The Dallas Morning News education blog is on fire

Tawnell Hobbs and Kent Fischer’s Dallas Independent School District blog has seen a huge spike in traffic lately due to their phenomenal coverage of the district’s unexpected budget shortfall.

The blog has seen more than a 100 percent increase in page views to be exact. The two have been covering the districts developing financial crisis in real time, and people have responded by coming back to the blog over and over again, while also leaving hundreds of comments a day. The crisis could lead to more than 1,200 people losing their jobs and will lead to large budget cuts.

It’s big news for anyone working for the school district or who has kids in it. Not only are Fischer and Hobbs covering this story in ways print never would allow, but they have also provided a place for people to have a voice. People are upset and outraged over this situation, and the amount of comments the blog has received have greater increased.

I’ve written before that timing is very important for a blog. Getting out in front of an important story like this and owning it is a great way to build traffic. Fischer and Hobbs are owning this story.

The Web allows beat reporters to cover crises in more immediate ways. Not only are Fischer and Hobbs updating their blog all the time, but they are also utilizing other technologies like live blogging to give readers immediate information and feedback.

Ron Sylvester said last week that Twitter puts print back in the game for court reporting. Beat blogging and other social networking tools can allow reporters to cover stories in ways that print would have never made possible. Fischer and Hobbs still file stories for print, but they can also give people the kind of immediate information that print never could.

Good beat blogging is more than just immediacy; It’s also about interaction. Live blogging can help give people that interaction during live events. So can two-way communication in comments sections and on Twitter.

Another part of Fischer and Hobbs’ strong coverage is their daily feature, the Dallas ISD Daily Dish. Every day they link out to what the media, blogs and others are saying about the district.

Rather than (wrongly) thinking that linking out will lead people away from their blog, Fischer and Hobbs understand that they can create a stronger community and product by being the place to come to for the best content anywhere about the Dallas Indepedent School District.