This interview had been edited for length and clarity.

The basics

Why don't you introduce yourself a little bit?

Lisa Watts of The Conversation: I'm the chief executive of the Conversation Media Group, and I have been with this project for over 10 years now, since it launched. Very lucky to have been part of its journey and growth. And, it's a real privilege to work in something that's having such a big impact on so many readers and policymakers and people out there. So, it's an amazing job, and I feel very privileged to have it.

What was your first job and how did it influence your career?

Lisa Watts: It was working for a company that was selling Yellow Pages advertising. The big transition from print into online had just sort of just started, and there were a lot of questions about what it would look like. And I guess it was an amazing environment. It was a mature business–very successful, very profitable. The sales culture was very dynamic and competitive.

The top percentage of people in sales got to go on a big, amazing trip each year; the bottom ones got to go and find another job somewhere else. It was fun, competitive, interesting, and I think it made me always want to have jobs that were very enjoyable and fast paced and competitive. 

Were you a good saleswoman back then?

Lisa Watts: I was. I had really good managers, amazing women who taught me a lot. And I was able to learn about sales. Not just the techniques and the way to package up ideas, but how to allow people to buy from you. How to give people the opportunity to have control. That taught me a lot.

Did you picture yourself as a CEO of a media company?

Lisa Watts: In a weird way, I did, because I remember we had a lot of training. A lot of personal development/professional development. It's because the company was successful and mature. It was the Yellow Pages–the only place to go if you needed anything. So it had a lot of money, and we were invested in it as staff members. It was amazing. ‘

Once there was this workshop–a guy came in and we had to do an exercise of just imagining. It's 20 years' time. What is your job? What is your life? What is your family? You have to write it all down in a lot of detail. If you really have an idea about what kind of life you want, and you can commit it to paper, just writing it down helps make it feel a bit more real. And even though I was a long way away from doing that, I at least imagined it. 

A collaborative approach

Can you explain to us the purpose of The Conversation?

Lisa Watts: The purpose of The Conversation is to share all the knowledge and expertise that sits inside the university sector in many countries all over the world, and to use editors to work with the researchers to write articles about current events and new research. We have eight editions across the world so far. And every day, the team of about 200 journalists have a meeting, just like a regular newsroom, and they'll decide what are the stories they want to chase in politics, health, environment, climate change, arts, culture, book reviews, everything. Then they'll go and find the right academic who has some expertise in that area to comment on a news event. Or they'll review a whole lot of pictures that we get from those academics. Say someone wants to write about a news event that just happened yesterday in Brazil. Our Brazilian team will go and follow that up with the academic and they'll write an article together. The article is designed to be evidence-based as much as possible and have facts at the heart of each story. Not political. Not left. Not right. Not trying to persuade people of a certain position. Just to say: here's an issue, here's what an expert says based on what they have known for many years as a specialist, here's some solutions to the problem.

It is part of our job to try to be useful for readers but also for our colleagues in the media industry. We work very closely with other media outlets and also with many other journalists because they will use The Conversation as a source for story ideas because, if you register, you can go and contact the author of any of the articles for interviews, radio, print, etc. And these people have already chosen to participate in public discussion, so they're interested in having interviews. Just over 6 out of 10 researchers get followed up by other media after they write for The Conversation. It's all Creative Commons licensing, so any media outlet can take any story without seeking permission. As long as they follow the guidelines and don't change it, they can put it on their own website. So it's designed to be useful–a bit like having Reuters, AP, or PA, those sort of wire services all with academic articles coming through.

Do you think that collaborations between universities and media are important?

Lisa Watts: They're crucially important. It’s very difficult to have a strong media company. So much of the advertising money is gone now to platforms, and most platforms are sending less traffic to media outlets. Most media outlets are trying to build a brand of something with subscribers or donors or people who can go there regularly. It's very difficult. 

The Conversation is a not-for-profit organization, is that right? What are the unique challenges for nonprofit organizations?

Lisa Watts: The challenges are similar to other media that is for profit. With The Conversation's business model, in some countries it's funded only by philanthropy. In other places, it's funded by universities as well as philanthropy. They become members and they pay a membership fee each year. In countries like the UK, the US, Canada, France, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, that model works very well. Universities are able to pay, and they get access to analytics, reports, and data, and we work more closely with them. The challenges are just providing value. If you're valuable, they'll pay. If you're not, they won't.

Monetization

Has your monetization strategy changed over time?

Lisa Watts: We now have a focus on individual readers becoming donors, giving monthly, just like a newspaper subscription. And, a bit like the way that The Guardian has developed that model in some countries, we say to people, it's free. There's no paywall, there's no advertising, there's no data collection, but if you value it, pay if you can. In most countries that have The Conversation, many of them have quite good support from a subset of readers who do contribute either monthly or as a one-off donation.

Why do you think that you've been changing it? 

Lisa Watts: We don't want to do advertising. It's difficult to make money from other sorts of sponsored events. We could maybe do more events in charge, but we do a yearbook in some countries. Sometimes that can make some money, but we mainly do it for other reasons. So the idea of getting individual donors to become regular subscribers is just a useful way to grow the revenue.

Can you please tell us what has been The Conversation's biggest success?

Lisa Watts: I think the biggest success has probably, apart from all the amazing stories, been just the fact that it's been able to grow into a big global media brand and to have editions in the US, Canada, UK, France, Spain, Brazil, all across Africa, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. It shows how strong the model is and how strong the idea is. How valuable it is for readers to get access to the world's smartest people who can write about current events. 

Do you have any tips for publishers on how to become a successful global media company as yourself?

Lisa Watts: Media is so important. Good, clean, quality information is just absolutely critical for democracies and for societies to be strong. My only advice would be to make sure that everything you do is aligned to the purpose. Know if you're building something, who it is for, and how you're gonna offer something unique to those readers. If you put the readers first, everything else can follow.

Choosing syndication

Why did you decide to partner with Newstex?

Lisa Watts: Because we really want to make sure we can share the information that we produce as widely as possible. We're hoping that the partnership allows more media brands and other readers to have access through the platform.

The Conversation is a non-profit, independent news organization dedicated to unlocking expert knowledge for the public good. Lisa Watts is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of The Conversation Media Group.