A live blog is a page on which a newsroom follows an event while it happens. Instead of a finished article, short entries appear with a time, the newest on top. Readers see at a glance what is going on right now and can scroll down to catch up on how it unfolded.
German newsrooms usually call the same format a Liveticker. Either way, it is the same thing.
How a live blog is built
A live blog is made of individual entries. Each entry has:
- a time, so readers know when something happened,
- a short text, often just two or three sentences,
- if needed a headline, an image, a quote or an embedded post, such as a video or a post from social media.
The entries are listed one below the other, usually the newest first. At the very top there is often a short summary of what the story is about, so readers who arrive late can follow along. When the event is over, the live blog is closed and stays online as an archive.
What matters most is that a good live blog keeps itself current. Readers do not have to reload the page to find out whether there is news. New entries simply appear.
What newsrooms use live blogs for
A live blog pays off whenever a story develops over hours and readers want to stay with it:
- Election nights: first projections, results by district, reactions and speeches.
- Breaking news: storms, accidents and large operations where the facts keep changing.
- Press conferences and court cases: the key statements as soon as they are made.
- Keynotes and product launches: each announcement as its own entry, with pictures from the stage.
- Conferences and trade fairs: talks, interviews and impressions over a day or several.
- Companies and organisers: news about a launch, a campaign or their own event, right on their own site.
Live blog, article or social media?
Many newsrooms still cover big events with a regular article they edit again and again. It works, but it takes time: every update means opening, extending and saving the whole article, and readers have to reload to see the change. Usually only one person can write at a time, and afterwards the text is hard to read.
Social media is fast, but the attention lands on the platform, not on your site. Quotes, pictures and reactions are spread across many separate posts, and there is no coherent archive.
A live blog on your own website combines the two: it is as quick as a post, keeps readers with you, holds the whole story on one page and stays as an archive afterwards. You can still embed posts from social media in it.
Tips for a good live blog
- Keep it short. One entry covers one thing. Three short entries beat one long one.
- Maintain the summary. A short text at the top explains the story and is updated when it takes a turn.
- Highlight what matters. Headlines on the key moments help readers who only skim.
- Use pictures and quotes. A photo or a direct quote often says more than another sentence.
- Name your sources. Especially with breaking news: where does the information come from, and is it confirmed?
- Close it properly. A final entry sums up and points to the full article or the next coverage.
More in our guide How to write a live blog.
How to get a live blog onto your website
There are three ways:
- By hand: a regular article you keep extending. It costs nothing but a lot of time, and readers have to reload.
- Build your own: a live blog system inside your content management system. That mostly pays off for large publishers with their own developers.
- Live blog software: a ready-made tool your team writes in, which puts the live blog on your page with a snippet of code. The main differences are how it is embedded (an iframe or directly in your page), privacy and price.
What to look for when choosing one is on our page about live blog software. A fair comparison of the common tools is in the overview of Livetickr alternatives. To see a live blog made with Livetickr, open the live demo.