You might not realise that in the seven years since we launched The Conversation it has grown pretty big. In fact, you’re among the more than 9 million users globally who read our articles on The Conversation every month. When you add in republishers, the global audience for our articles is well over 30 million users a month.

Among our leading republishers are Australia’s ABC and some big-name global brands like The New York Times and The Washington Post. But they’re not the only people who see the benefit of our research stories and expert commentary from academics. We also work with local media like The Sunshine Coast Daily, The Examiner and The Gladstone Observer, among many others. We are deeply committed to helping everyone, no matter where they live, access academic expertise in stories that are clearly written and easy to understand.

As part of this, we also work hard to serve audiences who live in areas outside Sydney and Melbourne. In the past year, we have embedded editors in Townsville, Hobart and Adelaide to fact-check state elections. While they have been there, our editors have met local media outlets and sought feedback from local residents about the issues that are top of mind.

Sunanda Creagh, our NSW bureau chief, is currently working from Southern Cross University in Lismore, where she is commissioning articles from local academics – several of whom are tackling topics that might not always get a good run in the metropolitan media bubble. As part of her work, Sunanda will seek input from academics and local readers on what matters to them, and build relationship with regional media outlets that might want to republish our articles.

Listening to readers and sharing the expertise of people who actually know what they’re talking about is one way in which we try and deliver on our goal of serving democracy. If you’d like to suggest a story idea – any idea really, but particularly something that might not be well covered by metropolitan media companies – you can pitch it here.