Live Blog
Parent blog
Not everyone creates these. If you are one of the lucky few, this is how to create one.
Title
Aka the headline.
Short Description
This does not appear anywhere.
WYNTK
The What You Need To Know box appears on the blog as a gray box on the blog:
Set it to One-Off:
Lead
This is the same as Primary Visual in a news story. It appears above WYNTK:
If you don't know how to add an image, read this.
Body
Blogs usually do not need anything here!
Brandings
Leave it as NPR unless you've been told otherwise.
Live Event
Leave this alone. Same for Live Event Summary.
Slug
This is where you type the custom permalink you want.
The rest
Sections, Tags, Owners: Ignore.
Blog posts
To get to the blog-writing interface, click the Create and Edit Posts button in the sidebar:
Dashboard
Now you will be here. Look at the green ovoid:
Make sure the dropdown in the green ovoid says Any Status:
If the preview is annoying you close it by clicking the eye icon.
Saving
To save your post for the first time, you'll need to have something in Title AND Body, which is different from Regular Grove.
Eyebrow
Sometime we use an eyebrow. Sometimes not. It appears above the headline:
Title
Aka the headline.
Body
Yep. Same as in Regular Grove.
Post Type
This is an optional blue label. It shows up to the left of Eyebrow:
Authors
Add your byline here. Use the author field OR the byline override. Mixing the two will result in only the override displaying.
Byline Override
If you have an author who is not in Grove, type the name here. Don't mix the Authors field and the Byline Override field; only the latter will display.
Update Date Override
SERIOUSLY JUST LEAVE THIS ALONE!!!!
Promo Image
For live blog posts to display properly outside the blog, you need to give them a promo photo. Go to the PROMO tab on the post:
Click the magnifying glass and add a photo as you would any other Grove photo!
BTW, keep saving!
Breakouts
Blog posts become independent stories now, but they aren't findable unless you toggle on Standalone/Breakout Story?
When you toggle this on (blue), you will suddenly have more options!
How it works
If you do NOT toggle Standalone/Breakout Story?: A no-index version of the story will be made on npr.org. That means it will NOT be picked up by Google and will carry the minimum information for archival purposes.
Story Headline
Story Headline will default to what you entered in the Title field. It may appear in places like Apple News or on the NPR Homepage without the Live Blog title for context, so add any detail needed for the story to make sense outside the blog.
Example: Title might be, "Beyonce arrives in Milwaukee ahead of tonight's performance." Story Headline should be "Beyonce arrives in Milwaukee ahead of tonight's performance at the DNC."
Story Permalink Text
This is your custom URL. It will default to the headline — don't let it!
It should be five to seven words with no fillers (at, in, of). Start with whatever keyword is most important for searchers.
Story Teaser
Add a teaser as you would on a regular Grove story:
Aggregations
This section works like it does any other Grove story. Set your aggs:
Once your publish your post (see Workflow for more on that), you'll see a link to the story at the top of your post:
OPEN THIS LINK IN A NEW TAB!
It will take you to a typical Grove story window. Look, it has a story ID and everything!
Make changes here: new text, more photos, whatever.
Adjustments will not change the original live blog post.
Reccomended workflow
Any additional edits to a live blog post (beyond typos/basic corrections) should be made in the standalone breakout version. This version will travel further and likely have a longer tail of relevance for audiences.
Workflow
Unlike Regular Grove, the live blogs have a defined editing workflow operated by the button in the upper right. These change the statuses that appear on the left of the LB dashboard.
Before you send to an editor, click the Workflow button, then the Draft button:
If you're ready for edit, click the Ready for Edit button.
Are you editing? Click the Editing workflow button.
And so on through the statuses.
Done? Click Ready for Publish. You will see a lone Editing button:
At this point, you can go back to editing, or you can publish/schedule.
Click the Publish Override link to publish or schedule. You’ll get a green Publish button and a Schedule icon. Proceed from there as you would in Regular Grove.