US: Wikitorials II

Posted by John Burke on March 9, 2006 at 4:12 PM

Editor & Publisher reports that South Dakota's Argus Leader has launched a Los Angeles Times-style user generated op-ed feature, or wikitorial, on its website. LAT's experiment with the model was nixed two days after its launch due to profanity and pornography being posted on the site. But the Argus is taking a slightly different approach.

Said the Argus' editorial page editor Chuck Baldwin, "We'll check your editorials before we post them. But we won't edit them - that could defeat the purpose. They either meet our standards and they'll be posted, or they won't and we'll delete them."

On its first day, the editorial received one contributor, who agreed with the paper's opinion. Baldwin predicted that as news of the feature gets around, more people will contribute.

To further encourage reader participation, the paper has also launched a "citizens editorial board," which has readers comment on proposed editorial ideas from the staff, and a "legislative journal" where readers can comment on the latest in state politics.

Source: Editor & Publisher

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