The Conversation appoints Lisa Watts as Commercial Director

Lisa Watts has been appointed Commercial Director of the newly launched media and research website The Conversation. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) May 03, 2011 - Watts has more than 12 years experience in online media, content and internet-based publishing. For the past two years, Watts has been CEO of Artshub, the leading creative arts industry website, and previously was General Manager of Fairfax Media's MyCareer.com.

"The Conversation is taking a new approach to journalism that has really resonated with the community and with me personally," Watts said. "Since launch, public response and traffic has been tremendous. Meanwhile, corporations and institutions want to participate because they see The Conversation as a new media channel that can help lend clarity and insight to society's biggest problems."

During Watts' tenure at Artshub, revenues grew 30%, audience grew 40%, and the site won two national awards, including Best Industry Jobs Board in the Recruitment Excellence awards.

While running MyCareer Watts built a large, national field sales team and took revenues from $5m to $42m in four years. Also at Fairfax, Watts headed the start-up Advantate business that offers search marketing services to small and medium businesses for Fairfax Digital and Melbourne IT.

Previously, Watts worked at Lawlex, an internet start-up specialising in legal publishing and web-based compliance management software. She was also regional sales manager for Sensis, leading a team of 90.
Jack Rejtman, Co-Founder and General Manager of The Conversation, said Watts adds a new dimension to their management team.

"Lisa's personal style and experience in online publishing, partnerships and classifieds made her the ideal person to lead our commercial development," Rejtman said. "We can't wait for her to join us."

Media enquiries:
Lisa Watts 0417 593 389
lisa.watts ( @ ) theconversation dot edu dot au
Jack Rejtman: 0448-244689
Notes:

1. The founders of The Conversation are Andrew Jaspan, former editor of The Age, and Jack Rejtman, who previously headed product strategy of the Yahoo News! 2008 election site.

2. The Conversation is owned by The Conversation Trust, a not-for-profit educational charity. Based in Melbourne, The Conversation has the support of the Group of Eight universities; University of Technology, Sydney; and CSIRO. Strategic partners include Commonwealth Bank, Corrs Chambers Westgrath and Ernst & Young, the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, and the Victorian Department of Business and Innovation.

3. The Charter of The Conversation:
Give experts a greater voice in shaping scientific, cultural and intellectual agendas by providing a trusted platform that values and promotes new thinking and evidence-based research.

Provide a fact-based and editorially-independent forum, free of commercial or political bias.
Create an open site for people around the world to share best practices and collaborate on developing smart, sustainable solutions.

Ensure quality, diverse and intelligible content reaches the widest possible audience by employing experienced editors to curate the site.

Ensure the site's integrity by only obtaining non-partisan sponsorship from education, government and private partners. Any advertising will be relevant and non-obtrusive.
Work with our academic, business and government partners and our advisory board to ensure we are operating for the public good.

Support and foster academic freedom to conduct research, teach, write and publish.

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