7 live blog examples and what you can learn from them

Nowadays, readers increasingly seek concise and impactful narratives when informing themselves about current events. The modern reader demands rapid access to essential headlines and key occurrences. This high expectation continuously drives the newsroom to look for ways to deliver swift story publication, a decisive factor in breaking the news first before your competitors do.

 

We collected and analyzed seven live blogs from renowned global publishers. Each live blog offers some unique aspects in delivering immediate and comprehensive coverage of specific events or stories with their common goal to reach and engage new audiences.

 

1. Sky News: Live updates on the Iceland volcano

Whether these are news of war, events, meteorological occurrences or geological phenomena, there is a sense of urgency in delivering the latest information about any events that pose a threat in any way. Particularly important for local and national audiences, minute-by-minute coverage of the latest developments allows the population to stay informed and reach critical decisions. Sky’s live blog covers the Iceland volcano event over many days, thus creating a historical chronology of evolving events.

 

Highlights:

• Main purpose: This live blog aims to inform the population first and foremost
• Key points: Similar to a bookmark function, readers can view the key points right away and jump to distinct sections in the live blog to read up on explanations, analysis, eyewitness testimonials, and so on.
• Reverse chronology: Late-comers who want to follow the evolution of events from the beginning are able to reverse the post orders and switch from oldest to newest posts. A great way to bypass a lot of scrolling.
• Ads-free: Some live blogs encounter accessibility issues when regular ads pop up on the screen. Sky opted for an ad-free live blog to optimize the reading experience.
• Rich media: This live blog is a great example where supporting videos and pictures illustrate the coverage and provide an on-the-ground feeling.

 

2. DirtFish: Rally Japan 2023 Live Blog

The Rally live blog as created by DirtFish is a great example of how a race can come to life in the form of a live blog. By nature, any sports game or race is time-bound, and updates must happen as the race or game unfolds. Live blogs are particularly well-suited for this type of dynamic environment and enable sports fans to follow the event if they haven’t been able to watch it live, or give them a place to return to at a later stage to read up once again on race highlights and key events.

 

Highlights:

• Main purpose: This live blog aims to deliver race highlights and engage audiences
• The blog post made use of custom icons on the side to indicate at one glance what the entry is about
• One key post is highlighted in color, directing the reader towards this particular entry which links back to a static, in-depth post on another page – this is a great way to lead readers on to more, relevant content.
• At the bottom, readers are encouraged to rate the post and to join the discussion or rate comments – a great way to open the dialogue with fans and keep the engagement high.

3. The Guardian: Israel Election 2019 exit polls winner Netanyahu Benny Gantz

The Guardian is an expert in delivering interactive and instant live blogs, having done this for over 25 years! The live blog delivered live coverage of the Israeli election between Benjamin Netanyahu against the Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party. The live blog captures the main highlights by providing a summary of events of the results with interactive coverage of the vote. The blog also provides a unique timeline of major headlines surrounding the story, from the responses of both parties towards the victory and the result, followed by a conclusion to the event.

 

The Guardian masterfully delivers their recap of the events using visual images and bulleted text. The live blog also entices the reader to re-visit future blogs surrounding the event by providing predictions of ‘What Happens Next?’, now Netanyanhu secured victory. This strongly encourages readers to return to the live blog for more information.

 

Highlights:

• Main purpose: This live blog aims to inform the population first and foremost
• Timeline of major happenings: When users don’t have time to read through full commentary, a timeline of events pinned to the top provides the reader with information on particular highlights or major events.
• Closing summary recap: Readers are able to check-in to the blog even once the live coverage is complete by reading the comprehensive summary recap of the events.
• Builds returning reader habit: Once the event is finished, the blog ensures that the reader returns to the blog for future events.

 

4. Cambridgeshire-News: A14 – Cambridgeshire Live Traffic Updates

Live road traffic is essential for regular drivers who might be affected by traffic or travel disruptions. Cambridge Live delivers live updates to travelers using the A14 in the UK. The blog intends to provide comprehensive coverage of any delays, incidents, accidents and general roadworks in the area that may disrupt the commuter.

