical markers.

Many other impressive stats were outlined in a thank you post to readers last week, but in closing the books on September, these numbers jumped out at us: 16,020,355, 42, and 21.

The first represents a new traffic record for qz.com, which attracted over 16 million unique visitors in September. That extraordinary growth, every last bit of it organic, is the result of both hard and smart work by our writers and editors. It also continues the consistent pattern of growth for Quartz: New heights introduce us to new readers, which resets the traffic floor at a higher foundation, and we keep going from there. This matters deeply on two levels: The larger audience means our journalism can have greater impact, and it also means we can achieve our business goals.

We are setting new records on the commercial side, as well. Revenue year-to-date is up 80% over last year. More than 120 blue chip brands are now advertising with Quartz, and 90% of them renew their business with us. Advertisers are not just trying Quartz, they are making us an integral part of their marketing efforts.

But the other two really interesting numbers we wanted to highlight relate to achievements in mobile and in international sales. We read again and again about other publishers struggling to generate revenue through their mobile offerings even as readers increasingly migrate to those devices. Not so for us. Quartz now generates 42% of our total ad revenue from readers on mobile devices, which makes us a standout in the publishing world. This is a huge indicator of future success.

Lastly, kudos to our international sales and marketing teams, who have continued to capitalize on the large audiences we’re attracting around the world. Most US-based publishers we talk to are struggling to generate significant revenue from their international traffic, but at Quartz, 21% of our total revenue comes from our operations outside the US, and that number is growing. It looks like as much as 28% of our Q4 revenue will come from markets outside the US.

So as we turn three years old, remember those numbers: 16,020,355, 42, and 21. They are indicators of a very solid foundation for continued growth. As we find ourselves saying over and over again, we’re proud of this entire team and hope you are just as proud of all that we’re accomplishing together!