I seek advice from journalists who have experience with or questions about liveblogging.
I will be leading a webinar on liveblogging for the American Society of News Editors next Tuesday, April 21. I seek the advice of editors whose staffs have liveblogged as well as journalists who have covered events live. You can provide your advice in the comments here or by email, but what I want most are some volunteers to provide advice during a live chat between about 2:30 and 3 p.m. Eastern time (1:30 and 2 p.m. here in Iowa) next Tuesday.
Here are some questions we will address. I appreciate your answers on any or all:
- Does liveblogging help or hinder your efforts to cover the same event in a story you write afterward, whether for print or online?
- Do you sometimes have one staff member liveblog and another write the story?
- How, if at all, do you interact with the public while liveblogging?
- Do you use CoverItLive, another program designed for live coverage, or just update in your regular blog or news?
- Do you use Twitter to liveblog? If so, please tell how that works?
- How do you handle matters such as accuracy and fairness when you liveblog?
- Has liveblogging caused any problems for you relating to credential restrictions at sporting events?
- Have judges allowed or forbidden you from liveblogging in court?
- If you have conducted live chats with the public, how have you done that and how did it work out?
- What has been your most successful use of liveblogging?
- What sort of traffic have you gotten to liveblogs? Do you know how long people remain engaged?
- What has been your biggest problem with liveblogging?
- What other tips would you offer to journalists who liveblog or to newsroom leaders planning to increase their staff’s use of liveblogging?
I will provide an updated version of the handout I used for some workshops last fall and the slides I used for a webinar for the Canadian Newspaper Association in February. I welcome your suggestions for either of those (and, of course, I will credit you).
If you are using visual content effectively in liveblogging, either posting photos along with the running text or streaming video along with it, I appreciate your advice on visual issues as well.
Last request: Please send me links to examples of liveblogs, whether you were the journalist who produced it or just enjoyed it as a consumer. I will use the examples in Tuesday’s webinar. I have lots of examples from Gazette staffers (as well as some others I’ve collected), but I would like to show off the work of more liveblogging journalists.
I suppose, out of interest of organization and clarity, I’ll answer these question-by-question.
1. I don’t believe it does. I usually live blog high school sporting events, so I write during timeouts and at the end of each quarter. At worst, I have little time to breathe during the game. At best, the live blog acts as an outline for my story.
2. We do at larger events, when we decide the live blog should be more immediate than timeouts and quarter breaks.
3. When we have a separate live blogger (we’ll actually call it a live chat, giving it that distinction to the reader), there is a lot of interaction through the CoverItLive software. When it’s me, by myself, it’s a normal blog post and while I try to interact, it seems most readers understand the difference and are content to read or talk amongst themselves through story comments.
4. A live blog is run as a normal blog post, while we use CoverItLive for live chats. The latter is just easier for readers to interact, because of the sense of immediacy.
5. I often set up Twitter in our live chats. I’ll tweet the score of the game and the leading player’s stats, which gives my followers the pertinent info and when it shows up in CoverItLive, gives us one less thing to do.
6. There has been at least one instance in which a coach took offense at something I wrote. But overall, I try to make it clear that these are my observations. I try to not go too far with something that needs more reporting, and will often write, “This is what i saw — i have to ask more about it later.”
7. No, but that’s mainly because credentialing for anything below the state championship generally involves showing up and signing a sign-in sheet of paper.
8. N/a
9. I do a weekly live chat with our readers on our website, but that is actually more of a Q&A. Our in-game live chats are received very well, by embedding the code from CoverItLive on the prep sports blog.
10. There are quite a few high-profile prep games that receive no television coverage and radio can sometimes be spotty (none of our area stations are online). We can tap into the segment of the public who wants to go to the game, but, for whatever reason, cannot.
11. It’s hard to tell with our live blogs, though the prep sports blog is very popular in the area and gaining traction state-wide. With our live chats, we get anywhere from a couple hundred to more than a thousand. My goal is to have two-thirds of those people stay for more than a minute.
12. At high school games, you’re taking your own stats. I also need to keep a play-by-play account of the game to help me write my story. When you combine those two with running a live blog, the game experience can be very tiring.
