for profit founded april 2010 headquarters melbourne australia key people andrew jaspan editor lisa watts chief operating officer misha ketchell managing editor owner the conversation trust employees 60 slogan s academic rigour journalistic flair website theconversation.com alexa rank 10 867 as of march 2016 update 1 type of site analysis commentary research news registration optional available in english launched 24 march 2011 current status active the conversation is an independent not for profit media outlet that uses content sourced from the academic and research community . since the australian website s launch in march 2011 2 it has expanded into five editions with the addition of a united kingdom uk version in 2013 3 the united states us in 2014 4 africa in may 2015 5 and france in september 2015 . 6 the conversation s global network as it was described by editor in chief andrew jaspan publishes all content under a creative commons license and as of september 2015 reports a monthly online audience of 2.6 million users onsite and a reach of 23 million through creative commons republication . the operating company the conversation media group is a not for profit educational charity owned by the conversation trust . the conversation is funded by the university and research sector government and business . contents 1 origins the conversation in australia 1.1 the conversation uk 1.2 the conversation us pilot 2 contributors 3 key people 3.1 africa as of 7 may 2015 3.2 australia as of 22 oct. 2014 3.3 france as of 21 sept. 2015 3.4 united kingdom as of 22 oct. 2014 3.5 united states as of 22 oct. 2014 4 audience 5 technology 6 partners australia 6.1 founding 6.2 strategic 6.3 members 7 criticism 8 references 9 external links origins the conversation in australia edit jaspan first discussed the concept of the conversation with glyn davis vice chancellor at the university of melbourne while editing the age between 2004 and 2008 . citation needed shortly after jaspan left the age he was invited by davis to review the university s engagement with the public through its various knowledge transfer initiatives . 7 8 jaspan s report recommended a new approach whereby the university would communicate directly to the public through a news and commentary website . jaspan envisioned the university as a giant newsroom with the academics and researchers collectively providing authoritative and informed content that engaged with the news cycle and major current affairs issues . 9 in february 2009 jaspan was introduced to jack rejtman who had arrived in melbourne from los angeles us where he led product strategy for the us 2008 election website at yahoo news . jaspan discussed his newsroom concept with rejtman who was supportive . jaspan and rejtman met with davis again in may 2009 with a proposal to extend the original concept beyond melbourne university to include the broader research sector . after davis expressed support for the extended concept jaspan introduced the idea to chris brown a corporate finance specialist who later became chairman of the conversation trust . citation needed in june 2009 jaspan outlined the concept for a new media service to john brumby then premier of victoria who was intrigued by the idea . in august 2009 melbourne university and the victorian state government both agreed to provide a small financial contribution to facilitate the commencement of work on the website these agreements were contingent upon the involvement of other organisations . the state government then introduced the commonwealth government department of innovation into the process ; in turn the department of innovation proposed the inclusion of the commonwealth scientific industrial and research organisation . jaspan and rejtman then hired michael morris a leading member of the ruby on rails open source web developer community to develop the proof of concept . in november 2010 jaspan and rejtman secured first round funding to cover the conversation s operating costs for three years . initial funding came from the commonwealth government s department of education the victorian government s department of innovation csiro australian national university university of melbourne monash university university of technology sydney uts and university of western australia uwa . finally the commonwealth bank of australia cba joined the consortium as a technology partner while corrs chambers westgarth joined as a strategic partner and agreed to provide legal services . the conversation media group opened its carlton office in november 2010 . jaspan hired misha ketchell in december 2010 whom he knew from the age and they hired 11 professional editors who began working towards a launch date of february 2011 the beta site was launched to the public on 24 march 2011 . in november 2012 robert johanson the chairman of bendigo and adelaide bank became chairman of the conversation . in february 2013 michelle grattan left the age where she was the newspaper s political editor to join the university of canberra as a professorial fellow and to write for the conversation as its chief political correspondent jaspan and grattan had worked together at the age . both prime minister julia gillard and leader of the opposition tony abbott praised grattan during parliamentary sittings and wished her well in regard to her new role with the conversation . 10 jaspan confirmed the appointment of a jakarta editor in early december 2013 which was the outcome of around 12 months work . at the same time jaspan also announced the appointment of a community manager and a multimedia manager for the website 11 speaking with the australian media industry website mumbrella jaspan also shared his perspective on the growth of the conversation i think our relative success is down to the fact that we are trying to produce something different high grade content sourced from the university and research sector which is curated by professional editors while together we make every effort to adhere to high standards and ethics . 