Quartz, the forthcoming digital business news brand from Atlantic Media, has named a marketing chief to its growing staff.
Taylor Gray is the new vp of global marketing; he joins a team that includes Gawker vet Chris Batty as publisher and former Wall Street Journal editor Kevin Delaney as editor in chief. Gray was vp of marketing and social media strategy at the Huffington Post Media Group; he left after its sale to AOL. Before that, he served in marketing and sales roles for Time. He most recently consulted to the Newsweek Daily Beast Co.
At the Huff Post, Gray helped develop ways for advertisers to publish branded content and leverage the site’s social platform, while at Time, he helped build the Time 100 franchise. All represent the sort of nontraditional revenue Quartz plans to go after.
“Quartz is not only looking to disrupt traditional media, but also disrupt in terms of the advertising offerings that we’re going to create,” Atlantic Media president Justin Smith said. “It’s nonstandard ad units, but also creating native advertising and offering advertisers the opportunity to participate and engage our readers in a conversation with a very clear demarcation that the content will be sponsored.”
Smith said Gray also would lead the development at Quartz of editorially-led franchises involving events, research, polls, and lists.
Quartz is building a team of 25 people and is expected to launch later this year.