Hasta La Creative!

Through humor, a mobile-friendly format and distinctive reporting, business website Quartz sought to push aside stalwarts like The Economist and the Financial Times as the preferred read of global executives when it launched in 2012. Four and a half years later, the upstart has done something even more impressive for a publication financed entirely by digital advertising: It turned a profit.

In 2016, qz.com earned more than $1 million from revenue topping $30 million, a 60% spike over the previous year, Crain’s New York Business (an Ad Age sibling publication) has learned from a person familiar with the company’s finances.

Quartz is projecting “significantly greater revenue and profits” for this year, a company executive said, and plans to invest in further growth by adding 50 employees at its Chelsea headquarters, bringing its New York head count to around 180. The company is also looking to create new editorial products, like the interactive app it launched last year; get deeper into coverage of artificial intelligence; and expand its sales and creative services departments. An additional 18 staffers outside New York will bring the companywide staff to about 270.

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