Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said Friday that the online encyclopedia aspires to be a higher-quality source of information but added that mainstream publications could learn from its disclaimers and community features.

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Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales

“Our goal is to make Wikipedia as high-quality as possible. Britannica or better quality is the goal,” he said during a question-and-answer session at the ad:tech conference in New York.

One of the site’s strengths, however, is that contested entries — ones whose neutrality has been disputed, or that are lacking citations — are identified as such, Mr. Wales said. He wished that controversial New York Times articles, for example, noted when they had prompted arguments among editors, he said.

Consumers are shifting their attention from traditional outlets to user-contributed ones, he said, noting the demise of Gourmet magazine while the recipes section of Wikia has surged. He pulled up the Google results for “muppets,” showing that the first three go to the Muppets’s Wikipedia entry, Wikia site