Former CP editor-in-chief Scott White named editor of The Conversation Canada
The Conversation is an international journalism site based in Melbourne, Australia that reports on academic research.
By H.G. Watson, Managing Editor
A new Canadian journalism outlet will be headed by an editor with lots of legacy news media experience.
Scott White will be the inaugural editor of The Conversation Canada, announced Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young co-founders of the soon to be launched Canadian version of an international comment and opinion site.
White was the editor-in-chief of The Canadian Press for 16 years. He left in 2014 and joined Postmedia Network as vice-president of content strategy and business development.
“The unique model of The Conversation has provided citizens in other parts of the world with relevant, intelligent comment and analysis,” said White, in a statement provided to J-Source. “I’m excited to support the sharing of knowledge from our country’s outstanding scholars and universities to produce a new form of journalism that Canadians need now more than ever.”
On Sept. 9, 2016, UBC announced that Alfred Hermida, director of the Graduate School of Journalism, and Mary Lynn Young, an associate professor, had been awarded approximately $200,000 in Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funding to support the opening of a Canadian version of The Conversation, an international journalism site based in Melbourne, Australia that reports on academic research.
“The model here is that you have an independent team of journalists that work with the (experts) in the universities to get them to provide their analysis, their interpretation, their commentary on things that are of public interest,” Hermida told J-Source when the SSHRC grant was first announced.
The Conversation is published in five countries and generates 4.8 million users monthly. Canadian readers make up its fourth-biggest audience. The site is licensed under Creative Commons, allowing any news media organization to pick up stories and reprint them.
Editors note, May 3, 2017, 12:21 p.m.: After publication we were provided updated viewership numbers—4.8 millions users monthly, increased from 3.3 million unique views in September of last year. We have updated the story to reflect these numbers.
H.G. Watson was J-Source's managing editor from 2015 to 2018. She is a journalist based in Toronto. You can learn more about her at hgwatson.com.
