THE Scots journalist, Stephen Khan, has been named UK editor of an online newspaper that seeks to combine academic rigour with journalistic flair.
Set up in Australia by Andrew Jaspan – the former editor of The Scotsman and the Sunday Herald ( the latter, founding editor) – The Conversation is due to launch in the UK next month.
Khan was, until recently, a news editor at The Guardian and previously deputy foreign editor of The Independent, Scotland editor of The Observer and also worked for The Sunday Herald.
Other members of the editorial team, whose experience includes The Economist and The Guardian, have also been named: Jonathan Este (Politics & Society), Jo Adetunji (Health & Medicine), Michael Parker (Environment & Energy), Will de Freitas (Business & Economics) and Akshat Rathi (Science & Technology).
Megan Clement is deputy editor, on secondment from The Conversation in Melbourne.
The Conversation, launched two years ago, says it receives 850,000 unique visits per month.
It also says that over 5,000 academics from over 300 universities worldwide are already contributing writers to The Conversation in Australia. Thirteen UK universities have committed early support for The Conversation in the UK, along with The Wellcome Trust, The Nuffield Foundation, HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England), HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales) and the Scottish Funding Council. Two of the 13 universities are Scottish: Aberdeen and Glasgow Caledonian University.
Jaspan, also a former editor of Scotland on Sunday and The Observer, is quoted, in a media statement, as saying: “We have put together a strong team that reinforces the highest editorial standards of The Conversation. The combination of experienced journalists working alongside leading academics and researchers is the foundation for intellectual rigour and editorial independence.”
