Marketplace Logo Donate

Daily business news and economic stories from Marketplace

Wikipedia losing contributors

Subscribe to our Newsletters

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia isn’t attracting contributors like it used to. Founder Jimmy Wales told the Associated Press that the company isn’t replenishing its writers and editors.

From the AP:

Despite Wikipedia’s wide-reaching popularity, Wales said the typical profile of a contributor is ‘a 26-year-old geeky male’ who moves on to other ventures, gets married and leaves the website. Other contributors leave because, 10 years after the website was launched, there are fewer new entries to add, he said.

Apparently, adding new entries is also really complicated.

Wikipedia is developing strategies to attract new talent–including asking university profs to assign writing Wikipedia entries to their students, and adding a new feature called WikiLove that rewards page contributors by sending them pictures of kittens, stars and baklava.

What's Next

Latest Episodes From Our Shows

Listen
7:46 AM PDT
8:55
Listen
2:39 AM PDT
14:08
Listen
7:39 AM PDT
1:50
Listen
Mar 24, 2023
33:58
Listen
Mar 24, 2023
28:50
Listen
Mar 22, 2023
44:55
Listen
Dec 8, 2022
39:27
Exit mobile version