A live blog is a live, online update of an event, via a microblogging service like Twitter or a dedicated live blogging service like CoveritLive. We’ve been researching live blogging habits and trends, and live blogs tend to cover standard fare: breaking news, politics, sports, entertainment and business events. Beyond that though, live blogs on the web are so varied that it’s hard to see them all as one style of journalism.

The differences in live blogs can be narrowed down to three main areas:

• Style
• Frequency and length of updates
• Level of interactivity with readers

A live blogger’s writing style can vary from straight-laced news reporter, to snarky know-it-all commentator or rapid-fire text messenger. When Kate Phillips covered the State of the Union for the New York Times, she did so as a straight-up reporter at the event, with knowledgeable entries that covered all the bases. When “Political Doctor” covered the same event from her TV, her writing went with a dose of sarcasm. Meanwhile, when covering the Independent Spirit Awards, Spout just sent in Twitter messages of 140 characters, essentially fun blips to her audience.

Live blogggers vary widely as to how often they check in during an event. While most announce major developments, some take it to the extreme: When FiredogLake covered the Scooter Libby trial, it read like a transcript of the entire trial. Their team of bloggers rotated simultaneous blogging in the courtroom and hardly missed a beat. On the other extreme, there are live bloggers who just contribute when they feel like it, regardless of the event, like this casual Oscar live blog from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Then there’s how the blogger uses the readers’ feedback. In that Oscar blog from Florida, comments were in their own separate section below the blog post. In other blogs, comments are mixed right in with the bloggers’ writing, which makes it more of a conversation than a report. Some bloggers use their position to act as a voice of authority to readers asking questions: The Sioux City Journal’s live blog of Lawrence Harris’ trial read like a radio call-in show. In contrast, when The Uptake covers the Coleman-Franken hearings, everybody’s got an opinion, and the hosts tend to fade to the background.

Some live blogs use tools like instant polls to interact with readers Though perhaps gimmicky, the polls at least make participants feel valued. Other live blogs utilize links, which can be helpful to provide more info. But in the case of a fast-breaking story, who has time to be reading other links?

Underlying every one of these questions is how the blogger conceives of the audience. If they think their readers are watching along with them, as with the Oscars or the State of the Union, then the blogger can afford to miss details and chime in at will. In other events though, especially court cases, the live blogger is the only eyes and ears for their audience.

The bloggers also have to decide if they’re writing for insiders or the general public. Newcomers to The Uptake’s coverage of Coleman-Franken may feel lost at first, because essentially the blog is an ongoing chat room. It’s great for insiders but hard to navigate if you don’t have the background. In contrast, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s coverage of the Vincent Fumo trial gave constant updates but was also written to be accessible to readers with only a passing awareness of the case.

In the end, these questions of the audience are far more important than the event is in deciding a live blog’s content. The blogger who stops and thinks about their audience, tone and the other issues we’ve raised will probably create far better and more popular content.

In our research we noticed a few trends in live blogs. We hope these sites broaden your understanding of this fun and evolving reporting style.

Case #1: The Caucus Blog — It covered the State of the Union at the event, as the objective news reporter.
Who it’s for: Both those watching and not watching.
How it works: One author sends constant updates on essential parts of the event, in short news report fashion. It’s professional, with links and occasional commentary from readers.
Tools used: WordPress, links
Other examples: The Fumo Live Blog, USA Today GameOn, CNET coverage of Apple sales call

Case #2: Political Doctor — It covers the State of the Union from their TV, with a sense of humor.
Who it’s for: Anyone also watching the event on TV.
How it works: One person in charge, who sends a new short joke or comment every 5-10 minutes, while also offering analysis and commentary.
Tools used: Blogger, links
Other examples: Deadspin World Series blog, Florida Sun-Sentinel Oscar live blog.

