Quartz has canceled its high-end ‘Next Billion’ conference

Quartz, the digital business news publisher, is going to stop putting on a high-end technology conference.

Quartz says it is discontinuing its flagship Next Billion conference series, which it started in 2013. Tickets for the last version, held in San Francisco last October, had a list price of $1,500.

The company is laying off three employees who worked full-time on its conference business, but says it will continue to host events this year, including “at least one small event on a technology-related topic.”

Quartz Editor in Chief Kevin Delaney says the company, which was reportedly on track to do $30 million last year, was moving resources from its conference business to other projects.

“Quartz is in high-growth mode and focused on investing in areas with the greatest immediate potential,” he said in a statement. “We’ll continue to do events this year and beyond, but are shifting that activity from a full-time events group to our marketing team.”

Delaney said Quartz, which has a staff of 190, planned to hire 68 employees, including 20 new marketing specialists, in the first half of this year.

Yesterday, Quartz, which relies primarily on internet advertising for its revenue, announced that it had purchased a small research firm and would use that company to help launch a new subscription product.

Update: A Quartz spokesperson added this: “One of the smartest things a high-growth company can do is decide what not to do. Quartz is no longer pursuing The Next Billion conference in its current iteration, and in keeping with our spirit of reinvention, a new iteration may come.”