The Telegraph’s Liveblog “Fail”

A hilariously funny liveblog fail by The Telegraph’s Ben Bloom turned him into an unexpected
Internet ‘hero’ as he attempted to cover a Press Conference about German football manager,
Jürgen Klopp’s decision to step down from the club. Problems started immediately, when it
transpired the event would take place in German only. English speaking Bloom’s torrent of
hilarious and slightly panicked posts engaged the nation, though perhaps did not shed as much
light on Klopp’s departure as he initially hoped. However, we have suspicions that this may have
been a carefully preempted plan to intensify The Telegraph’s recent success at widening
their readership to a more, socially engaged audience; with initiatives designed for the Social
Media generation such as Project Babb.

Tasked with sharing the news on Jürgen Klopp’s departure from Borussia Dortmund, Ben Bloom’s live
coverage shifts from excitement into a state of bewilderment as he shares:

“Right we have a slight issue… they are speaking in German and my GCSE in the subject isn’t much
help.“

2 minutes later, and increasingly unnerved, Bloom posts “Why can’t I speak German???????”

All the while I’m giggling to myself, I can’t help thinking that this has got to be pre-planned; a
deliberate attempt by The Telegraph to deliver News from a different angle to engage a
new, younger audience hell-bent on instant gratification and social validation.

“The Telegraph certainly seem to be on their way to
extending their readership and reaching a wider, more socially engaged
audience.”

A change in content style

What happened to Bloom was completely unexpected for him (apparently!) and for the
reader, however,
the blogging style and informality of the content is becoming all too familiar.
Traditional
methods of organised and formal journalism, although still very popular, are
having to contend
with short form digital content which also has the potential advantage of going
viral.

This change in journalism can be marked clearly by (love it or hate it) The Daily
Mail
Online, who have fast become one of the industry leaders, seeing on
average 55.8
million global visitors every month. This can be attributed to its easily
accessible content and
attractive images, all of which are completely shareable across social channels.

Perhaps an even better example of how content can be delivered is from social news
and entertainment
company, Buzzfeed. Ben Bloom’s live-blog instantly reminded me of a
Buzzfeed
article; a bit like the ones titled ‘50 things I thought when…’, know the ones I
mean? With a global audience of more
than 200 million,
Buzzfeed is redefining the way we share, engage and interact with
content across
digital platforms.

Content topics range from breaking news to entertainment, written in a variety of
short formats
including lists, quizzes and videos. Designed to enhance engagement with the
social media
generation, Buzzfeed categorise their content into the following
titles; cute, LOL,
omg, fail, trashy, wtf, win and trending. This appeals directly to a younger
audience as well as
helping readers to obtain information quickly and with a positive user
experience. Buzzfeed also
provide their users with the option to have their say in what category articles
should belong,
aimed to encourage user interaction.

The website receives over
44 million
views a month and its easy to see why; Buzzfeed’s informal
and fun
techniques are what is successfully capturing the attention of the socially
savvy.

Another statistic to bear in mind is one that shows there are 3.6
billion unique mobile users, just under half of the global
population. Combining
this with the rising popularity of more mobile-orientated services such as
Whatsapp,
Snapchat and Timehop, means the pressure is really on for
publishers to
ensure their content is available to read and share on the move.

The Telegraph – was there method in the madness?

The Telegraph are following suit by producing content which is entertaining
and, just like
Buzzfeed articles, they have delivered a sports report made up of
snack-size pieces of
content that can be easily digested with little or no effort. Most importantly,
it was highly
shareable, the most prized word in Internet virality these days!

If we take an in depth look at some of The Telegraph’s behaviour in recent
years, a trend
starts to appear. They have been experimenting with new initiatives, Project
Babb being the most successful of these. Armed with
this, we begin to
see Bloom’s fail in a completely different, more pragmatic light.

For those of you who don’t know, Project Babb is The Telegraph’s
experimental
micro-site. Initially introduced to engage a new, socially savvy audience during
the 2014 World
Cup, Babb has become a permanent feature on the sports section of the website
after being met
with such great positivity.

With its emphasis on ‘pro-fun,
pro-laughter and
pro-joy’, Babb was designed to break down the barriers and
communicate
directly to a wider audience, outside of their traditionally middle class, middle
aged readership,
through social, shareable means. Bloom’s recent report certainly reflects this
objective, with
content rather than format leading the way.

The Telegraph are clearly adapting well to the digital shift and what I
think we have here
is a deliberate attempt to bring this new informal method of communication into
another section
of their publication.

What we think the live-blog fail really means…

Here’s my point: call me a cynic but I think Bloom’s funny fail was preempted. Why?
Because amongst
the hilarity of confused questions and attempts at recognising GCSE German
words, Bloom does
actually provide his audience with the fundamentals of conference, but sneakily
done in and
amongst an engaging stream of English thoughts, written in an attractive,
shareable form.

“Someone that speaks German has actually done some proper translating! Praise the
lord. Right I’m
going to pass this off as my own and hope no one notices.

Klopp: “I always said in that moment where I believe I am not the perfect coach
anymore for this
extraordinary club, I will say so.

“I believe this is the right decision at the right time.

“I have not had any contact with any other clubs, nor have I any plans to take a
sabbatical.”

He also throws in a few ‘educated’ predictions which to me, gives us a little
reminder of his
credibility and sporting knowledge.

Above all, when we look over the recent developments made by The Telegraph
to connect with a
different audience on a social platform, Bloom’s piece doesn’t seem so random;
this and
Project Babb are well aligned with Buzzfeed’s easily-absorbed
content style,
with a focus on ‘anti-dullness’ and
comedy.

Regardless of whether or not Bloom’s language barrier was a mishap, the article
certainly was a
success because sure enough, we all seem know what happened at the Borussia
Dortmund press
conference, but most importantly because The Telegraph certainly seem
to be on their
way to extending their readership and reaching a wider, more socially engaged
audience.