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Traditional news organizations have a lot to learn about liveblogging the news

Liveblogging is emerging as a powerful Journalism 2.0 technique to cover breaking news, court trials and other developing events. While it appears at first blush to be AP bulletins for the digital age, it is the style and format that technology bloggers have been using for years to cover conferences and speeches that presents the best method of this technique.

Take, for example, yesterday’s Macworld keynote speech by Steve Jobs of Apple. Like thousands of other geeks who can’t be at the Moscone Center for the address, I enjoy following the proceedings with one of the many bloggers in attendance. Part way through the presentation, I received an email from a friend with a link to the New York Times blog that was attempting to do the same thing. (The email was about a particularly snarky remark the NYT blogger made in the blog.)

Which led me to wonder how one of the most important news organizations in the world was faring in trying to cover this grand business news event when compared to one of the most important tech news organizations in the world, Techcrunch.

I assumed that since Techcrunch is a blog first and foremost, it would have the advantage over the NYT (with its newspaper DNA) on the blogging battlefield. (Techcrunch, of course, would be hard pressed to compete with any newspaper on producing the “daily miracle.") That assumption proved to be accurate when I compared the two blog posts side by side.

Each blog dedicated one post to live coverage of the event. The post would be updated with new information as it was posted with all updates displaying in reverse chronological order. This is an effective tactic when it comes to liveblogging.

Techcrunch’s coverage won easily, with more updates, more photos and more user feedback. Although many journalists would give the blog poor marks for grammar, style and the occasional typo, web readers (especially Mac fanboys) who are anxious for the information understand that for the most timely updates, they’ll pay a price in terms of clean copy.

Here’s my unscientific content analysis:

Updates
Techcrunch: 65
NYT Bits Blog: 9

Photos
Techcrunch: 20
NYT Bits Blog: 1

User comments*
Techcrunch: 103
NYT Bits Blog: 2
*As of 11:30 a.m., 45 minutes after the conclusion of the address

NOTE: In case you’re wondering, AP moved its first version of the news at 9:59 a.m., about 45 minutes after the address began.

If newspapers want to compete on the web, newspaper journalists are going to have to learn how to compete on the same playing field. As a reader, I don’t see any reason to bother with the NYT blog for big tech coverage like this when it clearly can’t hold a candle to upstart tech blogs like Techcrunch.

The game is not lost, of course. It should be said that the NYT should be commended for liveblogging the event in the first place. You can’t improve until you get in the game.  Bloggers (and Twitterers) are setting the pace for live coverage online. It’s up to news organizations to capitalize on their built-in advantages (like skillful writing). But they need to change the way they report and publish to catch up with the speed of the web.

Link to Techcrunch coverage of Macworld keynote
Link to NYT’s Bits Blog coverage of Macworld keynote

Posted by MarkBriggs on Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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