This story first appeared on RJI’s Futures Lab. Reporting by Katy Mersmann and Rachel Wise.
This week we go inside Quartz to find out how newsletters, video and a constant focus on the target user have helped the operation attract and maintain a highly engaged mobile audience.
Quartz was launched by Atlantic Media in 2012 as a digital-only business news outlet optimized for mobile devices. Since then, what “seemed like an odd experiment” has grown to attract close to 17 million monthly unique visitors and has pushed mobile news delivery forward in interesting ways, most recently with an iPhone app that mimics a text-messaging interface.
In this report we get an overview of the team’s strategy from Executive Editor and Vice President of Product Zach Seward; Special Projects Editor Lauren Brown and Editor for New Initiatives Xana Antunes.
More information about the Quartz mobile app:
- What’s up? Quartz’s Kevin J. Delaney on why new app mimics messaging service (The Guardian)
- Quartz’s Fun News App Is Quite Unlike Any News App You’ve Seen Before (TechCrunch)
- Quartz’s first mobile app is… an emoji keyboard with flags?! (The Next Web)
- Quartz’s new app is a hip friend texting you the news (Digiday)
- Unique new mobile news apps from Quartz and The Local (Talking New Media)
- One size fits all? What the detractors of Quartz’s news app have missed (The Media Briefing)
More information about video at Quartz
- From the editor: How Quartz is doing video (Quartz)
- Why Quartz is taking its time to figure out video (Poynter)
Reuben Stern is the deputy director of the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and host and co-producer of the weekly Futures Lab video update.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Futures Lab video update features a roundup of fresh ideas, techniques and developments to help spark innovation and change in newsrooms across all media platforms. Visit the RJI website for the full archive of Futures Lab videos, or download the receive email notification of each new episode.
