The Conversation receives Victorian Government funding lifeline
The Conversation has received an additional $850,000 from the Victorian Government, three years after being granted $3m in public funding, Mumbrella understands.
The news and analysis website, which aimed to secure 32 jobs with the previous round of funding, has struggled in recent months, making a small number of redundancies which included former deputy editor, Charis Palmer.
The Conversation has received additional funding
The Conversation’s funding agreement with the Department of Education and Department has now been extended to June 30 next year, in extension of the existing agreement.
It seeks to provide funding certainty for The Conversation for the duration of the financial year. The additional funding follows a small number of redundancies, which Mumbrella understands includes former deputy editor, Charis Palmer.
The Conversation first launched in Australia in 2011 and was provided with funding by the federal government before that was pulled in the 2015 budget. The Conversation was then forced to launch an appeal to readers for donations, which ended up topping $500,000.
The website’s latest round of funding comes 18 months after the departure of founder Andrew Jaspan. Jaspan was the former editor of mastheads including The Scotsman, The Observer, The Big Issue and The Age, and established the Conversation in 2011 before securing funding to expand to the UK, US, Africa and France.
Mumbrella has approached the Victorian Government for comment.
