Our impact - The Conversation U.S.

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Our newsroom, with more than two dozen editors, collaborates with the best and brightest minds in research, academia and science to bring you the kind of evidence-based journalism you can’t find anywhere. Instead of “parachute journalism” or anecdotal news that spreads through social media, we give you articles that stand on the foundation of years of research – that take down propaganda and misinformation, and rebuild trust in science and facts.

Policymakers, legislators, influencers, journalists at other media outlets and people of many different backgrounds and in many different professions read and act upon our articles. Here are just a few examples:

• Our articles are often used to help large audiences understand issues that affect their communities. This story, Untreated sewage and fertilizer runoff threaten the Florida manatee’s main food source, contributing to malnutrition, was linked in a mass email campaign urging elected officials in Florida to act on development practices harming manatee habitat.
• Our authors are often invited to give testimony to different governing boards as well as government agencies, committees, and bodies. For example, this past September, the author of an article, the EPA has tightened its target for deadly particle pollution - how states need more tools to reach it, was invited to testify for the Texas House Environmental Regulation Committee. The researcher behind Heists Worth Billions briefed chapters of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and a general attorney's office regarding his findings.
• Several policymakers at the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and the African Union texted Abigail Kabandula, who wrote an important article on South Sudan’s long-delayed election, to acknowledge the significance of the article and its subject matter. Some also shared it on their LinkedIn pages. Here is the article: South Sudan’s long-delayed election will be a landmark moment − but economic decline and political strife put vote at risk

• After a story about how AI is about to radically alter military command structures got a lot of attention, the author was invited by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Space Command to talk about the article, which was also circulated among generals in the Marine Corps.
• One author published a piece with us on the dangers of extracting oil and minerals from Greenland’s melting ice and landslide-prone fjords. Soon after, a senior staffer from the State Department shared it with her colleagues and reached out to the author, noting its insights and wanting to learn more.
• Universities are using our work to help teach students about effective public-facing communication in science fields. At the University of Tennessee, researchers published an article highlighting The Conversation as a classroom tool to demonstrate how to communicate about geographic education with the public.
• We are especially proud when our articles inspire someone. A reader emailed a wonderful thank-you note to the author of an article on why so many big tech whistleblowers are women. The writer shared that the article became the foundation for their master's thesis!  We are so excited and can’t wait to read their final dissertation!
• The research of the author who wrote this article about college dropouts was cited and discussed in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.  It was referenced in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.
• We see that these articles are powerful. A piece on old forests being critically important for slowing climate change and meriting immediate protection from logging ignited what its authors called a movement in the scientific community. It wasn’t just republished in multiple outlets – it led to almost 200 scientists sending a signed letter to the president and other leaders in Washington that called for a moratorium on harvesting mature and old-growth forests until new forest management plans are adopted.

We give away all our articles for free republication by anyone, anywhere under a Creative Commons license. With more than 1,000 news outlets of varying sizes and across widespread geographies carrying our content every month, The Conversation is read by a vast – and demographically diverse – audience - reaching 119 million readers in 2025.

Our story explaining an eyedrop recall was read 1 million times and republished 35 times.

This piece about loyalists during the American Revolution was republished by Smithsonian Magazine.

This story about how workplace stress hijacks the nervous system was republished by The Washington Post.

• Harvard University’s Nieman Lab, which covers thought leadership in journalism, ranked us #1 most read nonprofit news site nationwide in a recent report.
  
• Our local initiative continues to grow – we’re building trust, sharing knowledge and returning research to communities in hubs across the country − Philadelphia, Detroit, Colorado, South Florida and in Pittsburgh! Our homegrown journalists are a part of the communities we’re covering and understand what matters there.
  
  We’re supporting the local media ecosystem in these regions by giving them the kinds of analysis and explainers that would be hard to find elsewhere. This story covering the issues that Miami’s new mayor is up against after winning a heated campaign, was picked up by the Miami Herald. And in Detroit, this piece about housing and zoning policies was picked up by six separate Detroit publishers.

To learn more about partnering with us in this important work, please contact our team at us-donations@theconversation.com.