13. The biggest problem I see when I look at live blogs is just that there is not enough. As journalists, we have this mentality of writing only the most pertinent info. On a blog, I will write about the crowd, the gym (it’s Indiana — people love to talk about high school gyms), who’s doing what and who’s saying what. I try to look at it like I am the play-by-play guy and the color man, and our readers are only going to be satisfied if I can tell them what happened and why it did.
Here’s an example of what we shoot for in our live blogs:
http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/quickhits/?p=932
Thanks,
H. Williams Kellenberger
Sports writer
Bloomington Herald-Times
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Using CoverItLive to cover a sporting event is really entertaining. The annual state volleyball tournament is one of my favorite events. Here’s one of my liveblogs from the semifinal round:
http://tinyurl.com/d4tftj
To answer Steve’s questions above:
I was primarily tasked with the liveblog. Fortunately, one of our outstanding sportswriters, Jeff Linder, concentrated on the packaged “stories” for print and online. That certainly made my job easier. However, I did write brief post-match summary stories for posting online, and I used my liveblog, in part, as source material for those briefs.
For me, public interactivity is one of the major benefits of using CoverItLive, and particularly so at sporting events. We had different liveblogs set up for each session, and some of the same people returned for each session to follow the matches via my liveblogs. Many of them couldn’t come to the tournament, but wanted to keep up with the action. Between the liveblogs and live scoring updates I provided, they were able to attend the tourney vicariously. As you’ll see, I put a few questions out to them as well, inviting their feedback, and got into some interesting side discussions about the sport.
Twitter works well with CoverItLive. The postings are delayed, sometimes by a minute or more, so it can compromise the “live” aspect of liveblogs. If seconds count, you’ll probably want a laptop with a broadband connection. But if Twitter is your best option, its integration with CoverItLive is pretty seamless.
Accuracy can be an issue if you’re quoting facts and stats in your liveblogs. It helps to have good, reliable sources handy. But the saving grace is that CoverItLive blogs can be live-edited, so if you made a slight factual error, you can correct it on the fly — or afterwards. I would say fairness is no more or less an issue with liveblogs than in traditional forms of media.
Since I’m with The Gazette, credentialing wasn’t an issue, but I suspect it may be for livebloggers not affiliated with “traditional” media. It would help to have a body of work and a good referral network.
Traffic to these blogs was remarkable, in my view. One session had nearly 400 viewers — and I count those viewers as people we wouldn’t be reaching via traditional media products.
The biggest problem remains access. WiFi is great, but can be unstable in public venues, and courthouses are notoriously hard on cell phone reception. You may be liveblogging one minute and trying to reconnect the next. But the CoverItLive product doesn’t provide any obstacles.
Tips? Have reporters use their liveblogs as source material for their stories. It prevents duplication, and can actually bring reader interactivity onto your news pages and Web sites. And don’t obsess over misspellings, typos and such. That can be fixed later. Immediacy is the key here. Verify whatever you can, of course, but if you don’t keep up with the “action,” whatever it may be, your viewers will lose interest. When you promise real-time updates, readers expect real-time updates. They’re not nearly as concerned as you are by a misuse of the they’re/their/there family.
Just try it. You’ll find a rhythm, and better than that, you’ll connect with a whole new audience — one that’s largely engaged, passionate and knowledgeable, and one that’ll expand your horizons.
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Here’s an example from our basketball writers Donna Ditota and Mike Waters, who twittered each Syracuse University game this season, including the amazing six-overtime game.
The end of the 6-OT game should be halfway down this page.
http://twitter.com/PSbasketball?max_id=1473458601&page=11&twttr=true
The whole thing is stored here for now:
http://blog.syracuse.com/newstracker/2009/03/6_overtimes_is_one_for_the_twi.htm
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Scott Dochterman of The Gazette answered these questions by email:
1. Do you sometimes have one staff member liveblog and another write the story?
The sports staff often did that during the Iowa basketball season. It allowed the primary writer on deadline to focus on writing a story and dispersing occasional information on the liveblog while the secondary reporter could interact with the public and provide immediate information. I thought it worked really well.
2. How, if at all, do you interact with the public while liveblogging?
When liveblogging, I give fresh, immediate and unique information on a second’s notice. I monitor comments from the public and often respond to their comments or questions. It depends on the event for how often I interact with them. For a following such as Iowa football, it’s impossible to respond to every comment but we try to maintain contact with our community through conversational writing or an occasional response about something outside of the event.
