> But Quartz never made money. We grew, between 2012 and 2018, to nearly 250 employees and $35 million in annual revenue. The dismal economics of digital media meant losing more than $40 million over that stretch just to grow unsustainably large.
Those are laughably terrible numbers. $35M/year ain't much, and, even at a glance, there's no way to support 250 decently-paid employees on it. All things considered, even 50 is pushing it.
But if they thought outside-the-box a little bit, there might have been a way out: They could have gone into academic publishing. Academic publishers make money hand over fist. Elsevier made $3.5B in profit and >$10B in revenue just last year.
Doing social sciences and political science stuff would have been a good fit for Quartz. You don't need any special permits to become an academic publisher. Most of your employees (reviewers) do it for free, like jannies. The industry is ripe for, uh, "disruption." Oh well.