In the era of social media and social enlightenment, people want news in the form of headlines. They want to formulate opinions through transparency and other people’s comments and opinions. Enter—live blogs. Live blogs have been around for quite some time, and now G2 is launching a category for Live Blog Software.

Understanding live blog software

While live blogs are constantly evolving, they are used for several reasons—to reach wider audiences, increase the transparency of the traditional news-making process, and increase content engagement.

Live blog software is considerably accommodating. It can be used by news organizations that are pulling together the latest updates from their multiple reporters. At the same time, it can also be used by individual bloggers who are covering a live event and want to keep updating the post with the latest available information.

Live blogging vs. traditional blogging

Traditional blogging includes long-form content pieces that are written after an event comes to an end. They are well thought out and tell a story. However, traditional blog posts have to be edited and reedited to keep up with emerging details. They are time consuming and present useful information shortly after the event when the details are no longer crucial.

Live blogs, on the other hand, offer real-time news. They present readers with details of important occurrences as they happen and are characterized by layers of incremental developments. Live blogs allow journalists to compile information from several sources, such as social media, other journalists, and people’s comments—all in one place. This offers readers a chronological, transparent, and wide-encompassing view of the news. 

Neil McIntosh, the online editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe, stated: 

"It's a form that's charming in its directness; at its best, it generally does away with any writerly conceits and demands the author just get on with telling you what's just happened.” 

The advantage of live blogs

The benefit of live blogs has been proven by several studies. Research conducted by City University London found that live blogs get 300% more views and 233% more visitors than traditional online articles on the same subject. Another study done by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 62% of survey takers believe live blogs are the best format to consume news at work, stating that live coverage is more balanced and neutral. Live blogs are also beneficial because media outlets can make full use of their correspondent’s time and not waste any material.

Live blogs especially fit the era of social media. With an essentially neverending amount of news content on social media, mainly through Twitter and Facebook, live blogs allow for the utilization and organization of that content to produce compelling stories.

Studies show that readers are spending less time reading long-form articles and more time consuming small bits of information, similar to how content is presented on social media, especially with breaking news. Readers tend to conduct quick internet searches for highlights from reputable sources. These readers don’t just look for news directly after an event, they keep going back to visit live blog timelines of events in the past.

Source: screenshot from The Guardian’s live blog on coronavirus

If there is a prime example of a scenario in which live blogs would be of utmost use, it’s a global pandemic. The screenshot above shows one of The Guardian’s live blogs for coronavirus updates. This is just one example of a news outlet utilizing a live blog to keep its audience up to date with the latest news related to COVID-19. Almost all major and minor news outlets have used live blogs over the past year and a half to keep readers informed with minute-by-minute news on COVID-19 cases, deaths, policy updates, and more.

So although G2 just has just added a Live Blog category, the software has been around for a while and the space will continue to grow with new players popping up and news outlets creating their own proprietary live blog tools.