Each edition of
The Conversation has a unique content set, editor-in-chief, and board of advisors. United States in 2014, Africa and France in 2015, Canada, Indonesia, and New Zealand in 2017,. Spain in 2018, Europe and Brasil in 2024. The website also has an international staff. Across the whole network, stories commissioned by
The Conversation are now republished in 90 countries, in 23 languages, and read more than 40m times a month.
The Conversation Africa The Conversation launched an
African edition in May 2015, headquartered in
Braamfontein,
Johannesburg,
South Africa. Within its first year, it was endorsed by 21 African universities and had 240 academics contribute to the project. It has offices in
Kenya,
Senegal,
Nigeria,
South Africa, and
Ghana. As of 2021, most of the authors who published content in
The Conversation Africa were affiliated with South African universities, and the website content initially focused on South Africa.
The Conversation Indonesia 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. 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).
The Conversation Canada The
Canadian edition of
The Conversation was co-founded on 26 June 2017 by
Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young,
associate professors in the field of journalism at the
University of British Columbia. Launch funding was partly provided in the form of a $200,000 grant from the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The project was joined by
Universities Canada as a strategic sponsor, and it partnered with a number of Canadian universities such as the
University of Toronto. A French-language Canadian edition,
La Conversation Canada, launched in 2018. 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 including
Research Councils UK and
SAGE Publishing. They then hired six additional editors and expanded the UK edition's topical coverage. By August 2014, the UK branch published articles written by approximately 3,000 academics. Membership grew to more than 80 universities in the UK and Europe, including
Cambridge,
Oxford, and
Trinity College Dublin. By 2019, it had published 24,000 articles written by 14,000 academics.
The Conversation UK is 90 per cent funded by partnered universities, In 2019, the site became a member of the
Independent Monitor for the Press, an independent press regulator.
The Conversation U.S. Andrew Jaspan was invited in 2012 to bring
The Conversation to the
United States. Thomas Fiedler, then dean of the School of Communications at
Boston University, offered to host
The 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 of
The Conversation was first published on 21 October 2014, 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 the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and four other foundations.
Maria Balinska became editor in 2015, before she moved to the
US-UK Fulbright Commission. She was succeeded by
Beth Daley, who became editor and general manager in 2019. The U.S. edition of
The Conversation was originally based at Boston University, and that was its first partnered university. It later opened offices in Atlanta and New York.
The Conversation Local, funded by the
Knight Foundation, worked with 150 local outlets in its first year. == Reception ==