3. Do you use CoverItLive, another program designed for live coverage, or just update in your regular blog or news?
For liveblogging, we use CoverItLive. For vital news, we’ll also incorporate it into a regular blog as well. That includes a late scratch to the starting lineup, weather conditions, etc.
4. Do you use Twitter to liveblog? If so, please tell how that works?
I have with mixed success. I think it might be the best way for information in, say, 5-10 minute increments. But I’ve had people leave me as followers because I dispersed a high volume of information quickly. It annoyed them.
5. How do you handle matters such as accuracy and fairness when you liveblog?
You just try to evaluate all comments. If something is wrong or in poor taste, you just acknowledge the mistake and move on.
6. Has liveblogging caused any problems for you relating to credential restrictions at sporting events?
On the day of event? No. But we’ve had to obtain permission prior to an event from school officials before liveblogging.
7. Have judges allowed or forbidden you from liveblogging in court?
N/A
8. If you have conducted live chats with the public, how have you done that and how did it work out?
We’ve done dozens of live chats through CoverItLive. I’d say with proper online promotion of an interesting topic, they’ve worked real well. If they are hastily planned of a topic with medium-level interest, they don’t have a solid audience.
9. What has been your most successful use of liveblogging?
Iowa football games have the best following. I’d say my suggestion to Marc Morehouse to liveblog a Todd Lickliter basketball press conference in mid-March involving the loss of four basketball players probably netted the best results. It was during the day so people at work followed along, and it was a strong topic that piqued the passion of Iowa fans.
10. What sort of traffic have you gotten to liveblogs? Do you know how long people remain engaged?
In live events, such as Iowa football games, it’s real strong unless the outcome has been decided. I’m unaware of actual numbers, but I’m fairly positive football games and some basketball events/games get our best traffic. I’m unsure about the length of time people remain engaged, but that depends on the subject matter.
11. What has been your biggest problem with liveblogging?
If you’re trying to cover a live event and participate in a liveblog, there are times when you have to forfeit one or the other. I ran the Iowa-Minnesota football liveblog last November, which was a night game. In the second half, my colleagues were writing their stories. I can’t remember one play in the third or fourth quarters. With the massive amount of comments, I was following the game from their view rather than watching the game. Honestly, my brain hurt after that game.
12. Does liveblogging help or hinder your efforts to cover the same event in a story you write afterward, whether for print or online?
I find it somewhat difficult to liveblog an event and write a story from it. The reporter is concentrating so often on blogging and interacting with the public, it’s challenging to follow the event to condense it into a story form. Liveblogging can be helpful during an event such as an early-afternoon football game, however, when there are many plays and your immediate feedback during a play can guide you when you are searching for details.
13. What other tips would you offer to journalists who liveblog or to newsroom leaders planning to increase their staff’s use of liveblogging?
Liveblogging is valuable toward interacting with the public during a live event. Reporters can provide depth to a subject that even the participants cannot (a game, a city council meet, a trial, etc.). But livebloggers need support from the staff when writing a story. Details and perspective often lapse when you’re providing information simultaneously while interacting with the public. Late events, such as a basketball game or a school board meeting, might need to be double-covered.
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[…] webinar. I welcome experienced livebloggers to add their tips in the comments here or to answer the questions I raised Friday. If you are an experienced liveblogger or an editor whose staff liveblogs, please email me. I would […]
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Gazette columnist/blogger Mike Hlas answered some of the questions above by email:
1. Does liveblogging help or hinder your efforts to cover the same event in a story you write afterward, whether for print or online? It has depended on the event. I think it helps for football, helps me focus on things that strike liveblog users as meaningful. In basketball it’s a mixed bag. I get good info and insights from people, but find it hard to actually watch the game.
2. Do you use Twitter to liveblog? If so, please tell how that works? I’d rather use CoveritLive, but Twitter may work better for basketball in some ways. I Twittered updates from UNI’s NCAA tourney game in Portland. The audience was smaller, but people at work (it was a weekday game) seemed to appreciate it.
3. How do you handle matters such as accuracy and fairness when you liveblog? I demand people keep it clean and free of personal attacks. I’m sure everyone here feels the same.
5. If you have conducted live chats with the public, how have you done that and how did it work out? Yes. It was fine. My experience is the vast majority of users come for information and/or entertainment, and are respectful and appreciative participants.
