• by Sara Guaglione , March 27, 2017

Atlantic Media's nearly 5-year-old digital business publication Quartz earned more than $1 million from over $30 million of revenue, turning a profit after less than five years in operation, according to a Crain’sreport.

That figure represents a 60% spike in revenue compared to the previous year.

Other publications have struggled to make money primarily from digital advertising, as much of their digital ad dollars get swallowed up by Facebook and Google. They have instead focused on building online subscription revenue.

Quartz uses an “oversize format” for display ads and sponsored content.

A Quartz executive told Crain’s that the company is projecting "significantly greater revenue and profits" for this year. The company plans to expand by adding 50 employees to its New York office.

Quartz’s core editorial products include its Web site, qz.com, which attracts around 20 million unique visitors per month, and a popular newsletter-style app, the Daily Brief. The publication puts effort into its mobile and social presence, rather than on a homepage, as well as attracting its target audience of sophisticated readers.

Last year, Quartz released a unique news app, formatted to look a lot like iMessage for news. The app sends messages, photos, GIFs and links to users to share a news stories. Readers can tap to respond when interested in learning more about a topic. The responses are written by a team of writers and editors.

In November, Quartzannounced it was creating a new studio to experiment with the use of bots and artificial intelligence technology in journalism, bolstered by a $240,000 investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.