 | |
 Screenshot ofThe Conversation' (global edition) on 9 September 2025 | |
| Type of business | Nonprofit |
|---|---|
Type of site | Analysis,commentary,research,news |
| Available in | English, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Portuguese |
| Founded | April 2010 (2010-04) |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Area served | Australia, Africa, Brazil, Canada, Europe, France, United Kingdom, United States, Indonesia, New Zealand, Spain |
| Founder(s) | Andrew Jaspan, Jack Rejtman |
| Employees | 150+ (2020) |
| URL | theconversation |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 24 March 2011; 14 years ago (2011-03-24) |
| Current status | Active |
Content license | CC Attribution / No derivatives 4.0 |
| ISSN | 2201-5639 |
The Conversation is a network ofnonprofit media outlets publishingnews stories andresearch reports online, authored byacademics with professional journalisteditors to produce accessibleresearch-informed outputs.[1][2]
Articles are written by academics and researchers under aCreative Commons license, allowing reuse without modification. Copyright terms for images are generally listed in the image caption and attribution.[3][2] Its model has been described asexplanatory journalism.[4][5][6]
Except in "exceptional circumstances", it only publishes articles by "academics employed by, or otherwise formally connected to, accredited institutions, including universities and accredited research bodies".[7]: 8
The website was launched in Australia in March 2011.[8][9] The network has since expanded globally with a variety of local editions originating from around the world.[10][11] In September 2019,The Conversation reported a monthly online audience of 10.7 million users, and a combined reach of 40 million people when including republication.[12] The site employed more than 150 full-time staff as of 2020.[13]
Each regional or national edition ofThe Conversation is an independentnonprofit or charity funded by various sources such as partnered universities anduniversity systems, governments and other grant awarding bodies, corporate partners, and reader donations.[13][14][15]
The Conversation was co-founded byAndrew Jaspan and Jack Rejtman,[16] and launched in Australia in March 2011.[8][9]
Jaspan first discussed the concept ofThe Conversation in 2009 withGlyn Davis, vice chancellor at theUniversity of Melbourne. Jaspan wrote a report for the university communications department on the university's engagement with the public, envisioning the university as "a giant newsroom", with academics and researchers collaboratively providing expert, informed content that engaged with the news cycle and major current affairs issues.[17] This vision became the blueprint forThe Conversation.
Jaspan and Rejtman were provided support by Melbourne University in mid-2009, which allowed time to incubate the business model. By February 2010, they had developed their model, branding, and business identity that they launched to potential support partners through an Information Memorandum in February 2010.[18]
The founders secured $10m in funding from four universities (Melbourne,Monash,Australian National University,University of Western Australia),CSIRO, theGovernment of Victoria, theGovernment of Australia and theCommonwealth Bank.[1][additional citation(s) needed]
In March 2017, Andrew Jaspan resigned as executive director and editor, six months after being placed on enforced leave after complaints from senior staff in Melbourne about his management style and the group's global direction.[19][20] Management of the UK, U.S., and Africa offices also wrote a letter of no confidence to the Conversation Media Group asking that Jaspan not have an active role in the future.[21]
Articles are written byacademic researchers in their respective areas of expertise.[22][23][24] They either pitch topics or are specifically commissioned to write on a topic in which they are asubject-matter expert, including for articles aboutcurrent events.[15][25]The Conversation's core staff then edits these articles, ensuring a balance between reader accessibility and academic rigour.[13][23]
Editors who work for the site frequently have past experience working for traditional news outlets.[26] The original authors then review the edited version.[9][27] Topics include politics, society, health, science, and theenvironment.[15][28] Authors are required to disclose conflicts of interest.[29] All articles are published under aCreative Commons Attribution/No derivatives licence.[27][30]
The site often publishes fact-checks produced by academics from major universities, then blindpeer reviewed by another academic who comments on the accuracy of the fact check.[31][32]
In 2016, the fact-check unit ofThe Conversation became accredited by theInternational Fact-Checking Network, an alliance of fact-checkers hosted at thePoynter Institute in the U.S.[33][34] The assessment criteria requirenon-partisanship, fairness, transparency of funding, sources, and methods, as well as a commitment to open and honest corrections.[35]
The Conversation uses a custom publishing and content management system built inRuby on Rails. This system enables authors and editors to collaborate on articles in real-time.[25][36] Articles link to author profiles—including disclosure statements—and personal dashboards showing authors' engagement with the public.[37][27] This is intended to encourage authors for the site to become more familiar with social media and their audience.[38]
Each edition ofThe Conversation has a unique content set, editor-in-chief, and board of advisors.[26] From its first Melbourne-headquartered Australian edition,The Conversation has expanded to a global network of eight editions, operating in multiple languages.
