The Conversation to launch in Africa with funding from Bill Gates foundation

Alex Hayes

April 1, 2015 8:50

Andrew Jaspan

Academia meets journalism website The Conversation is set to expand into Africa from next month aided by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

It is the fourth territory the site, founded by Andrew Jaspan, has pushed into following its launch in Australia in 2011, a move to the UK in 2013 and the USA in 2014.

The newsroom will be based in the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, although it is also seeking bases in Kenya’s capital Nairobi and Lagos, Nigeria, and it will be led by former Financial Mail editor Caroline Southey.

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Alex Hayes

Alex Hayes worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017 in roles including editor and head of Mumbrella Bespoke.

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3 COMMENTS

GFK 1 Apr 15

University of Wittsland?? No such place in South Africa, according to Google.

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Alex Hayes 1 Apr 15

Hi GFK,

It’s the University of Witwatersrand – of course. My bad – corrected now.

Cheers,

Alex – editor, Mumbrella

Unconconvinced 1 Apr 15

So far we have seen not a single publication of The Conversation that has picked up community attention. In fact one is entitled to think this is simply a case of universities and others indulging in feel good exercises. Or is it the case that all that “research” effort at university arts and j-schools is so original that it’s value is lost on us?

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