Case #3: Spout — It covers the Independent Spirit Awards at the event, glued to Twitter.
Who it’s for: Those interested already, but who can’t watch it.
How it works: One reporter sends 140-characters or less bursts of info as events unfold, with occasional links.
Tools used: Twitter, photos, links
Other examples: Ron Sylvester covers the courts.

Case #4: Film School Rejects — It covers the Independent Spirit Awards as a chat, where the bloggers do most of the talking.
Who it’s for: Those interested already, both who can and can’t watch it.
How it works: Constant interaction between bloggers and readers. It’s as if listening to a radio or TV broadcast of announcers, with occasional public commentary.
Tools used: CoveritLive, polls, software
Other examples: Devil Rays’ Digest covers the World Series

Case #5: The Uptake — It covers the Coleman-Franken Senate contest as a chat, where the blogger mostly moderates public commentary.
Who it’s for: Anyone interested in the event, those who can and can’t watch it.
How it works: Besides occasional updates from the blogging team, most of the space is for the public’s to fill and ask questions. Much more of an IM chat style, with the public chatting amongst users on the site.
Tools used: CoverItLive, live video streams, polls, links
Other examples: Awful Announcing covers the World Series

Some of you took offense to that and sent in additional nominations. It turns out that you were right; there are lots of innovative, beatblogging sports reporters (just not on the scale of their news colleagues). This week we’re back with three more, really innovative sports beat reporters.

We’re still not pleased with how many sports reporters have blogs that they aren’t using properly. The kinds of blogs with giant comment ghettos. But this week gives us hope.

This week’s Leaderboard is filled with sports reporters who get interaction, and interaction is ultimately the name of the game.

Greg Auman | St. Petersburg Times

• Auman reminds me a lot of Ed Silverman. His individual posts don’t usually stand out, but when you take his entire body of his work, it’s when you begin to notice how he shines. He covers his beat well and harnesses the Web well. It’s the total package.
• His beat — University of South Florida sports — lends itself well to blogging. He is an expert on all things related to sports at USF but not focused on an individual sport. His beat and his blog allow him to connect with students and alumni of the school.
• He posts a lot of quality updates to his blog. Many of his posts serve as conversation starters for the community. And Auman, unlike many sports reporters, is active in the comments after his posts. This, unfortunately, is uncommon.
• Auman’s tweets, however, do shine on their own. He posts little tidbits of information that may eventually become longer posts. He has created a Twitter feed that offers real value to USF sports fans, and his tweets compliment his blog perfectly.
• I also like how Auman makes use of live chats with readers. Live chats are a great way for sports reporters in particular to connect with users.
• Auman is the perfect combination of good sports reporting combined with more casual blog posts and a health dose of interaction.
• The level of interaction that Auman engages in — from the comments after his blog posts to Twitter to live chats — is a level that all sports reporters should strive to achieve.

Britt Robson | Secrets of the City

• Robson’s work covering the Minnesota Timberwolves could best be described as a combination between a basketball analyst and a blogger. His writing style lends itself well to blogging, and the way he writes and the content of his writing has helped create a niche that compliments standard sports writing.
• One of my pet peeves with many sports reporters and columnists who have been given blogs is that they never interact with people in the comments section. And, naturally, the comments after their posts are usually incendiary, banal and don’t contribute to the conversation. In short, they have successfully created a comment ghetto by not taking ownership of the comments that appear after their comments. (I’m looking at you Cleveland.com sports writers).
• Robson is active in the comments after his posts, and, of course, a comment ghetto has not formed. There is actual debate and discussion that occurs. It furthers the conversation and adds to the value of the blog.
• It’s refreshing to see the quality of community that Robson has created around a professional sports team. It’s rather uncommon. I don’t know what it is, but it seems like many sports writers who cover professional sports don’t feel the need to build a community around their blog. But is it even a blog if a “blogger” wants nothing to do with the comments after his posts?

