Conversational tone, audience interactions underscore ABC’s live blogging success

By Alexandra Lehner

Marketing Manager

Norkon

Oslo, Norway

Connect

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has been using live blogs as a core part of its digital strategy for years - covering everything from national and international elections to cultural moments like the Game of Thrones finale.

What began as a breaking news tool has evolved into a versatile, audience-first format that now plays a key role across ABC's editorial output.

Recently, Peter Marsh, editorial lead for ABC's news Web and app products, shared how the broadcaster is transforming live blogs from simple reporting tools into dynamic platforms for audience engagement.

Under his leadership, live blogs have become a powerful engine for audience retention, community interaction, and habit-building thanks to innovative features the broadcaster developed to empower the next generation of live bloggers.

What started as a straightforward update mechanism has transformed into a core strategy that fuels audience retention, drives conversation, and boosts time on site. ABC's evolution of the live blog offers a blueprint for how real-time storytelling can deepen loyalty and spark meaningful interaction in a noisy digital world.

From updates to reader connection: rethinking the live blog

Live blogs used to be synonymous with speed - short bursts of information during breaking news. But for ABC, that's no longer the goal. Rather, it has evolved into an audience retention engine.

"Engagement begets engagement," Marsh said. "Being ready to listen and to respond to your audience is a great thing to do in any kind of format that you're using. It is essential in a live blog that you're making a retention play with it."

A prime example is ABC's daily business live blog, where the business reporting team opens a live blog every morning to cover the stock market, trends, and financial headlines.

Over time, ABC's consistent investment in its daily business blog has paid off, building a loyal audience that returns each day for timely, impartial financial news. The blog has become a key distribution tool, allowing ABC to deliver content directly to its most engaged readers without relying on SEO rankings or homepage placement.

ABC's daily business live blog focused on ASX.

This approach ensures the company's in-depth reporting reaches the right audience at the right time. The format is also highly adaptable, enabling the newsroom to scale coverage up or down and quickly adjust angles as stories develop - such as their rapid response to evolving headlines around Trump's tariff agenda.

Making news personal: a conversational tone

ABC's approach to tone is a big part of its success. Reporters are encouraged to drop the formal, top-down voice and speak like they're chatting with a friend over coffee, keeping it conversational and authentic.

Marsh underscores that the fastest way to create a connection with your audience is to show you're a human behind the screen, working for them and speaking like one.

Additionally, he said, "one thing that's crucial to develop is your own voice. A Peter Marsh blog post shouldn't read the same as an Emily Olsen blog post. It's that difference between styles, those intangibles that we all possess as a really diverse set of skillful communicators that will really endear your audience to you and keep them engaging with your content."

This conversational style helps reporters build relationships with readers, especially younger ones who value personality over polish. That makes a lot of sense when considering social media platforms best work for person-to-person interaction and not business-to-person.

In the influencer economy, this individualistic approach allows journalists to be transparent - sharing what they're investigating and what's unclear, and inviting the audience to weigh in.

Real-time interaction: letting the audience tap in

ABC took audience interaction possibilities to the next level and developed its own emoji-style reactions. Designed for low-effort interaction, these reactions let readers respond to live blog posts with a tap. Whether it's "care," "concerned," or "curious," the feature mimics behaviour from social media and gives readers a voice without friction.

ABC's emoji reactions encourage low-barrier audience participation.

As a public broadcaster, ABC operates under strict impartiality guidelines, which meant the team had to be especially thoughtful about implementing audience reactions. They wanted to avoid any perception that a reaction could be seen as endorsing a particular viewpoint.

While it was a challenging balance to strike, the effort proved well worth it and has resulted in a noticeable boost in reader engagement.

"It's engagement without the barrier of writing a comment or logging in," Marsh said, "and the data is clear: People who interact - even passively - stay longer."

Having opened the door to audience participation led to deeper, scalable relationships. During major events like the Women's World Cup, live blogs lit up with thousands of reactions, turning coverage into a shared emotional experience.

Beyond reactions, ABC embeds feedback loops throughout its blogs in several ways:

• Audience questions help shape Q&A content.
• Polls and prompts invite participation.
• Comments are moderated but encouraged.

The future of engagement

ABC's experience proves that, with the right tone, tools, and team alignment, live blogs can go beyond breaking news and become a core product for engagement and loyalty thereby creating spaces for real-time connection on a publisher's own platform.

But what makes this strategy stand out isn't just the editorial creativity; it's the results. The engagement payoff has been tangible:

• Readers return multiple times during a single event, often checking live blogs four to six times per session.
• Blogs with interactive elements like reactions and Q&As see significantly longer dwell times.
• Topic-driven blogs perform strongly in search, continuing to drive traffic well beyond the live moment.

Ultimately, ABC's success offers a compelling blueprint for media companies looking to deepen audience relationships and build retention in a digital landscape shaped by algorithms and fleeting attention spans.

If you're wondering how to keep readers coming back in 2025, the answer might not be in chasing the next new format. It could be in reimagining a familiar one.

YOU MUST BE A MEMBER TO ACCESS THIS CONTENT

Become An INMA Member or Log In

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

About Alexandra Lehner

Alexandra Lehner is a marketing manager at Norkon in Oslo, Norway. Alexandra can be reached at alex@norkon.net or @2flying_penguin.

Related Articles