The Washington Monthly

June 13, 2005

THE FUTURE OF EDITORIALS?....Yesterday morning, I read this on the LA Times editorial page:

Watch next week for the introduction of "wikitorials" — an online feature that will empower you to rewrite Los Angeles Times editorials.

Today, in an article dishing some dirt on Michael Kinsley's reign as the LAT's editorial and opinion editor — including an unfortunate incident with a Xerox machine — the New York Times explains this a bit further:

"We'll have some editorials where you can go online and edit an editorial to your satisfaction," [editorial page editor Andrés] Martinez said. "We are going to do that with selected editorials initially. We don't know how this is going to turn out. It's all about finding new ways to allow readers to interact with us in the age of the Web."

Mr. Kinsley said that he was just trying something new with the wikitorials.

"It may be a complete mess but it's going to be interesting to try," he said. "Wikitorials may be one of those things that within six months will be standard. It's the ultimate in reader participation."

This is completely incomprehensible to me. That doesn't mean it won't work, I suppose, but I have no idea what the point is supposed to be. It seems like interactivity just for the sake of interactivity.

Stay tuned.

—Kevin Drum 1:40 AM Permalink | Trackbacks

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