- Village Gamer - https://www.villagegamer.net -

ScribbleLive Moves Journalism into the Social Media Era

scribblelive [1]Toronto-based ScribbleLive [2] has launched the latest version of its live content management system [3] (CMS) to help journalists spread news in real time. Social media services deliver information at a rapid pace. ScribbleLive enables media companies to harness the immediacy of these technologies while maintaining the control required in the newsroom to cover developing news events in a new style that meets the needs of its audience – fast, engaging and collaborative.

ScribbleLive is a comprehensive live CMS [4] platform that enables media companies and large organizations such as Reuters and Hearst Television, to report on developing news stories like natural disasters, sporting events and election results in an entirely new way online. Journalists can now report story elements from e-mail, SMS, Twitter, voice call or the ScribbleLive web interface – whether in the newsroom or out in the field. The result is dynamic content that provides real-time updates, including multimedia, to readers as the event unfolds.scribblelive mobile [5]

The event pages reside on ScribbleLive’s servers, but otherwise maintain a seamless appearance with the organization’s existing website – to both visitors and search engines. After the event, the searchable webpages remain, so readers can look back on the way the story unfolded – a unique opportunity to see a “rough draft” of history as it was first written.

“People want news delivered quickly – They are turning to social media sites such as Twitter to access breaking information, rather than waiting for news outlets to push stories through editorial review,” said Michael De Monte, co-founder and chief executive officer, ScribbleLive. “ScribbleLive changes the traditional linear flow of the newsroom to a more dynamic, collaborative process that empowers real-time reporting and audience engagement while ensuring editorial control and journalistic integrity. With our tool, journalists are able to tell stories in a completely new way.”

This latest version of ScribbleLive offers powerful new features that:

* Let journalists leverage mobile devices to create stories in the field via enhanced publishing capabilities through SMS and voicemail, as well as mobile apps for iPhone [6] and BlackBerry
* Better harness information from Twitter with advanced filters
* Employ SSL to improve data protection
* Allow syndication of posts to multiple web properties
* Lay the groundwork for a revolutionary new way of telling stories and engaging with readers online

A number of media outlets already rely on ScribbleLive. Global News, the online news arm of Canwest’s Global Television Network, used ScribbleLive to cover the G20 Summit that was recently held in Toronto. Highlights of the summit coverage included:

* Reader-submitted protester photos
* A dramatic audio report on rioting in the streets
* Videos of police creating barricades
* Text updates from around the summit

“Globalnews.ca’s live coverage of the G20 broke historic new ground for storytelling in broadcast and online journalism,” said David Skok, managing editor for Globalnews.ca [7]. “ScribbleLive gave us the opportunity to showcase the depth of our talented reporting teams in real-time using multimedia via one-touch reporting. We have realized our vision of unifying the digital and traditional broadcast newsrooms, thanks to ScribbleLive.”

The Score [8], a Canadian broadcaster that delivers interactive sports reporting online and via the popular ScoreMobile iPhone app, uses the ScribbleLive platform to report real-time scores for the more than 300 sports teams it covers while empowering superfans to become the play-by-play commentators.

“ScribbleLive has truly helped us enhance our product. For our mobile sports app, live blogs have been a crucial differentiator. Sports fans love the immediacy of the blogger’s game description and appreciate being able to submit their comments. ScribbleLive’s system is fast and reliable, and they’ve made it remarkably easy to fully embed in our offering,” said Dale Fallon, director of mobile, Score Media.

ScribbleLive works in concert with existing CMS platforms and is offered as software-as-a-service. The new version is available now, with prices dependent on the desired plan [9].