By Gregory Bruno | June 15, 2023
Every day, news agencies churn out copy on local, regional, and international developments. Like a diary of global events, this endless stream of stories arrives at our favorite new sites with accuracy and at breath-taking speed.
But some stories are simply too big, or too incremental, for standard means of delivery. When news of this nature breaks, audiences expect a constant stream of updates to satiate their thirst for information.
Live blogging is among the best ways for news agencies to meet this need. Like a news wire but highly customizable, targeted, and efficient, live blogs can be sold directly to publishers or embedded in agencies’ own websites and news products.
Some of the world’s largest agencies rely on Live Blog, Sourcefabric’s professional live blogging software.
NTB: Live Blogging Scandinavia
During the height of COVID-19, for instance, NTB, the Norwegian news agency, powered most of their pandemic coverage using Live Blog. Editors set up a Live Blog instance to deliver updates, flashes, bulletins, and images to publishers across the country. NTB even connected its blogs directly to their newsroom CMS (NTB uses Superdesk for its new production) to automate content publishing.
NTB Live Blog
NTB eventually launched two COVID-19-related blogs – one for feature stories, and another for news updates. Editors from other sections, including the Sports Desk, later turned to Live Blog to cover live sporting events.
Passauer Neue Presse (PNP): Custom Blogging in Bavaria
In the German state of Bavaria, meanwhile, Passauer Neue Presse (PNP) used Live Blog’s tagging and filtering tools to deliver COVID-19 content by region, creating customized blogs for each of PNP’s publishing areas. Editors pointed to the ease of use, data security, and custom themes as the key selling points.
“We include these features on regional special pages that are enriched with data journalism and include the live blogs as a textual supplement,” PNP Deputy Editor-in-Chief Roland Mitterbauer said.
Also in Germany, the country’s main news agency, DPA, long used Live Blog to cover everything from Brexit negotiations to state elections in Lower Saxony. The agency sold these Live Blogs to customers to embed directly on their website.
An Expanding Client Base
New Live Blog customers have equally bold plans for their own live blogging instances. In Ireland, the Irish News uses the platform to deliver real-time coverage of national elections, while CMI, France’s second-largest publishing house, has set up Live Blogs for titles including Elle and Marianne.
“With new features being added all the time, news organizations of all sizes can benefit from the power and flexibility of Live Blog,” said Aleksandar Jelicic, a Live Blog product manager. “Whether you’re covering planned events like elections or breaking news, our industry-leading live blogging tool makes it easy to keep your readers updated with live news 24/7.”
In just a few years, live blogs have become an essential content type for newsrooms of all sizes – from hometown publishers to the world’s largest news agencies. Try Live Blog Pro for free for seven days, no strings attached, to see for yourself how our live blogging platform can take your live event coverage to the next level.