Quartz’s Jay Lauf: ‘Serving the reader first is central to our strategy’

Quartz has never run a standard IAB ad, and for the sake of its readers, it wants to keep it that way.

At the Digiday Publishing Summit Japan in late June, Quartz publisher Jay Lauf shared how the 4-year-old publisher creates attractive banner and native ads for premium audiences. Its directive for advertising is simple: It must be beautiful to look at and easy to opt out of, like magazine advertising.

“What if you could marry the best of a magazine advertisement with all of the trackability and the power of digital?” asked Lauf. As such, said Lauf, Quartz has never run a standard IAB ad — they resize ads they receive from advertisers and do not work with content marketing platforms like Outbrain. As a result, he said, they can boast a 90 percent retention rate for advertisers.

Want to hear more about how media companies are evolving to expand into new markets? Listen to other sessions from the Digiday Summit Japan below.

  • Bloomberg Media’s reticence around platform publishing is tempered with a healthy desire to experiment with two to three that really work.
  • How the Financial Times balances advertising with a subscription model in the AIPAC region.

To hear more about media is changing straight from the people making it happen, subscribe to Digiday Live on iTunes or Stitcher.

More in Media

Why retailers like Target and Aerie are moving beyond straight affiliate deals with creators

Creator programs are changing as retailers like Target and Aerie realize they require a multifaceted approach that doesn’t just rely on affiliate links.

Rising gas prices may push more household spending toward Amazon

The spike has squeezed household budgets and changed how people shop. Consumers are pulling back on discretionary spending and foot traffic is in decline.

How publishers are modeling – and mitigating – a future with significantly less Google search traffic

Publishers are modeling the business impact of a zero-click future and developing growth strategies for the Google AI search era.