Interview with Tawnell Hobbs on how beat and live blogging help form closer connections with users

Earlier this week, I reported that Dallas Independent School District blog, run by Kent Fischer and Tawnell Hobbs of The Dallas Morning News, had seen a huge surge in traffic due to their strong reporting of a financial crisis in the Dallas school district.

I specifically wanted to talk Hobbs about her live blogging efforts, which begun a few weeks ago. Live blogging has been a big part of the DISD’s aggressive coverage of the budget crisis and has become very popular with users.

Hobbs has used live blogging to cover district meetings about the financial crisis. A lot of interested parties are unable to make the meetings, but by using live blogging technology, Hobbs can give people live updates. Also, people can replay the live blog after the meetings are over to see what they missed.

The DISD’s blog traffic has gone way up since their first live blog a few weeks ago. One of the strengths of live blogging is the ability to gauge user feedback instantly. While Hobbs is posting from contentious district meetings, other people are posting comments on the live blog.

“There is nothing like it,” she said. “There is so much interaction that goes on it.”

Before the DISD beat blog, Hobbs thought she knew what people were feeling in the community. At meetings, she can interview people and ask them what they think, but now she has a lot more contact with people in the district. She has a lot more interaction with people in the district and can better gauge how they feel about issues.

“You don’t realize you’re not getting it until you have a blog like this,” she said. “Before, I thought I was kind of getting it. Until we put this blog up, I didn’t realize we weren’t getting as much as I thought we were.”

The blog has allowed Hobbs and Fischer to connect with users in a much more in-depth way. Because of this, people feel more connected to the blog and to Hobbs and Fischer than they did before when both were just print reporters.

“We have such a following,” she said about the blog. “People love it.”

That following goes both ways. Hobbs described the blog as “addicting.” A few days ago she was busy working on other stories and was unable to check in on the blog.

“I really missed it, just talking to folks,” she said.

That “just talking to folks,” has led to more tips being sent in and has led to some major stories.

“It helps your reporting because you get to know a lot more people,” she said about the beat blog. “Now you have hundreds more people. It opens you up to such more out there and so many more opinions. That blog reaches so many people,” she said.

We cover a lot more in this week’s podcast. Listen to Hobbs describe why beat and live blogging have helped her cover her beat better.

Click here to stream the interview. Or download the MP3.