This has included expansions into the United Kingdom in 2013,[39] United States in 2014,[40] Africa and France in 2015,[41][42] Canada, Indonesia, and New Zealand in 2017,.[28][43][44] Spain in 2018,[45] Europe and Brasil in 2024.[46][47] The website also has an international staff.[11]
As of 2018, 36% of its readership was in Australia, 29% was in the United States, 7% in the United Kingdom, 4% in Canada, and 24% elsewhere.[48]
| Edition | Year of launch | Editor | Management | Number of editors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 2011 | Misha Ketchell | Lisa Watts(CEO) | 24[49] |
| United Kingdom | 2013 | Stephen Khan | Chris Waiting(CEO) | 23[49] |
| United States | 2014 | Beth Daley | Bruce Wilson(Chief Innovation and Development Officer) | 17[49] |
| Africa | 2015 | Jabulani Sikhakhane | Millie Phiri(general manager) | 17[50] |
| France | 2015 | Fabrice Rousselot | Caroline Nourry(Directrice générale) | 12[49] |
| Canada | 2017 | Scott White | 9[49] | |
| Indonesia | 2017 | Prodita Sabarini | 7[49] | |
| New Zealand | 2017 | Veronika Meduna | ||
| Spain | 2018 | Rafael Sarralde | Miguel Castro(Secretario general) | 8[49] |
| Europe[51] | 2023 | Natalie Sauer | ||
| Brazil[52] | 2023 | Daniel Stycer |
Across the whole network, stories commissioned byThe Conversation are now republished in 90 countries, in 23 languages, and read more than 40m times a month.[53]
The Conversation launched anAfrican edition in May 2015, headquartered inBraamfontein,Johannesburg,South Africa. It launched inJohannesburg. Within its first year, it was endorsed by 21 African universities and had 240 academics contribute to the project.[54] It has offices inKenya,Senegal,Nigeria,South Africa, andGhana.
As of 2021, most of the authors who published content inThe Conversation Africa were affiliated with South African universities, and the website content initially focused on South Africa.[55] TheBill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided $3m funding.[56]
The idea to launch the Indonesian edition emerged after a 2015 meeting between Sangkot Marzuki (then Chair of AIPI) and The Conversation's founder, Andrew Jaspan. The Conversation Indonesia Foundation was formally established on 4 September 2017, and the Indonesian edition went live on 6 September 2017 under Executive Editor Prodita Kusuma Sabarini. The foundation's founders included press figure Aristides Katoppo, conservation biologist Jatna Supriatna, and molecular biologist Sangkot Marzuki, with RTS Masli providing the registered domicile. During its incubation phase, AIPI served as the host partner.[57]
Over a two-year trial period, The Conversation Indonesia received grant support from the Myer Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the Embassy of France in Jakarta; the law firm Soemadipradja & Taher provided pro bono assistance. Entering 2019, support continued from the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Knowledge Sector Initiative program, and the Tifa Foundation—enabling newsroom expansion and the creation of new divisions (Finance & Management and Business Development & Partnership).[57]
As part of the global Conversation network, the Indonesian edition publishes research-based analysis by academics and researchers under Creative Commons (with no paywall), allowing content to be freely read and republished by other media with proper attribution and installation of a countercode. The newsroom also runs science-communication training as well as the Science Leadership Collaborative program for early-career researchers.[57]
In recent years, the Packard Foundation has recorded multi-year grants to The Conversation Indonesia Foundation to support core operations, strengthen coverage of environmental and ocean issues, and develop new partnerships with universities and research institutions across Indonesia.[58]
TheCanadian edition ofThe Conversation was co-founded on 26 June 2017 byAlfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young,associate professors in the field of journalism at theUniversity of British Columbia. Launch funding was partly provided in the form of a $200,000 grant from theSocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The project was joined byUniversities Canada as a strategic sponsor, and it partnered with a number of Canadian universities such as theUniversity of Toronto.[14]
