Quartz publisher and co-president Jay Lauf recently spoke about the organization’s revenues and approach to media. Interestingly, he’s not a fan of the startup approach, and cited two reasons why.
Quartz Doesn’t Want to Scale Primarily
Since Quartz avoids ad formats that are swamping the marketplace and driving down prices, they don’t need to court scale in order to turn a profit. Why does Lauf think that this model has been able to work? Because Quartz isn’t run like a VC-dependent startup. Here’s a transcripted quote from Lauf, made during his recent podcast interview at Digiday: The Silicon Valley platform model propels most startups to aim for unicorn status, a move that’s getting more tough but not impossible.
Quartz Embraces Resource Restraints
Plenty of successes in the startup world have millions in venture backing. But that’s not always a good thing — burn rates can get worse as funds get higher. Trimming funds, Lauf argues, can force a business to It’s worked for Quartz: You can’t argue with CPMs that are ten times the industry average. Image: Flickr / Esther Vargas
