Avery Anapol, commissioning editor at The Conversation, on engaging younger audiences with academic content

Subscribe to the Journalism.co.uk podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud and Spotify

Academic writing can be complex, lengthy and dry - but that does not make it any less important. To make it accessible to the masses, the UK publication The Conversation features articles written by academic contributors and translated into plain language by a team of editors.

Noticing that younger readers are coming to the website with different needs, last year The Conversation started an article series called Quarter Life that serves readers in their 20s and 30s at critical junctures in their lives. It has since published a range of practical personal and professional stories about mental health, the cost of living, quiet quitting, property ladders, career ladders and more.

In this week's podcast, we speak to the series lead and commissioning editor of The Conversation, Avery Anapol, about how this series is an attempt to better understand their younger audience and the stories they want.

Anapol discusses the inspiration taken from the trailblazing BBC user needs model and how she has tweaked the formula to make it their own.

To that end, The Conversation seeks to learn more about younger audiences through a newly launched text message service via Subtext. Those who sign up will get news updates intended to calm them down ahead of their stressful work week, plus a direct hotline to the news desk for questions and feedback.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).