7. What has been your most successful use of liveblogging? Iowa football games, no question. It’s the most-popular sporting event we cover, they’re on Saturday afternoons when people are near TVs and computers at the same time, and there is enough stoppage between plays for lots of give and take.
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Does liveblogging help or hinder your efforts to cover the same event in a story you write afterward, whether for print or online? I look at liveblogging as reporting in public. Each tidbit we find out, we post. It is work a reporter is already doing for the story so I don’t consider it a hindrance.
Do you sometimes have one staff member liveblog and another write the story? It depends. Sometimes the person who blogs takes the information he or she’s been posting and recrafts it for the next day’s newspaper. That person typically spins the story forward for print. Sometimes, though, an editor takes the reporter’s information and does a rewrite.
How, if at all, do you interact with the public while liveblogging? Usually, we have one person serve as a moderator, fielding questions and answering them. This is when we’re doing more controlled blogging like hosting a mayoral debate or having a superintendent candidate sit down with our Editorial Board.
Do you use CoverItLive, another program designed for live coverage, or just update in your regular blog or news? We do both. Mostly, on breaking news, we use our online system and update throughout the day. With planned events like a mayoral debate, we use CoverItLive.
Do you use Twitter to liveblog? If so, please tell how that works? No. Not yet.
How do you handle matters such as accuracy and fairness when you liveblog? We apply the same journalistic standards to live blogging. We check our facts and go with information as we know it. If the story changes, we update.
Has liveblogging caused any problems for you relating to credential restrictions at sporting events? No.
Have judges allowed or forbidden you from liveblogging in court? We’ve had issues with technology in the courtroom. Often to get a signal, we have to step out of the courtroom. We do, though, update frequently from court.
If you have conducted live chats with the public, how have you done that and how did it work out? So far we have used CoverItLive. We’ve done it a handful of times with high-interest topics.
What sort of traffic have you gotten to liveblogs? Do you know how long people remain engaged? High-interest topics like our mayoral debate before the spring election definitely gets page views. Breaking news like the Northern Illinois shooting and natural disasters (flood and tornado) also drives traffic. Our traffic has more than doubled in these cases. CoverItLive told us on our mayoral debate that we had 6,000 viewers. About 2,000 watched for more than 1 minute. The debate was one hour. Hard to gauge how long people watched.
Anna Voelker, assistant managing editor, rrstar.com | Rockford (Ill.) Register Star
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Gazette courts reporter Trish Mehaffey also responded by email:
1. Does liveblogging help or hinder your efforts to cover the same event in a story you write afterward, whether for print or online?
Not really. It was hard at first going through all the notes you create when you liveblog but in court reporting if you just think back and remember who has the best testimony or smoking gun of the day or just jot down the witnesses name. Don’t let the 4,000 words overwhelm you.
2. How, if at all, do you interact with the public while liveblogging?
That’s the best part. I encourage them to ask questions or share their opinion. Many times for trials, there are people who don’t understand court procedure or even understand the prosecution presents first and then the defense follows.
There are many times I can’t post their comments because they will be use bad language or be too accusing of the person on trial or accuse a witness or wrongdoing, but I try to reply privately and it keeps them reading. I also try to post their next comment if I can. Lots of times I let the readers go at it, taking opposite sides and I can just sit back and be neutral. Once you get a feel for your audience, you can figure out how to start the interaction. Of course, you have to stop them at some point.
Do you use CoverItLive, another program designed for live coverage, or just update in your regular blog or news?
CoverItLive because it does allow me to interact and if your wireless modem or other connection is working, it’s usually reliable with little delays.
3. How do you handle matters such as accuracy and fairness when you liveblog?
Accuracy isn’t too difficult in court trials, except names and spelling. If you’re in a courtroom with horrible acoustics, which most are, it’s difficult to hear. If you get the name wrong, you just have to correct it. CoverItLive has the live edit option to save you. I usually do fairly well at spelling but this last week there was a large number of medical witnesses using words like anesthesiologist and hemorrhage—words you don’t often use—and there are easy to misspell and difficult to quickly write. In trials you usually don’t have time to look up a word because you might miss the rest of the testimony.
On fairness, just make sure you put in both sides. If you’re telling the audience about what the defense strategy is, tell what the prosecution is doing. Just remember you’re still the reporter of facts.
