Michael says, "'The Conversation' has been in Australia for a couple of years: writing by academics, for a lay audience, which aims to be readable and relevant. Their slogan is 'academic rigor, journalistic flair', and they've done pretty well at that so far."
I've found them a valuable addition to the news landscape here – it both encourages academics to communicate what they know about accessibly, and also removes the layer of translation that sometimes borks the way research is publicly communicated in the press. Plus it means you have people writing about issues of the day who actually know what they're talking about.
They launched a UK version I think a year ago, and I just saw today that they now have a US version. Since I remember thinking, "Man, the US could really use something like this" when the Oz one launched, I thought you might like to know about it. Too early of course to know how good the US one will be but I reckon very much worth keeping an eye on. CC-licensed, too!
The Conversation:
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
(Thanks, Michael Pulsford!)
