A special project [at Quartz] takes between three and six months to complete. And because Quartz is also treating its special projects as a potential source for additional revenue by selling sponsorship around them, part of the lengthy duration is due to the sales cycle but also to how long it takes to commission the pieces, and to design and develop an initiative of this kind. [According to Lauren Brown, special projects editor:] “What qualifies as a special project is something that has a concept with it, aside from a single daily story that we might publish. There is a design treatment that is varied, so we might be testing out some illustration styles, some photography or just a new layout… [that] is different than the typical story pages and formatting and also takes more development work. [Special projects] are typically categorised by the ambition, the concept, the look and feel and the development work behind them.”
Read the full piece at Journalism.co.uk
