Wikitorial, I hardly knew ya

Michael Kinsley’s experiment using a wiki for the LA Times editorial is over, at least for now. When I first heard of the idea my initial thought was that it wasn’t a very good one. A brave experiment in publishing, definitely. But a wiki seems the polar opposite to an editorial page. Wouldn’t adding a simple comments section or a discussion board work much better? I get the feeling that Kinsley wanted to create some buzz for his paper and latched onto a hot buzzword, mixed it into the editorials and hoped for the best. Others have suggested that the experiment was a success due to the attention it has attracted. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out and how long they’re willing to keep trying.

The Long Tail, a wonderful blog I found over the weekend, has two good entries on the subject.