Dona Ditota | The Post-Standard

• Ditota made the Leaderboard for her use of Twitter for sports analysis and live blogging. Rather than liveblog play-by-play for games, Ditota provides stats and analysis. She did a phenomenal job of providing live analysis and updates during the Oklahoma-Syracuse game. Her tweeting during games is the perfect compliment to other live sports coverage.
• This tweet from Ditota mentions how OU was able to beat a zone defense by shooting well. This little tidbit of info could help sports fans understand what they are seeing.
• It doesn’t make that much sense to just liveblog play-by-play at a major sporting event. People can get that kind of information from a variety of places — TV, iPhone apps, mobile phone video, etc — but getting succinct analysis is not easy to get. Ditota filled a niche. In fact, her coverage was the perfect compliment to watching the Oklahoma-Syracuse game live. It was also helpful for people following along on the go.

That’s just the way I like it. We have strong link journalism, strong live blogging and strong community building. Each of those are important to journalism moving forward.

I apologize for the tardiness of the Leaderboard this week. We’ve been taking on a lot of new endeavors at BeatBlogging.Org and bringing students up to speed on the project.

David Brauer | MinnPost.com

• Brauer was nominated for this nifty bit of link-journalism. Curation is a big part of the future of journalism. Even if you’re not breaking every story, you can still act as a trusted source and filter for users.
• There is too much information to read on the Internet. It’s overwhelming at times. That’s what makes link journalism so powerful. Brauer combines great original reporting, with strong curation. His users get the best of his original work, plus the best work from around the Web.
• MinnPost.com is a non-profit journalism outfit that you should be following. They are experimenting with some interesting revenue models.
• Braublog is a kickass beatblog by them that covers local media and politics, and it’s a piece of new media journalism worth keeping tabs on.

Dave Levinthal | The Dallas Morning News

• This week features more CoveritLive goodness from a beatblogger. Levinthal used the live blogging tool to live blog / live chat during a contentious debate about a proposed Dallas Convention Center hotel. The debate featured Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and real estate executive Anne Raymond.
• This is a particularly strong example of live blogging. Before the debate started, Levinthal answered questions that were e-mailed to him about the proposed project. He also took questions from people on CoveritLive before the debate started.
• His analysis and links before the debate started helped give users background and answered many of their questions. They were then better able to understand what was happening during the debate.
• Live blogging is a tool that can benefit just about any beatblogger, and CoveritLive is one of the premier live blogging tools. Live blogging gives journalists, particularly print journalists a new ability to immediately inform users and connect with them during live events. A debate like this is an excellent example of when a live blog makes a lot of sense. This is one of the best examples we have ever seen of live blogging.

Monica Guzman | Seattle Post-Intelligencer

• This is an honorary nod to Guzman because her role at the new P-I will be changing. The Big Blog has existed as a conversations starter, linking heavily to the P-I’s content and great content from around the Web. Guzman has also pulled out interesting comments on other P-I stories and elevated them to their own posts. But the thing is, the P-I is radically changing. Most of the newsroom is gone, and so Guzman’s role will be changing.
• The Big Blog was an exemplary example of how a newspaper could use the Web for two-way communication and community building. Guzman engaged in gathering, moderating and analyzing conversations. That was the heart of what she did. Most news organization do not have someone like her on board. They need to fix that.
• The Big Blog was also a blog that worked well with traditional print content. This is the style of blog that every newspaper should look into. You can find our past coverage of the old Big Blog here.
• Now that the P-I no longer has print content, it’s clear that The Big Blog will be changing. What the new Big Blog and P-I will be like is still to be determined. Regardless of what the new Big Blog looks like, the old Big Blog was a beatblog worth emulating by other news organizations.

They are all pushing the practice.

Innovation is not the sole province of big organizations with lots of resources. Some of the best, most innovative journalism is being done by people at non-traditional organizations. There are new media news organizations popping up all the time, and if traditional news outlets aren’t careful, these new outlets will eat their lunch.

But rather than fighting each other, we can learn and figure out best practices.

