Quartz announces leadership transition
Zach Seward appointed CEO; Katie Weber named president.
NEW YORK (October 7, 2019) — Quartz announced today a transition in leadership with the appointment of Zach Seward as chief executive officer. Seward is one of the company’s co-founders and has served as chief product officer and executive editor of Quartz for the past two years. Additionally, Katie Weber has been promoted to president of Quartz. She has been at Quartz since 2014 and served as chief commercial officer for the past year.
The leadership changes are effective today. Jay Lauf is now the chairman of Quartz. Kevin Delaney is stepping down later this month, but will continue as an advisor to Quartz. Delaney and Lauf had run the company as co-CEO and editor-in-chief and co-CEO and publisher, respectively, since its founding in 2012.
Delaney, Lauf, and Seward co-founded Quartz in 2012, building a successful and groundbreaking media business focused on distinctive coverage of the new global economy, supported by creative solutions for marketers and a new membership program. A truly global company, Quartz employees are now located around the world, while nearly half of its audience lives outside the US. According to recently released data from Ipsos, for a global business audience, Quartz ranks number one for 25–44 year old business decision-makers and number one for c-level executives aged 25–44. Quartz was acquired by Uzabase in 2018.
“Kevin, Jay, and Zach are truly inspiring founders and colleagues, and my gratitude for them and what they’ve built is infinite,” said Yusuke Umeda, CEO of Uzabase. “I admired them from afar for years, and it has been an absolute privilege to experience their leadership, creativity, and enthusiasm over this past year. I am particularly excited for the next chapter and to work with Zach and Katie to aggressively build on this momentum, to the benefit of readers, partners and members.”
Seward said, “I love Quartz and believe strongly that our distinctive approach to business journalism — global in its worldview and focused on the future — is more important today than ever. We are also a special company, filled with kind, creative, and incredibly talented people, and I feel incredibly privileged to be leading us.”
Weber said, “No company embodies and embraces creativity and innovation more than Quartz, and I’m honored to work with the best teams in the business to continue challenging the status quo.”
Lauf said, “I’m excited about this new chapter for Quartz. Zach is employee #2 and the architect of so much of the innovation Quartz is known for — he’s the perfect choice for CEO. Katie is a singular talent in this industry, highly respected by our clients and staff.”
Delaney said, “Nearly eight years ago I joined Atlantic Media to lead the effort to create a new global business news organization. I’m really proud of how Quartz has helped to fundamentally redefine the media industry’s approach to journalism, product, and advertising — and connected with tens of millions of readers around the world along the way. Quartz now has an excellent home in Uzabase, and our work on the transition over the past year, and the handoff to Zach and Katie, reinforce my confidence in its future.”
The company will conduct a search for a new editor in chief and a chief product officer.
About Zach Seward (Photo)
Seward, 34, was Quartz’s second employee, helping to build the company, along with many others, and form its unique approach to business journalism. He has been the architect of the company’s award-winning and beloved product innovation, and most recently led the introduction of Quartz membership, the company’s premium offering.
As chief product officer and executive editor, Seward oversaw product management, engineering, design, analytics, growth, community, member experience, and special projects. Previously at Quartz, he was responsible for editorial strategy, oversaw its visual journalism, and wrote about technology and media. 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 Katie Weber (Photo)
Weber, 33, joined Quartz in 2014 and most recently served as chief commercial officer. As president, she will continue to oversee Quartz’s advertising sales and creative partnerships and will assume responsibility for the company’s burgeoning membership business.
In 2017, Weber oversaw the successful launch of Quartz Partnerships, an integral, strategic division that delivers compelling, award-winning solutions for brand partners by leveraging sales, Quartz Creative, Quartz Insights, marketing and editorial.
Prior to joining Quartz, Weber led myriad strategic and creative initiatives at Condé Nast. She has also held sales and marketing roles at WIRED and Condé Nast Digital.
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Below are today’s corresponding internal staff announcements:
To Quartz Staff from Jay Lauf & Kevin Delaney:
Hello all,
We’re writing today with some important news. We’ve both, Jay and Kevin, determined the time is right for us to pass on the baton for day-to-day leadership of Quartz, and it is with tremendous excitement that we announce, effective immediately, Zach Seward is promoted to chief executive officer of Quartz.
Jay is staying on in the newly created role of chairman. Kevin has decided to leave Quartz, but will remain an advisor to the company. Katie Weber is becoming president of Quartz, with responsibility for all of our business lines, including advertising and membership, effective immediately. Tomo Ota will continue as chief financial officer.
We will gather this morning for a town hall (invite forthcoming) where you will hear more from us as well as Zach, Katie, and Yusuke.
Both of us have poured everything we have into this amazing venture for the past seven-plus years, and we feel deeply proud of all we’ve accomplished along with you. In conversation this summer, and as the final elements of the Uzabase transition wrapped up, Kevin and I discovered that we’d both separately been thinking that the time might be approaching for us to step back from the leadership of Quartz. As planning for 2020 accelerated, it was both clear and confidence-inspiring to see how central a role Zach has played in driving the strategy, from the pending release of an exciting new Quartz experience to the distinct vision for membership. All of these things presented a logical and seamless moment for the next chapter to begin.
