Quartz strategy begins to crystallize

Michael Sebastian of AdAge examines the strategy behind the business news site Quartz.

Sebastian writes, “But the question looming over Quartz is whether it can continue to grow its audience, add revenue streams and start throwing money to its owner Atlantic Media.

“The site is relatively small. In November, Quartz attracted 7 million unique visitors in the U.S. across desktop and mobile devices, according to ComScore. A Quartz spokeswoman, who cited internal figures, said U.S. unique visitors topped 9 million in November and 10 million in December. More than 40% of the site’s traffic comes from outside the U.S.

“During the same period, Business Insider had 37 million U.S. unique visitors; The Wall Street Journal racked up 19 million; and Fortune attracted 8 million, according to ComScore.

“Quartz is unprofitable, though its executives say that’s by design. ‘The prudent thing to do in this stage is to invest in more sales staff, more journalists,’ said Kevin Delaney, Quartz’s editor-in-chief and president. The site relies almost entirely on advertising for revenue, which was roughly $10 million to $12 million in 2014, according to people familiar with the company. Quartz execs declined to offer specifics on the site’s revenue or start-up costs.”

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