Andrew Jaspan, former editor of The Observer and The Scotsman, is one of the leading lights behind a new Australian-based website, The Conversation.
Billed as "a new approach to journalism", Jaspan and his fellow co-founder, Jack Rejtman, say the site will be a "source of information, analysis, commentary and research news from leading researchers and academics."
The not-for-profit start-up has received funding from a number of Australian universities. It has just been launched (with a beta site).
In its mission statement it pledges to meet a growing interest for informed dialogue and will provide "an authenticated source of commentary and opinion from thought leaders in the academic and research community."
Jaspan, who will edit The Conversation, has had a remarkable editorial career, which means that this will be his eighth editorship.
He edited The Age in Melbourne for four years from 2004. Prior to that he edited six papers in Britain - Sunday Times Scotland (1988-1990), Scotland on Sunday (1990-94), The Scotsman (1994), The Observer (1995-1996), The Big Issue (1996-8) and the Sunday Herald (1999-2004).
Rejtman, who is The Conversation's general manager, also has a journalistic background, having been a reporter and columnist on two US papers, the Miami Herald and the Tampa Tribune.
In 2008, he ran the US election website for Yahoo! News and is respected as a digital strategist.
