Quartz’s focus on the global business professional

Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal interviewed Quartz publisher Jay Lauf about its strategy.

Marshall writes, “As a result, Quartz decided to shun standardized banner ads and to avoid selling its ad space through intermediaries, opting instead to sell custom ad formats and sponsored content directly to marketers and their agencies.

“Another benefit of that model is you don’t need to amass a huge audience to generate significant advertising revenues, assuming you can maintain higher ad prices, according to Mr. Lauf.

“‘We don’t necessarily need 100 million or 200 million unique users to be successful. We are laser-focused on trying to serve the global business professional…that is what attracts, I think very successfully, a loyal advertising base,’ he said.

“Quartz attracts an audience of around 20 million unique users on a monthly basis, Mr. Lauf said, but believes publications without a focused audience strategy could have problems.”

Read more here.