Sometime this month The New York Times will be launching online Instant Op-Eds. According to Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal, “the idea is to have a group that provides opinions soon after news occurs, with a solid Web space dedicated to them.” The editorial page and news departments will collaborate on creating the feature.
Is this a good idea or a bad one? On the one hand, it gives the Times the ability to provide breaking-news opinion that it currently lacks: it’s a void I think online news outlets like the Huffington Post are filling today. Others fear that this is merely the cult of the instant, and risks losing thoughtful analysis to a world where “Essays become op-eds. Op-eds become blog posts. Blog posts become Twitter tweets.”
However these first efforts pan out, with the internet now eclipsing every news source except TV, the Times is wise to continue to innovate.
Photo credit: omar_chatriwala