My guess is that the author, who is a journalist, wanted to distance himself or herself from the content and not be associated with it; making it multimedia puts him or her among the technocrats while allowing them to write whatever they want. It also has the (actual) effect of being more engaging for decision makers. (So much so that it leads with a note saying it's only the author's opinion, not cnn's.)

probably many people here would not have read through a straight article with the same information. It's also more engaging and real - e.g. the video stories.

Edit: also the whole article is about the contrast with silicon valley. so having a new app-y interface to play with every second of the reading puts that contrast especially starkly. it certainly worked on me. (if I had read the same article in sfgate in the usual article format I dont think it would have had the same effect.)

I was almost going to bail on the site because I couldnt scroll through it, NOR use my arrow-keys, ugh, horrible UX.