Quartz Names Katherine Bell as Editor-in-Chief
Quartz announced today the appointment of Katherine Bell as editor-in-chief. Bell brings a wealth of business journalism and leadership experience, most recently serving as editor-in-chief of Barron’s magazine and previously the top digital editor at Harvard Business Review. She will be just the second editor-in-chief of Quartz, succeeding Kevin Delaney, who stepped down in October and is a senior advisor to Quartz.
“Katherine is a fantastic journalist with a sharp eye for the most important business stories of our day, a brilliant thinker on digital media, and an inspirational newsroom leader,” said Zach Seward, CEO of Quartz. “She knows Quartz well, shares an enthusiasm for our coverage of the global economy, and is strongly committed to approaching business journalism in new ways. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome her to Quartz.”
Added Bell, “I’ve been a Quartz reader since the moment it launched, and I’ve never stopped being impressed by the ambition and creativity of its journalism. Quartz’s reporters and editors are relentlessly curious, exceptionally good at making sense out of complexity, and committed to a truly global view — all of which are more necessary now than ever. Quartz is inventing a new and indispensable kind of business journalism, and I’m thrilled to be part of its next chapter.”
During her time leading Barron’s, Bell accelerated the nearly 100-year old magazine’s digital transformation, including the integration of newsroom operations, a redesign of Barrons.com, the launch of podcasts and an award-winning newsletter, and expanded coverage in multiple sectors. Barron’s also enjoyed record readership during her tenure. At HBR, she helped to grow the magazine’s global digital audience and shift its focus to digital subscriptions.
Bell joins Quartz at a time when the company is focused on building its membership business, which grew to more than 10,000 members in its first year. She will work closely with executive editor Xana Antunes and managing editor Kira Bindrim to drive Quartz’s distinctive coverage of the industries and forces transforming the new global economy.
Over the past few months, the business news organization has embarked on a series of initiatives to expand its global offerings and put members at the heart of Quartz, including a new global home page and redesigned apps; new editions for readers in the UK and India; and the creation of an investigative reporting team.
Bell will be based in Quartz’s headquarters in New York. She starts on January 6, 2020.
About Katherine Bell (photo here)
Bell previously served as editor-in-chief of Barron’s magazine, from 2017 until earlier this year. Before that, she 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, Katherine 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.
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Below is the corresponding internal staff announcement from Zach Seward:
Dear Quartz,
I am pleased to introduce Quartz’s next editor-in-chief, Katherine Bell.
Katherine is the former editor-in-chief of Barron’s and former top digital editor of Harvard Business Review. She is a fantastic journalist with a sharp eye for the most important business stories of our day, a brilliant thinker on digital media, and an inspirational newsroom leader. I can’t wait for everyone to meet Katherine when she starts on Jan. 6.
The search for Quartz’s next editor-in-chief attracted an impressive array of journalists interested in leading our next chapter. We met with many people, and whittled them to a diverse group of finalists, who were interviewed by a small hiring committee of Quartz staff.
As we got to know Katherine, it became clear that she is a rare journalistic talent who can communicate a clear editorial strategy in one moment and improve the lead paragraph of a feature story in the next. At HBR, where she worked for nearly a decade, Katherine built and led a digital team that transformed the century-old magazine’s editorial approach. The situation was similar at Barron’s, which she led from 2017 until earlier this year, focusing the financial magazine on high-impact journalism and digital subscription growth.
Before all that, Katherine was an editor at Cook’s Illustrated, PlanetOut, and other publications. She got an MFA in the middle there and was published in The Best American Short Stories. In that story, “The Casual Car Pool,” a parachuting mishap disrupts rush hour on the Bay Bridge.
As editor-in-chief of Quartz, Katherine will be responsible for leading our newsroom, elevating our coverage of the global economy, and shifting more of our focus onto members. She is joined in editorial leadership by managing editor Kira Bindrim and executive editor Xana Antunes, who will report to Katherine.
Like them, Katherine shares many important Quartz values — spirit of generosity, a love for creative journalism, and putting readers first. She is enthusiastic about what we cover and strongly committed to approaching business journalism in new ways. I’m excited to have her join Quartz’s incredible newsroom and lead our journalism for many years to come.
Best,
Zach