The founding editor of The Conversation Canada is Scott White, the former editor-in-chief ofThe Canadian Press.[14][59] A French-language Canadian edition,La Conversation Canada, launched in 2018.[59]
AFrench edition of the website launched in September 2015.[42][56] It is based in Paris, France.[42]Didier Pourquery [fr] was the editor of the French edition at launch.[42] It launched with Fabrice Rousselot as its publication director. He previously worked forLibération.[42][56] It received initial backing from French academic institutions, including theUniversity of Lorraine, France's Conference of University Presidents,Paris Sciences et Lettres University, and theInstitut Universitaire de France. It began with a budget of €1 million.[56]
Andrew Jaspan secured seed funding to develop the case to launchThe Conversation into theUK in 2012.[60] It launched in the UK on 16 May 2013 with Stephen Khan as editor, Jonathan Hyams as chief executive, and Max Landry as chief operating officer, alongside co-founder, Andrew Jaspan.
It had 13 founder members, includingCity, University of London.[61] City's president,professor Sir Paul Curran chaired its board of trustees.
By February 2014, the site had attained additional funding from academic research institutions includingResearch Councils UK andSAGE Publishing. They then hired six additional editors and expanded the UK edition's topical coverage.[62] By August 2014, the UK branch published articles written by approximately 3,000 academics.[63] Membership grew to more than 80 universities in the UK and Europe, includingCambridge,Oxford, andTrinity College Dublin. By 2019, it had published 24,000 articles written by 14,000 academics.[53]
In April 2018, it appointed former BBC and AP executive Chris Waiting as its new CEO.[64]The Conversation UK is 90 per cent funded by partnered universities,[25] with other funding from theHigher Education Funding Council for England and theWellcome Trust.[25][60]
In 2019, the site became a member of theIndependent Monitor for the Press, an independent press regulator.[65]
Andrew Jaspan was invited in 2012 to bringThe Conversation to theUnited States. Thomas Fiedler, then dean of the School of Communications atBoston University, offered to hostThe Conversation U.S. and provide space for the first newsroom.
With a university base established, he was able to raise the $2.3M launch funding. The U.S. edition ofThe Conversation was first published on 21 October 2014,[66] initially led by Jaspan as U.S. CEO, Margaret Drain as editor, and Bruce Wilson leading development and university relations.
The U.S. pilot was supported by theHoward Hughes Medical Institute,Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, theWilliam and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and four other foundations.Maria Balinska became editor in 2015, before she moved to theUS-UK Fulbright Commission. She was succeeded byBeth Daley, who became editor and general manager in 2019.[67][68]
The U.S. edition ofThe Conversation was originally based at Boston University, and that was its first partnered university.[68][24][29] It later opened offices in Atlanta and New York.[27] Other partnered institutions includeHarvard University andMIT.[68]
In January 2024, the US site launched a local-news focused outlet that opened in four markets: Detroit, South Florida, Colorado and Philadelphia.[69]The Conversation Local, funded by theKnight Foundation, worked with 150 local outlets in its first year.[citation needed]
Articles originally published inThe Conversation have received regular republication from major news outlets. These have includedThe New York Times,The Guardian,The Washington Post, andCNN.[23][5][4] As of 2015,[update] approximately 80 percent of the site readership were of a non-academic background.[70]
The Conversation has been described inPublic Understanding of Science as "a blend ofscientific communication, public science communication andscience journalism, and a convergence of the professional worlds of science and journalism".[55]
In 2024,Imagine Newsletter, which coversclimate change, won the Publisher Newsletter Awards for excellence in the category of science and technology.[71]