How the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Captivates Readers with Live Blogs

One of Germany's most renowned news providers, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, has a long history of keeping its readers informed. From its first print edition in 1945, to today's digital content including newsletters, podcasts, and live blogs, storytelling remains a crucial component of this publisher's media strategy. The live blog format in particular demonstrates how important it is to cover politics, business, history, technology, press conferences, sports, etc. in fresh and dynamic ways to effectively connect with audiences.

In this blog post, Michael König (Managing Editor at the Sueddeutsche Zeitung) shares his insights about liveblogging and how the format contributes to the SZ's digital storytelling strategy.

Michael König, Managing Editor at the Sueddeutsche Zeitung is enthusiastic about the Tickaroo Live Blog Software, as he can offer his readers up-to-the-minute journalism on SZ level with the liveblog tool.

Image source: Friedrich Bungert

What do you see as the greatest benefit of liveblogging?

"Live blogs uniquely highlight the SZ's strengths. With this format, readers receive impressions from our on-site reporters and correspondents while the news is breaking. Live blogs enable news to be shared with audiences while other in-depth reports, reportage, or commentaries on the event are prepared. In a sense, they show storytelling in the making."

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung creates a new dimension of real-time reporting by focusing on storytelling in its live blogs. This format presents news vividly and thus enables it to not only be read but also experienced by readers. As with the SZ's live blog for the first Wiesn Day 2022, the focus was on storytelling and the multimedia nature of the live blog. Vibrant images and videos shared in the live blog gave the readers the feeling of being on the grounds.

Süddeutsche Zeitung reports in its liveblog about the first Wiesn day 2022

Image source: The first Wiesn day 2022 from the Sueddeutsche Zeitung

Using live blogs for digital storytelling also makes it possible to reexplore historical events like the SZ's coverage of The End of the Second World War. The live blog's entries depict happenings that occurred 77 years ago using today's technology. Primary sources such as diary entries and eyewitness accounts were the basis for the individual posts. Images from WWII from the SZ's own digital image archive were integrated into the live blog to captivate its audiences with its powerful imagery.

"Here, our experienced colleagues at the news desk can illuminate to readers how they analyze, arrange, and continually re-construct the news story."

Such live blogs are even more captivating when the editors working on them have additional expert knowledge. For this WWII live blog, for example, two historians worked on the story. With their specialized experience, they were able to create a historically accurate, authentic account of events. Existing SZ articles on the subject were also embedded into the live blog to serve as another source of information. This allowed readers to decide for themselves whether they wanted to learn more about a topic.

"With Tickaroo, we provide our readers with SZ-quality journalism in real-time! The simple integration of media, other embeds, and highlight posts enables us to provide an organized overview at all times, even in highly dynamic news situations. The user-friendly editor is very popular among our journalists - with both reporters in the field and editors in the newsroom."

The user-friendly editor lets journalists share breaking news in real-time, regardless of location. The SZ's Nine-Euro Ticket live blog is the perfect example of this. In this traffic experiment, journalists traveled by train and shared their experiences live throughout Germany.

The flip-side of live reporting which can’t be ignored are the benefits the format has for consumers as well. Live blog real-time reporting allows readers to follow events from the comfort of their own homes and receive information and updates on their mobile devices. Particularly in the case of political events, people often scour the internet to read up on the most important positions, demands and resolutions. Instead of having your audiences sift through Google search results, summarize all this information for readers in a live blog - like the SZ did in its live blog for the 2021 Bundestag Election TV Debate.

In events like these, every second counts and the liveblogging technology must be fail-safe and easy to use. That's why regular exchanges with our customers are important to us in order to meet their requirements. The SZ also appreciates this:

"In our search for a liveblogging tool for the SZ, we emphasized user-friendliness, reliability, and speed. We also wanted to be able to check and edit entries thoroughly before publication. Tickaroo fully satisfied all these criteria."

What we can learn from the SZ

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung's use of live blogs for their digital storytelling demonstrates that this format meets readers' needs for informative and entertaining live news. Its powerful and captivating live blogs have and will continue to impact the media landscape and the future of digital storytelling. We look forward to a continued successful partnership!