Live blogging draws new readers to Reuters

Two recent major stories, the G20 summit in Pittsburgh and the German elections, provided opportunities for correspondents to publish directly and almost instantly.

To see what it looks like go to http://live.reuters.com/Event/G20_Pittsburgh, which featured tweets from correspondents Steve Holland, Michelle Nichols and Sumeet Desai alongside links to key stories, pictures and video as the news developed.

As G20 wound down, bureaus in Germany ramped up a live blog of their national elections, says Richard Baum, global editor, consumer media.

“Live blogs are fast becoming popular with journalists - and readers - because they allow almost instant publishing of any type of media,” Baum says. “And because the tools integrate easily with Twitter, they allow reporters in the field to publish directly from apps on their BlackBerry or iPhone. The pages update live without the need for a manual refresh, giving readers a true multimedia wire.”

Reuters.com editor Adam Pasick, who edited the live blog from Pittsburgh, said: "Multimedia coverage of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh was perhaps the best example yet of how the many strands of Reuters journalism can be pulled together into a rich, cohesive package for our readers and clients.

“At the height of the protests in Pittsburgh on Thursday evening, the page was drawing as many as three visitors a second. Over the whole event, more than 78,000 people visited the blog, which was also embedded in our main G20 page.”

The German blog was the idea of Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin who had “about 10 different contributors" including Reuters Television.

In the UK, journalists have been live blogging Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent travels and the Labour Party conference. ■