When Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, announced the launch of a revolutionary news website earlier this year, his vision was bold.
Wikitribune would publish “news by the people and for the people”, he promised, becoming a trusted information source to counteract the fake news and clickbait that predominate online.
“The news is broken, but we have figured out how to fix it,” Mr Wales claimed. The idea was to harness the collaborative spirit of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit, to drive up journalistic standards by pairing professional reporters with an army of volunteer proofreaders and fact-checkers.
Six months on there appear to be teething troubles. The London-based site’s first “taster” article prompted such derision from supporters that some cancelled their monthly