In today’s New York Times Magazine there is a published dialogue between contributing writer Jack Hitt, Benjamin Palmer, CEO of the Barbarian Group, Lars Bastholm, chief creative officer at AKQA and Robert Rasmussen, executive creative director of the Nike account at R/GA. During the conversation, Mr. Hitt asked each person what they would do to market “The Evening News with Katie Couric.” Mr. Palmer replied,

“What Katie Couric is not giving us, as a mainstream evening-news anchor, is an invitation to participate. So what if we changed the format of her show? Every day she gives us a sneak preview of whom she will interview over the next week. And you can go online and post your own questions. Maybe two or three user questions end up on the evening news, and you’re like a big star if she uses your question. She says your name: “This is Robert Rasmussen’s question.” You’re totally psyched. You feel awesome. And then on the Internet we post the other 17 user questions and their answers. We put those on the Internet, so there’s actually like an hour of content. A half-hour is on TV, and the other half-hour is on the Internet. You start involving people in the conversation. You start using television as the theatrical component to the Internet. Because what TV offers that the Internet doesn’t offer is a guarantee of fame. You know that millions of people saw that bit of you on television.”

As I’ve noted on a few occassions, KATV Channel 7 in Little Rock has launched an online news feature called “Choose Your News.” It is hosted by Kristin Fisher. She invites readers and viewers to participate in what news stories she chooses to cover by voting and following her covering through her blog, Twitter, and v-casts. She also hosts a Daily Debrief through a live web stream at her desk in the newsroom where she invites a guest in to talk about issues of the day. It’s a progressive approach to news reporting, and it is a really smart endeavor. I’m excited to watch it grow.

UPDATE: It’s the main feature on The Rundown.

UPDATE II:  Ms. Fisher has invited Stephens Media Group columnist John Brummett to appear as a guest on the Daily Debrief.  Mr. Brummett had some harsh words about “Choose Your News” in this column last week.