4. Have judges allowed or forbidden you from liveblogging in court?
Not in state courts. I don’t even ask. There’s no rules against it. Now, having said that if a judge does object, I will discuss it with him/her and hopefully change his/her mind. In federal courts, it’s a different story. A federal judge allowed me liveblog a trial in Sioux City but the chief judge in Cedar Rapids won’t even let me take my laptop into the building. I have to go out to my car to post. I’m still working on that one.
5. If you have conducted live chats with the public, how have you done that and how did it work out?
7. What sort of traffic have you gotten to liveblogs? Do you know how long people remain engaged?
I think my biggest audience has been 500 for trial of a much hated landlord up for tax evasion. The average seems to be 300. I don’t know how long they stay on but I can say many stay on entire day because they keep asking questions or sharing comments.
8. What has been your biggest problem with liveblogging?
Connection problems. If there’s no outlet, I get nervous with batteries. They only last about 1 hr. 45 minutes. I usually take 3.
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Brief tips from my one experience liveblogging the BSG event at the UN last month: http://hackerjournalist.net/2009/03/17/battlestar-galactica-panel-at-the-un-liveblogging-tonight/
If you’re gonna take pictures: 1) Bring a photographer 2) Bring a second laptop so your photog can upload pics 3) Have multiple memory cards to swap to the PC so you can take pics and upload at the same time
Bring an extension cord and a powerstrip and as many laptop batteries as possible.
CoverItLive is great. And it works from my mobile phone’s web browser. So if all else fails, I’ve got one last life line.
Twitter is bad for liveblogging, if for no other reason that your followers likely don’t care about the minutia you’re taking down. Tweet the real-time highlight reel and link back to the liveblog.
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I cover Syracuse University basketball for the Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard. I have been blogging for five years, providing in-game blog updates for the past three and this past season we switched to live in-game Twitter updates.
1. Does liveblogging help or hinder your efforts to cover the same event in a story you write afterward, whether for print or online?
A: Live-blogging hindered me at first. It distracted me from the game. Over time, I learned to manage both duties. I’ve learned to separate the two. The immediacy of the blog reminds me that my game stories really need to project forward.
2. Do you sometimes have one staff member liveblog and another write the story?
A: No, but during SU basketball games I do share blogging (or Twittering) duties with another writer.
3. How, if at all, do you interact with the public while liveblogging?
A: Only a little bit. I might send out a Twitter update prior to the game, asking if there are any Followers in the arena.
3. Do you use CoverItLive, another program designed for live coverage, or just update in your regular blog or news?
A: The use of Twitter has really helped reduce the amount of space taken up on the blog during our in-game updates.
4. Do you use Twitter to liveblog? If so, please tell how that works?
A: Yes. It’s much better than liveblogging. It’s easier to write shorter, crisper updates. It’s quicker to load. And the audience is bigger since people can sign up for it on their cell-phones or iPods or they can also view the updates in a single blog entry on our website.
5. How do you handle matters such as accuracy and fairness when you liveblog?
A: Fairness is easy. Same as always. Accuracy can be tougher. Sometimes we’re using unofficial stats and the numbers might be off. But it’s usually it’s a minor thing and can be corrected when we get official stats at halftime or after the game.
6. Has liveblogging caused any problems for you relating to credential restrictions at sporting events?
A: Nothing major. We’ve experienced a few “You better not blog” threats, but when we show university or conference officials exactly what we’re doing, it usually falls within the parameters set by the NCAA.
7. Have judges allowed or forbidden you from liveblogging in court?
A: Not applicable.
8. If you have conducted live chats with the public, how have you done that and how did it work out?
A: I’ve done a few live chats. They really work out great. The questions come fast and furious. Great response from the readers. It helps form a bridge between the paper and the reader.
9. What has been your most successful use of liveblogging?
A: I’d say it boils down to two areas. Breaking a story and the Twitter feed during the Syracuse-Connecticut six-overtime game during the Big East Tournament.
10. What sort of traffic have you gotten to liveblogs? Do you know how long people remain engaged?
A: That’s way above me.
11. What has been your biggest problem with liveblogging?
A: Poor internet connections. NCAA looking to gouge by over-charging for wireless internet access. We got around that by purchasing air-cards. And just getting used to a new tool.
12. What other tips would you offer to journalists who liveblog or to newsroom leaders planning to increase their staff’s use of liveblogging?
