Put Live Blog 2.0 to the test
We’re looking for a few good journalists to test Live Blog 2.0 in real news situations and give us their unvarnished impressions.
The idea came to us a few weeks ago, reading Steve Buttry’s blog post, where he noted that newsrooms need to provide live coverage routinely.
Live coverage will change your newsroom’s culture and workflow quicker and more profoundly than any other step you will try. It will make your news site more timely and produce more content and deeper engagement than any other step you will try.
Among many other helpful tips, Steve suggests seven situations where newsrooms should consider live coverage:
- Breaking news
- Trials
- Meetings
- Sporting events
- Live chats
- Community events
- Continuing engagement
Steve’s highly worthwhile post (seriously, go read it) was very exciting to us because his thinking lines up neatly with our vision for Live Blog 2.0. Released last week, Live Blog 2.0 helps news organizations serve audiences with findable news coverage in real time.
We think Live Blog 2.0 is well-suited for each of the above uses, as our community of users has shown: Zeit Online and other news sites used Live Blog to cover the World Cup this summer. Rheinische Post has covered transit worker strikes and carnival with Live Blog. @Verdade has employed Live Blog to cover Mozambican elections and other breaking news scenarios.
Admittedly, we’re biased. What we need is impartial third parties to test it. That’s why we’re looking for more journalists who want to try Live Blog 2.0 in covering these news situations.
How to become a tester
Write to us and tell us a little about the conditions in which you want to test Live Blog 2.0 (e.g. covering local football, town council meetings, courtroom proceedings). Please mention ‘Live Blog 2.0 Test’ in your email.
We’ll quickly set up a 30-day trial instance and hand it over to you. Let us know when you start liveblogging and we’ll share news of it on the Superdesk Facebook page.
When the 30 days are up, tell us how it went — the more details, the better. We’d love to hear what kind of engagement your blog delivered and any suggestions you have for improving Live Blog. But how much you share is completely up to you.
That’s it. If you want to take part in the Live Blog 2.0 Test, just send an email to us at contact@sourcefabric.
Thanks, and happy reporting!