Quartz (publication)

''Quartz'' is an American English language news website owned by Redbrick, a Canadian software firm. Focused on international business news, it was founded in 2012 by Atlantic Media in New York City as a "digitally native news outlet for business people in the new global economy". The publication implemented a paywall from 2019 to 2022.

History

On September 24, 2012, ''Quartz'' launched its website, designed to deliver content primarily to mobile and tablet users. Its founding team members were from news organizations including Bloomberg, ''The Economist'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Wall Street Journal''. According to its website, Quartz's team reports in 115 countries and speaks 19 languages. The publication was initially led by Kevin Delaney, a former managing director of ''WSJ.com'', Zach Seward, a former ''WSJ'' social media editor, and Gideon Lichfield, a global news editor from ''The Economist'', among other editors.

''Quartz''s main office is located in New York. It also has correspondents and staff reporters based in Hong Kong, India, London, Los Angeles, Thailand, Washington DC, and elsewhere.

In 2014, ''Quartz'' expanded into India, launching ''Quartz India''. In 2015, it launched the Africa-focused ''Quartz Africa''.

In 2015, it launched Atlas, a chart-building platform.

In 2015, it had meanwhile specific publications for Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates, adding to Africa and India.

According to '' Ad Age'', ''Quartz'' made around $30 million in revenue in 2016, and employed 175 people.

In 2017, revenue decreased to $27.6 million as advertising shrank. In August 2017, ''Quartz''s website saw about 22 million unique visitors. Approximately 700,000 people subscribe to its roster of email newsletters, which includes its flagship ''Daily Brief''.

In July 2018, Japanese company Uzabase (Japanese: ユーザベース) acquired ''Quartz'' from Atlantic Media for $86 million.

In October 2019 co-founder/co-CEO/editor in chief Kevin Delaney stepped down from his position. Zach Seward, the company's second employee, became the company's new chief executive officer.

That same month, Apple removed the Quartz app from its Chinese App Store, as part of the Great Firewall, for reporting on the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.

Revenue fell from $11.6 million in the first half of 2019 to $5 million in the first half of 2020. In November 2020, Uzabase sold ''Quartz'' to the publication's staff.

In April 2022, the site was sold to G/O Media.

As of 2024, ''Quartz India'' had been shut down.

In January 2025, the site drew controversy for publishing content written by artificial intelligence. A G/O Media spokesperson called their AI reporting tools "purely experimental."

In April 2025, G/O Media sold ''Quartz'' and sister site ''The Inventory'' to Redbrick, a Canadian software firm. Ten out of twelve ''Quartz'' newsroom employees were then let go.

Content

''Quartz'' is structured around a collection of phenomena or what it calls "obsessions" instead of " beats", preferring news stories or reports to be either short or long rather than middle of the road or average.

''Quartz'' often uses charts, created through its Chartbuilder tool, which forms the basis of its Atlas platform. Chartbuilder has been used by other media organizations, including CNBC, FiveThirtyEight, NBC News, New Hampshire Public Radio, NPR, ''The New Yorker'', '' The Press-Enterprise'', ''CEOWORLD magazine'', and ''The Wall Street Journal''.

In December 2024, a ChatGPT tool used to write hundreds of daily articles on securities and exchange filings for the past year was shut down because it would sometimes publish incorrect names and figures that actually belonged to other companies. As of January 2025 ''Quartz'' had expanded its use of generative AI to publish lengthier articles with disclaimers about potential inaccuracies due to the use of experimental technology. These articles summarize other sources, which are often mangled or misrepresented, and in some cases are themselves AI slop.

See also

* Quartz News (Facebook Watch)

References

{{G/O Media

Business newspapers published in the United States
Economics websites
American news websites
Internet properties established in 2012
2018 mergers and acquisitions
2022 mergers and acquisitions