A: Don’t be afraid of new technology. Think of all possible uses.
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1. Does liveblogging help or hinder your efforts to cover the same event in a story you write afterward, whether for print or online?
It’s a help. Before liveblogging I kept up with everything by typing on my laptop, but breaking it down into chunks with titles helps find details.
The biggest drawback is that if my laptop or the wireless service is iffy, opening a new page may take long enough I miss something. The new freedomblogging interface is a handicap in that regard, it’s much more cumbersome.
2. Do you sometimes have one staff member liveblog and another write the story?
Not to date.
3. How, if at all, do you interact with the public while liveblogging?
I occasionally talk with people on breaks at meetings. Sometimes they say something that makes it into the blog. I rarely get comments.
4. Do you use CoverItLive, another program designed for live coverage, or just update in your regular blog or news?
My regular blog.
6. How do you handle matters such as accuracy and fairness when you liveblog?
If I can’t make out a name, or don’t quite know what someone’s referring to, I’ll note any doubts in my post. If I have to draw on memory of a past story and I’m not 100 percent sure, I’ll spell out any uncertainties there, too.
10. What has been your most successful use of liveblogging?
I don’t have a particular meeting–which is where I do my liveblogging–that stands out.
11. What sort of traffic have you gotten to liveblogs? Do you know how long people remain engaged?
I’ve been told our Web traffic really spikes when I’m doing it, and I’ve had people tell me how much they like it, but I don’t know the stats.
12. What has been your biggest problem with liveblogging?
Computer/Internet problems, I guess.
13. What other tips would you offer to journalists who liveblog or to newsroom leaders planning to increase their staff’s use of liveblogging?
For meeting coverage, catch the dialogue and the one-liners (if any). And don’t hesitate to go into more detail than you would in a print story (I’ll list all the items on the consent agenda, just so people know)–readers can always skip a post or two since there’s no a real narrative flow to break up.
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Wish I could be around for the chat but I have a meeting. Here are some thoughts:
1. Live blogging does hinder our reporters from covering the game, especially toward the end when they are starting to write their game stories. We’ve had the most success when we have been able to dedicate another staffer to the live blog/chat.
2. Whenever possible.
3. Depending on the event, we have had between one and three moderators. Ideally, there is a main moderator (who approves the comments) with others at the ready to jump in, if necessary. The moderators usually are in the office (or me at home) while the reporter handles the updates and answers the questions posted. Fortunately, we’ve had chatty readers who offer more insights than actual questions.
4. CoverItLive, though we used to have a “live” reporters notebook that updated ongoing events regularly. But CitL is waaaaay faster.
5. We use Twitter hashtags to involve readers. For example, for the Purdue-IU basketball game I created a #PurdueIU hashtag and informed our followers that they could use that to contribute. It worked well but you also have to be careful because anyone can send a Tweet with your hashtag and you may not approve of their comment on your site.
6. As far as accuracy goes, we try to be more analytical — Johnson is having a great game, finding an opening each time he gets the ball rather than spouting off stat after stat. Stats are important but we focus on the crucial ones — Johnson is leading scorer with 12 points thus far.
7. Not so far
8. N/A
9. We hosted a live discussion with two county council members the day before a controversial project was voted on. The council members were on opposite sides and did a fairly good job of answering the questions. Our beat reporter and I moderated the discussion, and even broke some news via the discussion. We do have to keep in mind that those we invite to participate in discussions may not be as quick on the keyboards as journalists are. Our takeaway was that we needed to steer the conversations more, keeping both readers and panelists on track with timely answers.
10. Purdue-IU game. We had interns (one a Purdue student, the other an IU student) chatting away while others contributed. There was lots of interest from readers watching the game — big rivalry games help.
11. Most of the readers (about two-thirds) stay longer than a minute. The better we promote the event in paper, the better the results will be.
12. Consistency. Some events (Purdue-IU) are big hits; others such as this past weekend’s Purdue spring football game were duds. We’re still in the process of figuring out what attracts an audience that will be lively and talkative.
13. Just do it. It’s not perfect but it’s a great way to extend your reporting and interaction with your audience. We’ve had people thank us because they can’t view the event from where they are at the time. One reader was extremely grateful because he was at his son’s wrestling tournament 60 miles away and kept up with the basketball score on his iPhone.
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