LA Times opens up editorials online
Readers no longer need fume over Los Angeles Times editorials they do not like - they can rewrite the editorials and post them on the newspaper's website.
"How do you like the linked editorial? A lot? Thanks! Not so much?" the paper asked in its Friday edition.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Today you have a new option: Rewrite the editorial yourself, using a web page known as a 'wiki,' at latimes.com/wiki."
The newspaper takes advantage of software promoted by "Wikipedia," which allows anyone, anywhere to post, modify or edit any part of the online encyclopedia, with 597,000 entries so far just in English.
Wiki is a cyberspace bulletin board allowing collaborators of far-flung organisations or multinationals to put their two cents into any project or create new ones. It is named for a taxi, using a Hawaiian word for "quick."
The LA Times called for reader restraint in expressing opinions, lest the experiment fail.
"Plenty of sceptics are predicting embarrassment; like an arthritic old lady who takes to the dance floor, they say, the Los Angeles Times is more likely to break a hip than to be hip," it said.
Meanwhile, "we begin with just one 'wikitorial,'" the daily said.