It is worth noting that our Leaderboard winner this week from a traditional media outlet is at a newspaper with less than 100,000 daily circulation. Size and age don’t matter when it comes to innovation.

Alexander Russo | District 299

• Russo’s blog, District 299, covers education much differently than a newspaper beat reporter would. Instead of District 299 being a place where Russo talks at people and reports in a one-way style, District 299 is a place to have conversations. It’s a place to discuss how to make education better in Chicago.
• Russo brings a different concept to beat blogging. He says his blog is “hosted by Alexander Russo.” By that, he means he has created a space to get people talking about education issues in Chicago.
• If the Chicago school district releases a press releases about school closings, Russo would throw the press release up on his blog in its entirety for users to read, rather than summarizing it like a newspaper reporter would. Russo’s goal is not to make the press release his own, but rather to get it up on his blog to get people discussing the contents of it.
• Russo’s blog is a gateway to all things Chicago schools related. The best way to make his platform the destination to be for discussion of issues surrounding Chicago schools is to link heavily to other people’s content.
• Many traditional journalists are so focused on producing content that they don’t take any time to create a quality space for people to discuss issues. Russo, a Spencer Fellow at Columbia University, is interested in more than just covering education — he wants to help create change. He is not a dispassionate spectator like most newspaper journalists aim to be and instead uses his blog to get people talking about ways to improve the under-performing Chicago school district.

Philissa Cramer | GothamSchools

• Rise and Shine is a daily link journalism post that sets the agenda each day for GothamSchools. GothamSchools is a new media operation that wants to be an online community for discussion about New York City Schools. That would be impossible if GothamSchools didn’t link out. Rather, GothamSchools offers a blend of original reporting and curation.
• GothamSchools has a similar mission as Russo. It wants to be more than just a news outlet. It wants to be a place for serious discussion, and it wants to help make education better in New York.
• From the about page, ” … a news source and online community for teachers, parents, policy makers, and journalists interested in learning about what works and what doesn’t in NYC schools. We seek to provide a clearinghouse for school news and commentary, connect teachers and parents with resources, highlight effective practices in policy and pedagogy, and build a participatory knowledge base about education in New York City. By offering a critical eye on education research and reporting, and by creating a forum for conversation, GothamSchools is helping New Yorkers create better schools.”

Ron Sylvester | Wichita Eagle

• Ron Sylvester has been reinventing court coverage with Twitter. Follow along as he tweets live updates from a trial of six accused gang members. Sylvester’s tweets what is happening during the trial with succinct 140-character bites. He also provides insight into the trial itself.
• We have chronicled Sylvester’s efforts before, but he continues to refine his coverage. Sylvester is using social media and his blog to transform how newspapers cover trials. No longer is Sylvester being beaten by broadcast media. Instead, his live updates from the court room beat everyone. And unlike live TV coverage of a trial, which can be overwhelming, Sylvester’s 140-character tidbits make following a trial very easy.
• Sylvester’s Twitter use also proves that Twitter can be a valuable tool for journalists in less-populated, less-tech savvy areas. Many of the people that follow Sylvester’s court room tweets are not on Twitter. They’re not that interested in Twitter itself, but they are really interested in the content that Sylvester produces on it. These people either follow along on Sylvester’s Twitter page or on blog where his tweets are embedded.

A beat blog is a great way to find out what people are thinking, and unlike the print edition that may run a few thoughts from readers, a beat blog can allow anyone to comment. Plus, users can interact with each other, share links and debate topics.

A beat blog is also a great way to ask readers what they would like you to cover. Want to know what your readers think? Ask them.

