Who we are

The Conversation Australia and New Zealand is a unique collaboration between academics and journalists, and is the world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis.

Everything you read here is created by academics and journalists working together, supported by a team of digital technology experts. Our professional editors turn knowledge and insights from academics into easy-to-read articles, and make them accessible to readers like you.

All our work is free to read and free to republish under Creative Commons. We do this as a not-for-profit company guided by a clear purpose: to provide access to quality explanatory journalism essential for healthy democracy.

We place a high value on trust. All authors and editors sign up to our Editorial Charter. Contributors must abide by our Community Standards. We only allow authors to write on subjects on which they have expertise. Potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

Our team is led by an Editor, Misha Ketchell, and CEO, Lisa Watts. Our funding comes from partners from the university and research sector, some philanthropic organisations and more than 20,000 individual donors.

The Conversation began in Melbourne, Australia, in March 2011, created and founded by Andrew Jaspan and business strategist Jack Rejtman with support from University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis. The UK edition launched in May 2013, followed by editions in the US (2014), South Africa and France (2015), Canada, Indonesia and New Zealand (2017), Spain (2018), and Brasil (2023).

We pay our respects to Traditional Owners of lands where our contributors and editors work. We particularly acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation on whose lands our Melbourne HQ is located. We also acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia and Māori as tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand.