The ryersonian.ca decided to live blog the sneak peek of construction underway at the gardens Tuesday. We sent four reporters with smartphones. They tweeted updates from their accounts, which were connected to the live blog, and their updates were posted automatically. Check out the live blog HERE.
As a reporter I wished I could be in the middle of the action down at centre ice. But as the Ryersonian online managing editor I was an orchestra leader conducting the symphony of coverage from the news room.
We started Tuesday morning advertising the link to the live blog on our website’s home page.
We got the blog rolling around 10 a.m. But then came breaking news that the gardens would be renamed the Ryerson Peter Gilgan Athletic Centre. We changed our top story’s headline and picture to reflect this important detail. We also took some editorial liberty and called it Gilgan Gardens.
Around 12.30pm a graphic design of the completed gardens façade was released. I decided freshen up the page with this image.
We left the above image up for rest of the afternoon. In the evening we posted a high resolution picture from one of our photographers who attended the media event. We also moved the story forward topping it up with a hard news angle that took a critical look at the funding for the construction project. By then our TV crew also completed its package and our photographer uploaded a photo gallery, and we linked this into one story. You can read the final product HERE.
In one day we used a live blog, a print story updated throughout the day, a photo gallery and a TV report to report about one of Ryerson University’s most important construction projects in its history.
Is this multiplatform reporting or what?
davidthurton.com 