That is a realization we came to independently and with different ideas for ourselves in mind. Let us elaborate.
Kevin: Justin Smith and David Bradley first approached me almost exactly eight years ago to join Atlantic Media and lead the effort to create a global business news organization. It has been a tremendous journey since then, with a collective of exceptionally talented and creative people. Quartz now has an excellent home in Uzabase, and our work on the transition over the past year reinforces my confidence in its future. I’m now ready to turn to other projects.
I will stay on for a few weeks from today to hand off various things, and to finish up a reporting project for Quartz that I’ve pursued on the sidelines of my main responsibilities over the past few years. I’m still working out what my next projects will be, and look forward to having some time to focus on that. I intend to support Quartz as an advisor and will be, always, a superfan of the work that you do.
Jay: These past seven years have been an amazing journey — helping Quartz lift off into the constellation of industry-shaping media brands has been one of the highest highlights of my career. Our place in that constellation gives me the peace of mind to shift to a new role that allows time to perhaps add other professional interests while continuing to support the business. I’ve long been a believer that change is good — for individuals and companies. As stated above, now seems a good moment for that change. I’m excited to take on a new role and for the remainder of this year will focus my time on advertising and client partnerships and advising on 2020 planning.
We are thrilled that Zach will succeed us in the role of CEO. You will hear more on this from Yusuke and Zach directly, but suffice to say, we are delighted by and have, from the moment we alerted Yusuke to our news, been supportive of this choice.
Zach, for those of you not here long enough to remember, is employee #2 and one of the co-founders of Quartz. His thought-leadership has delivered so much of the culture, voice and user experience that Quartz is known for. Zach has architected the constant iteration of Quartz’s website, the launch of its award-winning apps, has overseen development of some of our most commercially successful projects, and most recently has led the efforts to build and market the Quartz membership program. In short, no one has had more impact on Quartz than Zach. He is known and respected throughout the industry as an innovator and thought leader, and he enjoys a unique trust among both the Quartz staff and the Uzabase team. Having seen so many of his creative and strategic gifts behind the scenes, we can say there really is no better choice to lead Quartz into its bright, bold future.
Katie Weber has stepped up over and over again throughout her five-plus years here to not only take on new responsibility, but to drive change, improvements, and overall excellence in the work we do with clients and in the personnel and processes of the commercial team at Quartz. She is a clear thinker and a tireless advocate for our brand and is clearly the person to lead the business operation.
It is not hyperbole to say that Quartz has literally changed the media industry through our inventive approach to journalism, product, and advertising. We know firsthand that Quartz has been in the slide decks of countless media brands when they hold internal innovation brainstorms. We have been told by peers that they are jealous of our advertising approach, and we have hosted learning sessions with newsroom leaders globally. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, there has been plenty of flattery. And, of course, our readers and fans are among the most passionate a media brand can ask for. We are immensely proud of all this and grateful to have led this incredible team for so long.
But no business, particularly in this epoch, can rest on its laurels, and Quartz won’t do that. So a new, exciting chapter begins. One supported unequivocally by the deeply ambitious Yusuke and Uzabase and that will be led masterfully by one of our co-founders.
With inexpressible gratitude,
Kevin and Jay
To Quartz Staff from Uzabase CEO Yusuke Umeda:
Dear Quartz,
As you have now heard from Jay and Kevin, today we are introducing a new leadership team for Quartz.
Today is the first of a new chapter for Quartz, and I couldn’t be more excited to be on this journey with you. While Quartz officially became part of Uzabase last year, I have admired the company for years. Quartz is the first media business that truly combined quality journalism with mobile technology, and that approach really inspired me as I began to explore the media business — and that ultimately led to the launch of NewsPicks in Japan.
I believe the launch of Quartz was also the beginning of a new era in media, and my first meeting with Kevin in 2017 cemented that idea for me. I fell in love with Quartz because of the brand, the culture, and the loyal audience, who really are obsessed with the content and products you produce every day, even the advertising!
Quartz is a global brand that has already made an incredible impact in just seven years. I believe its biggest and best years are ahead of it and that it will be even more important and essential as a new generation of business leaders everywhere take the lead in shaping the global economy.
Kevin, Jay and Zach are inspiring founders and colleagues, and there isn’t enough room here to express my gratitude to them. Kevin is one of the most creative and forward-thinking journalists of his generation. I see that reflected in so much of what I love about Quartz — its intelligence, its creativity and its voice — and I am so happy he will stay connected to Quartz, even as he formally steps away as editor.
In order to begin this next chapter, I am excited to appoint Zach as CEO with Katie as president, and Jay as Chairman. Zach’s impact on Quartz cannot be understated, and I know he shares my enthusiasm for our future. Katie has done a terrific job pushing Quartz Creative to be an industry leader, and I look forward to having her work more broadly in support of the entire business.
Uzabase is committed to Quartz for the long term and to building the leading media business for the next generation. I recognize the industry faces tough challenges, but as long as we put our best work into high-quality journalism, we will remain in a strong position. Let’s keep our focus on innovating and creating the great content and products we have been known for since the beginning.
There is so much more to come, and I am thrilled to start our new chapter.
Best,
Yusuke
