Misha Ketchell
The rapid increase in on-line publishing has destroyed the business model of traditional newspapers. Subscriptions have dropped, advertising is down and the papers are thinner. The papers have lost around 50% of their staff.
Digital publishing is shrill and uses attention technology. Technology has reduced our attention span. It has also changed the tone of our public conversation. If you don’t have facts, you cannot have a conversation. All the deep information is gone. And the people who researched the facts have gone or do not want to be involved.
The Conversation was co-founded by Andrew Jaspan and Jack Reijtman. Andrew Jaspan first discussed the concept of The Conversation between 2004 and 2008 with Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor at The University of Melbourne. Jaspan wrote a report on the university's engagement with the public, envisioning 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. With backing from the University of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government, a web-site was prepared and The Conversation was launched in March 2011.
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 and by private on-line donations from readers.
Timely new research can be rapidly published on-line, by working with academics to publish their findings. The Conversation uses collaborative editing with shared final approval signed off by the academics. And academics can get the truth reported without distortion.
The Conversation is having an important post-education impact, with 66% of contributors being contacted by other media, 16% being invited for research collaboration and 13% invited to speak at conferences. It is injecting real expertise into the news.
The Conversation has expanded into editions in the United Kingdom, the United States, Africa, France, Canada, Indonesia and Spain. As of May 2018, The Conversation reports to a monthly online audience of 10.7 million users onsite, and a reach of 35 million people through republication. In 2015, the site claimed 27,000 academic authors worked with The Conversation's websites.
To support and read The Conversation, enter their web-site via Google. For further reading read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conversation_(website).