 

 

Highlights:

• Main purpose: This live blog aims to inform the local population
• Responsive and instant: Upon a major traffic incident, a traffic blog becomes the go-to place, focusing on essential information for drivers.
• Postcode prompting window: a popup window with the option to enter a postcode enables the reader to get tailored updates related to users’ immediate area or area of interest.
• Social media post integration: The live blog also integrates with social platforms, allowing editors to add feeds from various sources.

 

5. NZ Herald: New Zealand Elections 2023

NZME covered the 2023 New Zealand elections by having one centralized live blog on the NZ Herald that offered minute-by-minute national updates, enabling local newsrooms to cherry-pick posts from this hub to enrich their coverage and provide context to local elections. The live blog also contains podcast placements, prompting readers to tune in and listen to detailed coverage of particular speeches or occurrences.

 

Highlights:

• Main purpose: This live blog aims to inform the population while also introducing subscriber content.
• Podcasts: frequent podcast placements throughout the live blog encourage readers to listen and subscribe NZ Herald’s podcast series.
• Social media integration: posts and pictures from Facebook/Meta were added to the coverage to illustrate specific updates.
• Guiding readers to subscribe: feeds within the live blog offer premium content and encourage readers to subscribe to their Premium Politics newsletter.

 

6. Jyllands-Posten: Football live coverage

Sports news coverage is a very competitive space. Because popular sports disciplines like football attract massive audiences – from sports enthusiasts and casual followers to dedicated fans – newspapers are fighting to capture their attention. This also implies growing monetization opportunities for publishers, with affiliate revenue and ads.
In this live blog, Jyllands-Posten covered a football game using Ritzau, a sports data provider and integrated the received information directly into their live blog using a scoreboard.

 

Highlights:

• Main purpose: This live blog aims to deliver a full report of a game
• Scoreboard: This is a great way to present readers with specific game details at once glance, for example, by highlighting who scored a goal, at what minute, and any other game action.
• Sports data integration: integrating with a data provider allows the publisher to showcase the numbers right from the source.

 

7. The Verge: Apple’s “Show Time” TV and news services event

In 2019, Apple announced the new Apple TV Service and News Subscription Plan at an event conference – this new service had been highly anticipated as it would rival other online entertainment services such as Amazon and Netflix. The live coverage done by the Verge immediately highlights what the blog is about and reports on the event minute by minute.

Requiring speed and accuracy for this kind of coverage, the live blog included live image snippets and commentary of the event, capturing live speeches of Apple’s CEO and informing the readers on every action taken during the presentation. The live coverage includes regular real-time updates while remaining in a reader-friendly layout to keep audiences interested.

 

Highlights:

• Main purpose: This live blog aims to bring a conference to life with informative updates. 
• Accurate: The blog provides instant updates with the use of quotes to capture commentary reactions of the CEO and other celebrities.
• Relevant information pinned to the top: Pinning posts enables readers to view key events of the coverage at the top, without having to scroll through the live blog.
• Informal language: The language used in the coverage is somewhat casual, reflecting the shift in readers’ preference for simpler language.

 

 

Conclusion and takeaways

In conclusion, the selected live blogs presented in this analysis serve as illustrative models rather than definitive benchmarks. Instead, they are meant to highlight and exemplify some of the techniques available to provide live, interactive, news coverage of ongoing events to different audiences.

 

 

Ultimately, determining what works best for a specific news site requires a profound understanding of audience behavior, market dynamics, and the nature of events being covered. The key to this understanding lies in continuous iteration, enabling a rapid and adaptive learning process to discern what resonates with readers.

 

 

The advantages of successfully engaging readers through live blogs are substantial. Widely recognized as one of the most influential and engaging methods for event coverage, live blogging has demonstrated its impact, as evidenced by The Guardian’s reported peak audience of 14.4 million browsers. While such impressive numbers may seem daunting, the creation of highly engaging live blogs that foster loyal and returning reader groups is achievable with meticulous planning, insightful strategies, and technical proficiency, irrespective of a site’s reach and market.

 

 

If you are planning to live blog an upcoming event, sign up for a free Live Center trial and test its user-friendly interface designed to help newsrooms to seamlessly report on minute-by-minute events. Get ready to elevate your event coverage and captivate your audience!