Quartz acquired by co-founder and CEO Zach Seward in management buyout
Seward and editor-in-chief Katherine Bell partner to take Quartz private
Quartz co-founder and CEO Zach Seward has reached an agreement to acquire Quartz from Uzabase, the company’s owner for the past two years.
Seward, who remains CEO, is partnering with editor-in-chief Katherine Bell, now a minority owner, to operate Quartz as a private company. The acquisition is effective immediately. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Quartz’s mission is to make business better,” Seward said. “We want Quartz to be an ally and resource to our readers in developing new and better ways of doing business. This is an exciting moment for our own business, as we become an independent media company again. I’m thrilled to be taking this step after helping to build Quartz, with so many others, over the past eight years.”
Seward expanded on the news and Quartz’s mission to make business better in a letter to Quartz readers.
Added Bell, “In a time of great change and risk, we need ambitious and innovative business journalism more than ever. Quartz’s progressive, global perspective helps readers understand the world’s most difficult and urgent problems, like the climate crisis and racial and economic injustice, and work on solving them. I am honored to join Zach and lead Quartz into the future.”
Yusuke Umeda, CEO of Uzabase, has agreed, in a personal capacity, to provide debt financing for the new company, which will also seek outside investment.
Said Umeda, “While Uzabase has determined Quartz is better positioned as an independent company, I believe so strongly in the value of Quartz and in the leadership of both Zach and Katherine that I am happy to continue my support.”
Quartz ranks number one for reach among c-level executives aged 25–44, according to recently released data from Ipsos, and it recently surpassed 20,000 paying members.
About Zach Seward
Seward was Quartz’s second employee, helping to build the company and form its unique approach to business journalism. He was named CEO in October 2019 after serving as chief product officer and executive editor. He has been widely recognized as a leader in digital journalism, including citations on lists by Forbes, Crain’s New York Business, Digiday, and Folio.
Prior to joining Quartz, Seward worked at The Wall Street Journal, first as a reporter covering education and health, then as the newspaper’s first social media editor. Prior to that, he was an assistant editor at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, covering the media industry.
About Katherine Bell
Bell joined Quartz in 2019 as editor-in-chief. She previously served as editor-in-chief of Barron’s magazine. Before that, Bell worked at Harvard Business Review for a decade and was the editor of HBR.org. In both roles, she led the digital transformation of iconic print publications.
Prior to her tenure at HBR, Bell was digital managing editor for America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Illustrated, website director for English cooking legend Delia Smith, and director of content for PlanetOut. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories. In 2016, she helped start the DADA2 Foundation to support research into her daughter’s rare disease.
