When a gunman started shooting people at a Pittsburgh hospital on Thursday, local Hearst station WTAE was the only news company to run a liveblog as the event unfolded. As result, their liveblog readership quickly jumped into the thousands as the world tuned in to see what was happening. Editors and reporters worked together to keep the liveblog up-to-the-minute, making sure to tell readers what they knew and what they were doing to find out more.
The gunman killed a 25-year-old man and injured several others, including a police officer. WTAE steadily pumped new details, photos, a map of the area and videos with reporters into the liveblog. They published screenshots from their TV feed when the names of the victims became public, as well as comments from some hospital staffers. After closing the blog for the night, they restarted it again on Friday afternoon to cover a presser with the police.
Meanwhile across the pond, MSN UK launched a liveblog to cover the death of an Italian hostage killed in Nigeria during a rescue attempt (the blog is still being updated as I write this). Using Scribble’s syndication feature, MSN UK pulled in liveblog updates from the Press Association, including high-res photos and updates from their reporters in the field.