Jon Ortiz | Sacramento Bee

• Ortiz is using his blog to crowd source opinions on what it’s like to be back after a day of being furloughed. Due to the budget crisis in California, it’s mandatory for state workers to take several furlough days. Ortiz wants to know what morale is like now that furloughs have officially begun.
• This blog post has been a sounding board for state workers who were furloughed. The post itself is interesting because of all the comments that users have left. It doesn’t take a lot of effort for Ortiz to ask a simple question about morale, but this post has yielded a lot of good information.
• The post will also help Ortiz create more content. He can take the best comments and make a new blog post or print story with them. He can also ask in a few weeks how morale is after employees receive their first reduced paychecks. He can then compare and contrast comments left this week with comments left after employees receive their smaller paychecks.
• A beat blog makes it much easier for a reporter to write stories like these. Before the Web, Ortiz could have contacted a few state workers and used their opinions for stories. After the story was published, additional state workers could write in. But with Ortiz’s beat blog, anyone can comment, and this post has led to a wide swatch of state workers form different departments commenting on how morale is.
• People are much more willing to share their stories when we make it easy for them. It’s much easier to leave a comment after a blog post than it is to find a newspaper’s number, call the newspaper and try to get a hold of an individual reporter.

John A. Bryne | BusinessWeek

• “What’s Your Story Idea?” gives BusinessWeek.com readers the chance to have a direct impact on the publication’s coverage. Editor-in-Chief John A. Byrne reviews reader comments and then assigns them to journalists. When the story goes live, the reader gets the credit.
• Each week at least one story pitched by a reader is assigned to a BusinessWeek staffer.
• Bryne also provides feedback to stories pitched by users, “As Editor-in-Chief of BusinessWeek.com, I’ll respond to your suggestions just as I do to my own reporters. ‘Tom, that’s a brilliant and original idea with importance significance to our readers.’ Or, ‘Frank, I’ve read that story a hundred times. What can you possibly add that’s new?’”
• This feature is not only good for unearthing new and interesting story assignments, but it’s also a good way to get user feedback on existing content. Is BusinessWeek covering the stories that its readers are interested in? Why not just ask?
• This sums up what BusinessWeek and Bryne are trying to accomplish: “User engagement. That’s what we believe in.” User engagement is a must to succeed on the Web.

Gene Sloan | USA Today

• Sloan is live blogging all week from the Carnival Fantasy cruise. His live blogging is cool enough, but Sloan is also engaging users in the comments section after his posts and answering questions.
• Sloan is living blogging this week so he can report on, “What’s it like to sail on one of the refurbished Fantasy Class ships? I’ll be on board the Fantasy for the next five days as it cruises to Mexico, posting my impressions and answering your questions (leave them in the comment area below).”
• As he leaves impressions throughout the day, users have been leaving comments and asking questions. Sloan has been responding to their questions and trying out some of their suggestions (which activities to try, what to eat, etc).
• Before the Web and live blogging, Sloan could have ridden a cruise ship for a week and written a story about his experiences. Now he can post updates and photos throughout the course of his trip and interact with users along the way. The ability for users to leave comments and suggestions makes this form of journalism much more interactive and engaging for users.

Good beat bloggers build strong communities around their beats. These communities not only can help journalists report news and stay up-to-date on industry news, but they can also add value with strong comments after posts. Slashdot in particular has made an art form out of having comments after posts be more valuable than the original posts themselves (not coincidentally, Slashdot has one of the best commenting systems around).

Just about all of the beat bloggers we follow have built strong communities. These communities help journalists report, but there are some beat bloggers who have built such strong communities that their users and their comments and links are just as imporant as the original content itself.

Kent Fischer | The Dallas Morning News

• We’ll say it again, Comment of the Week is a feature that every beat blogger should copy.
• So many journalists are worried about allowing comments on posts and other content. Want to know a great way to get great comments from users? Acknowledge when users leave great comments. That’s exactly what Fischer does, and his blog has some really good comments. It also has a strong community around it.
• Fischer regularly interacts with users on his blog, and this is a key to building a strong community around a blog. By interacting with users, Fischer also has fomented a stronger and more civil community around his blog.
• Many news organizations have done a wonderful job of creating comment ghettos, filled with inappropriate, acidic, banal and often off-topic comments. These comment ghettos represent everything that many journalists hate about user comments.
• Fischer and other beat bloggers have prevented comment ghettos from forming by being active in their communities. Acknowledging when users leave comments that really add to the conversation is another great way to prevent comment ghettos from forming.

