The Guardian launches newsroom live-blog
The Guardian today started a further exploration of the concept of news “as a conversation” when it began live-blogging its own newsdesk as editors in its London newsroom discuss coverage of the day’s stories.
The paper, which calls the move “the next phase of our open commissioning project,” had last October started publishing its daily news list and inviting reader interactions. Dan Roberts, The Guardian’s national editor, explains the thinking behind today’s move here, calling it “the logical next step.”
The blog, he says, “will incorporate the open news list, but will also feature a live comment thread allowing readers to discuss what’s going on directly rather than having to do so via Twitter.”
Last summer the paper conducted an extensive crowdsourcing experiment on the London riots and has produced a number of data-driven projects, while also in October, Megan Garber wrote at Nieman Lab about the launch of a social news platform called n0tice.
Last spring, The Guardian announced plans for the expansion of its digital operations in the US, led by Janine Gibson, and said it was adopting a “digital first” strategy amid significant revenue concerns. A dedicated US homepage was launched in September and since then the New York team has recruited names like columnist Naomi Wolf and media academic Jay Rosen.
The Guardian has been using live-blogs extensively to anchor coverage of breaking and running events on both sides of the Atlantic – like the ongoing Leveson Inquiry into British press behavior in the wake of the tabloid phone-hacking story, which its reporters had driven; as well as Richard Adams’ coverage of the GOP primaries and debates.
For this latest experiment, Polly Curtis will be in charge of the newsroom blog – she tweeted this morning that the idea is “bring readers into the heart of our news editing operation” – and readers can follow on Twitter using the hashtags #opennews and #newsdesklive.
Jeff Sonderman at Poynter calls today’s move “a noteworthy experiment in both form and function” and takes a look at how the project unfolded on its opening day.
In the comments section of the debut blog, The Guardian’s Dan Roberts writes: “For those worrying about excessive navel-gazing, it’s a fair point if we get carried away, but mostly what you are seeing is part of the editorial process that goes on any way - just usually behind closed doors. More importantly, I hope the Guardian’s recent record in breaking stories shows that taking an open approach often results in better journalism too.”
- SMcG