11 as part of the announcement of the us pilot launch in october 2014 the mumbrella website explained that both the australian and uk websites adhere to a charter that protects editorial independence author sign off author disclosure statements and a readability index set to an educated 16 year old . at the time of the launch a charter was being devised for the us website . 12 the conversation uk edit the conversation launched in the uk on 16 may 2013 with the following leadership team jonathan hyams as chief executive max landry as chief operating officer and jaspan as editor in chief . the original editorial team consisted of stephen khan editor megan clement deputy editor jonathan este politics & society jo adetunji health & medicine michael parker environment & energy will de freitas business & economics akshat rathi science & technology 13 and laura hood digital economy . as of 22 october 2014 the founding partners group of the conversation uk consists of university of aberdeen university of birmingham university of bradford university of bristol cardiff university city university london university of durham glasgow caledonian university goldsmiths london university of lancaster university of leeds university of liverpool university of nottingham the open university queen s belfast university of salford university of sheffield university of surrey ucl and university of warwick . 14 as of 22 october 2014 the strategic partners group of the conversation uk consists of cba wellcome trust kingston smith sage publications alliance for useful evidence and macfarlanes . the website s media partner is the press association . 14 as of 22 october 2014 the funding partners group of the conversation uk consists of esm e fairbairn foundation hefce hefcw nuffield foundation the ogden trust research councils uk the research councils uk digital economy theme det and scottish funding council . 14 the conversation us pilot edit jaspan announced the official launch of the us version on 21 october 2014 the date that the website was first published . the us team was initially led by margaret drain formerly executive producer and vice president of national programs at wgbh with bruce wilson heading up development and university relations . 15 the us pilot is supported by the howard hughes medical institute alfred p sloan foundation robert wood johnson foundation the william and flora hewlett foundation and four other foundations . 12 16 in january 2016 traffic to the us site reached over a half million visitors with millions more reached by licensing its content under a creative commons license . they also announced 19 universities as founding partners who pay up to 35 000 a year for access to analytics on their articles . 17 contributors edit the conversation s authors are academics and researchers who collaborate with professional journalists . there are over 26 000 academic authors writing for the conversation s websites . 15 initial contributors included nobel laureate peter doherty ; vice chancellor s fellow and a professorial fellow in economics at the university of melbourne ross garnaut ; professor of government and international relations at university of sydney john keane ; professor deputy vice chancellor and vice president research at university of technology sydney attila brungs ; professor of higher education at the university of melbourne simon marginson ; professor of journalism at queensland university of technology brian mcnair and vice chancellor of the university of melbourne glyn davis . citation needed key people edit africa as of 7 may 2015 edit the editorial team of the conversation africa are caroline southey jabulani sikhakhane thabo leshilo natasha joseph edwin naidu candice bailey and ozayr patel . the management team are alexandra storey and tanya pampalone . 18 australia as of 22 oct. 2014 edit jaspan is executive director and editor in chief . 15 he previously edited sunday times scotland 1988 1990 scotland on sunday 1990 1994 the scotsman 1994 the observer 1995 1996 and the sunday herald 1999 2004 in the united kingdom uk and he was also publisher and managing director of the big issue uk 1996 1998 . jaspan was invited to be editor in chief of melbourne australia s the age and the sunday age newspapers in 2004 and remained in this role until 2008 . 2 he is a senior fellow in the department of infrastructure engineering university of melbourne melbourne 19 and the asia pacific director of innovation media consulting . 20 lisa watts is chief operating officer . as of may 2011 watts s experience in the australian online media and internet publishing fields spanned twelve years and was the ceo of artshub a news and employment website for the creative arts industry prior to her role at the conversation . 21 before artshub watts was the general manager of fairfax media s mycareer.com . 22 misha ketchell is managing editor . previously he was editor of crikey the founding editor of the big issue australia editor of the melbourne weekly and a reporter and feature writer for the age . ketchell was also employed by the australian broadcasting corporation abc for the following programs media watch the 7 30 report and the drum . 23 24 the board of directors consists of jaspan watts robert johanson john kirby linda price matt goldberg belinda robertson richard leder peter doherty terry cutler and vince fitzgerald . the editorial board consists of natalie mast attila brungs cathy foley duncan ivison julianne schultz karen day martyn hook pauline nestor david glance and mark lonsdale . 23 france as of 21 sept. 2015 edit the pilot edition of the conversation france was published on 21 september 2015 . key players include fabrice rousselot and didier pourquery fr . 25 united kingdom as of 22 oct. 2014 edit stephen khan editor megan clement deputy editor jonathan este deputy editor 23 united states as of 22 oct. 2014 edit maria balinska managing editor 23 audience edit the online publication completed its third readers survey in the first half of 2014 and the results showed that 1.5 million unique visitors