The war in Ukraine has reminded of us a very powerful format of news: the live blog. When covering a rolling news story, a newsroom is challenged to provide updates, analysis, context and even opinion as events unfold.
One of the pioneers of live blogs is no doubt the Guardian, with its politics live blog running for 12 years now and amassing a staggering one billion page views.
In an article for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) the head of editorial innovation at the Guardian, Chris Moran, spoke to RISJ' s head of editorial Eduardo Suárez about what the newspaper has learned along the way.
"The ‘What we know so far’ format is of particular use in a story that moves this quickly and which can become overwhelming very fast. Opinion's role here is also critical. It's really telling that opinion in this context shows deep engagement and this speaks to the value it has in explaining and contextualising in interesting ways. Finally, human stories that capture the voices and experiences of those affected almost inevitably hold attention in ways that simple updates can't," the article reads.
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