This is the second time in about a year that Atlantic Media has sold a controlling stake in one of its properties. Last July, Emerson Collective, the organization founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, acquired a majority stake in The Atlantic magazine.
In a memo of his own to Quartz staff members, David G. Bradley, Atlantic Media’s chairman, recounted how, during a Christmas vacation trip to Beirut several years ago, he had discussed the future of the company with his three adult sons. After deciding that his sons would not succeed him in running Atlantic Media, Mr. Bradley said that his family then planned to divest all of their media properties by the time he was 70.
“Where I am caught by surprise is in the timing,” Mr. Bradley, 65, said. “After selling the majority of The Atlantic to Emerson Collective, I had thought it would be a few years before we launched the search for a Quartz buyer. In fact, all of this — my partnership with Emerson on The Atlantic and the sale of Quartz — is coming years faster than I had imagined.”
He praised Mr. Umeda, saying that he “reminds me of us at our best. He is modest, thoughtful, appreciative, repeatedly true to his word, and highly, highly intelligent.” Mr. Bradley will continue to work as an adviser to the company for at least the next year.
Uzabase, which runs a business news aggregation app called NewsPicks, said it was buying Quartz to help expand its overseas business. Quartz will take over the English language version of NewsPicks and will also develop new paid products, according to the emailed memo.
Uzabase and Mr. Umeda have tried to challenge a staid media environment in Japan by focusing coverage on emerging technology trends, according to Japanese media interviews with Mr. Umeda.
NewsPicks, which aggregates business news and allows commenting and sharing, has 64,000 subscribers who pay roughly $15 per month, according to the statement. In 2017, the company formed a joint venture with Dow Jones & Company to run an American edition of NewsPicks. Uzabase also runs a financial intelligence service called Speeda.
