Rue Britannica

You've probably seen interviews with some in the mainstream media who are in a state of denial about the effects of the electronic revolution on their ways of doing business. Here's someone else who doesn't seem to get it. Dale Hoiberg, editor-in-chief of Britannica, in a Wall Stree Journal-hosted exchange with Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder:

No, we don't publish rough drafts. We want our articles to be correct before they are published. We stand behind our process, based on trained editors and fact-checkers, more than 4,000 experts, and sound writing. Our model works well. Wikipedia is very different, but nothing in their model suggests we should change what we do.

Now, Wikipedia has to be used with care -- it always is and always will be a work in progress. But if traditional media such as newspapers and TV broadcasts are threatened by the blazing speed of Internet news, traditional encyclopedias are all but dead. The very idea that people might spend months or years putting together a set-in-stone product seems quaint these days.