Andrew Jaspan
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Andrew Jaspan AM (born 20 April 1952) is a British-Australian journalist and Founding Director and Editor-in-Chief of 360info.  He is the Founder of ''The Conversation''. He was previously editor-in-chief of Melbourne's''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', editor of London's ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'', ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
Scotland (Glasgow)'', '' Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh)'', ''
The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
Edinburgh)'', and '' Sunday Herald (Glasgow)'', and publisher and managing editor of ''
The Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a United Kingdom–based street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer ho ...
'' London.


Early life and education

Jaspan was born in Manchester and lived in Australia between the ages of seven and fourteen. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Modern History and Philosophy from the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
. He did his thesis on "The Role of the BBC in UK politics".


Career

After graduating, Jaspan launched ''The New Manchester Review'' magazine which focussed on news, investigations and arts and culture. To help fund the magazine, Jaspan ran Monday night concerts at th
Band on the Wall pub
between 1977–9, showcasing punk bands (including
Joy Division Joy Division were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Ian Curtis, guitarist and keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris (musici ...
, The Buzzcocks, and The Fall) as well as poets (including John Cooper Clark and Adrian Henri). He then started work in the Manchester office of ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' and ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...
'' in 1980. In 1983, he moved to London to join ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
,'' first working on the foreign news desk and then the home news desk. In 1985 he joined ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'' as an assistant editor. In 1988 the paper's editor, Andrew Neil, asked him to move to Glasgow and launch a Scotland edition of ''The'' ''Sunday Times'' as a competitor to the newly launched '' Scotland on Sunday'' by The Scotsman Publications. A year later, he moved instead to be editor of ''Scotland on Sunday,'' relaunching it as a quality newspaper which went on to establish a reputation for investigative and campaigning journalism.'''' In 1993 he was appointed editor of ''
The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
'' but six months later was appointed by the
Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'', and formerly ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the fin ...
as editor of ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
''. In 1996 he was appointed publisher of ''
The Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a United Kingdom–based street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer ho ...
'', the street paper sold by
homeless people Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...
. The Founder, John Bird, asked Jaspan to improve the quality and mainstream credibility of the magazine. In 1998 he joined Scottish Media Group in Glasgow to prepare the business case for the launch of a new paper in 1999, ''The Sunday Herald''. Under his editorship the paper won numerous awards including Scottish Newspaper of the Year and UK Sunday Newspaper of the Year. The paper closed in 2018. In 2004, Jaspan was appointed editor-in-chief of ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' and '' The Sunday Age''. In 2007, ''The Age'' won the Pacific region's Newspaper of the Year award for the first time. In August 2008, Jaspan left his position as part of a major restructuring of Fairfax that included 550 job losses across its Australian operations. Jaspan was replaced as editor-in-chief by Paul Ramadge in September 2008.


''The Conversation''

Jaspan first discussed the concept of ''The Conversation'' in 2009 with
Glyn Davis Glyn Conrad Davis is an Australian academic and public servant. He served as the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet from 6 June 2022 to 16 June 2025. From January 2005 until September 2018, he served as vice-chancello ...
, vice-chancellor at the
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...
. Jaspan wrote a report for Davis on the university's engagement with the public, envisioning the university as "a giant newsroom", with academics and researchers collaboratively providing expert, informed content that engaged with the news cycle and major current affairs issues. This vision became the blueprint for ''The Conversation''. The model he developed is highly unusual for a news site: content is written by academics working in collaboration with professional editors, published
open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
under a Creative Commons licence, and is funded by collaborative frameworks for academic institutions The concept was as a response to what Jaspan described at the time as "increasing market failure in delivering trusted content" and declining editorial diversity in Australia. The website launched in Australia in early 2011 after three years of development.   Jaspan took The Conversation to the UK where he raised the launch funds and established a base at City University London with the support of the VC, Sir Paul Curran, and Jonathan Hyams. It launched in 2013. He then took the concept to the US where Thomas Fiedler, then dean of the School of Communications at Boston University, offered to host ''The Conversation'' U.S. and provide space for the first newsroom. With a university base established, Jaspan was able to raise the $2.3m launch funding and launched in 2014, initially led by Jaspan as U.S. CEO, Margaret Drain as editor, and Bruce Wilson leading development and university relations. For the U.S. pilot Jaspan secured support from the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...
, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equity, ...
, the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, commonly known as the Hewlett Foundation, is a private foundation, established by Hewlett-Packard cofounder William Redington Hewlett and his wife Flora Lamson Hewlett in 1966. The Hewlett Foundation a ...
, and four other foundations. Jaspan then helped set up the other sites in Africa and France in 2015, Canada in 2017, Indonesia in 2017, and Spain in 2018.


''360info''

Jaspan left ''The Conversation'' in April 2018, with professional friction cited as a contributing factor, to work on establishing a new media platform called
''360info''
'. The project was initially a partnership between universities of Deakin, Melbourne, RMIT and Western Sydney. From 2017-2020 he was based in RMIT's School of Media and Communication, then moved to
Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...
, which became the host university for the project. In November 2021 it launched as 360info. Instead of a focus on breaking news, 360info reports on the worlds' most pressing challenges and offers research-driven solutions. Six months from launch it has published over 300 articles from 190 universities worldwide and is distributed by over 1,200 publishers. It has editors working in Delhi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, and Melbourne.


Awards and recognition

In the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, Jaspan was made a Member in the General Division of the
Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...
for "significant service to the print and digital media, and to tertiary education".


References


Selected articles

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaspan, Andrew 1952 births Living people British male journalists The Scotsman people The Observer people The Age (Melbourne) people Members of the Order of Australia Academic staff of Monash University