Quartz traffic exceeds expectations in first month

Emma Bazilian of Adweek reports that the new business news site Quartz has exceeded its traffic expectations during its first month of operation.

Bazilian writes, “The site received 840,343 unique visitors in the month of October. That’s about half of the 1.6 million uniques that the Financial Times saw in September, but notably more than the Economist’s 559,000 visitors, per Compete.com.

“‘We were aiming for half a million unique visitors in the first month and really overshot that,’ said Jay Lauf, svp and publisher of Quartz, who added that the site’s visitor growth has been the fastest of any Atlantic digital launch he’s overseen.

“About 30 percent of Quartz traffic is coming from mobile devices, according to the company, but Lauf believes that percentage will increase as users continue to migrate to mobile devices. The site’s Android issues have also been addressed although functionality on Internet Explorer doesn’t sound like a priority. (Paraphrasing Elevation Partners’ co-founder Roger McNamee, Lauf explained, ‘Every dollar, every man hour and every bit of intellectual energy you’re spending on legacy systems is money, time and energy you’re not spending on your future.’)

“Other statistics from Quartz’s first month show an audience that’s global, with more than 40 percent of unique visitors coming from outside the U.S., and active on social media, with nearly 40 percent of the site’s visitors from social referrals.”

Read more here.