Matt Neznanski | Corvallis Gazette Times

• Live blogging is a great way to utilize the Web in ways that print never could. Services like CoveritLive make it easy for journalists to cover live events in real time. Twitter is also another popular way to provide real-time coverage of events.
• Live blogging is much more than just providing instaneous updates. It’s also about allowing people to have a voice. CoveritLive, Twitter and other services allow users to submit questions and make comments. A journalist can take this real-time questions and ask city council members, for instance, their thoughts.
• A live blog also has value after an event is over. CoveritLive makes it easy to create an archive of a live blog for users to read.
• Neznanski shows the power and immediacy of live blogging when he recently covered a City Blog meeting on homelessness. CoveritLive is quickly becoming a big-time tool for beat bloggers.

Brian Krebs | The Washington Post

• We’re continually amazed by the quality of the community around Krebs’ Security Fix blog. Good beat blogging is a way to build a strong community. Security Fix reminds us of Slashdot but with better original content.
• Krebs routinely makes posts that his users add additional insight and links in the comments section. Krebs himself is also very active in the comments section, answering questions and helping users out. There is an incredible sense of community on his blog where people are there for each other.
• This past week Krebs reported on fake online shopping sites that were trying to spoof legitimate sites. The debate and discussion after the post is arguably better than the original post itself. Users are sharing more fake sites to avoid, ways to tell if a site is fake or has a good reputation and tools people can use to make e-commerce safer.
• This is what happens when you build a strong community of knowledgeable users. It’s hard to imagine Security Fix without user comments. Many journalists fear user comments, but Krebs and Security Fix show how comments can add a lot of value to journalism.

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.

One Tweet caught my eye. It was from Josh Levy at Tech President saying that he was liveblogging Super Tuesday.

Okay: let’s check it out.

Josh was using a tool called CoverItLive, something I had heard of, but never seen in action. Within minutes I could see the value of CoverItLive for any beat blogger with an open network. This is instant feedback – and if you are covering the Superbowl, Super Tuesday or any concrete event with a fixed time line, why not open the floodgates and turn your site into the center of conversation.

I signed up at CoverItLive and had a test chat up and running in minutes – literally minutes.

What if you have/want a closed network?

A very valid concern – especially for some of our beat bloggers who expressed time and again, the need for anonymity or closed conversations.

I decided to send that question on to CoverItLive and received an answer directly from the top: Keith McSpurren the President of CoverItLive.

Hello

Thanks for your question. Think you’re watching Josh right now in techpresident…

There are a number of ways to achieve a private live blog.

The best way/easest way would be to put the Viewer Window behind a password protected page on your blog (financial analysts do this for earnings call coverage for their clients only);

A second way would be to launch it and NOT even
post it but then use the application to send out email invites to who you
wanted…a link would be in there for them to go to it (this leaves you with
kind of a ‘floating’ Viewer Window as it is not attached to your
blog…a bit weird, but no one can get to it without the link in the email.

We’ve designed the product to be open and pretty
passive for readers (no username/passwords required).  We expect that most
people wanting to have private content areas already have unique
username/password things so we just stay out of that and tell people to shove
us in behind.

In a follow up email Keith mentioned that mlive.com, which I recently pointed out as using Twitter in an interesting fashion used CoverItLive during the Superbowl.

Again: The obvious use for CoverItLive is in open networks during events that would be important to everyone who lives/breathes the beat. But I could also imagine CoverItLive being used to organize debates between specific sources, candid conversations between a variety of sources or even daily chats.

Imagine a blogger who, every day, starts their day off with a chat. From 10-11, come here to talk about X.