New Add-On: Liveblog

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Your readers want your updates as quickly as possible, and we think we provide the easiest and the most flexible publishing environment to make that happen. Sometimes though, that’s just not enough.

When you’re covering a fast-paced event — the latest Apple unveiling, an F1 Grand Prix, or the Super Bowl — a full blog post for each individual update is a poor experience for your authors and your audience.

The WordPress.com VIP Liveblog Add-On was purpose-built to address these issues specifically.

Here’s what makes it special:

• Post updates right from the front-end of your site (no need to use the /wp-admin dashboard)
• Viewers of your Liveblog get new entries served to them instantly and automatically, without needing to refresh their browser.
• Your authors can drag-and-drop photos right into the Liveblog area, without needing to navigate to separate browser tabs or windows.
• There’s no need for a separate site dedicated to liveblogging: every post can be a liveblog, even existing ones.

Here are some screenshots of it in action:

The Liveblog Add-On is $500 USD per month with an annual subscription. This includes unlimited liveblogs, and an unlimited number of users visiting, viewing, and receiving updates — all powered by our massive WordPress.com cloud infrastructure. If you’re interested in using the plugin or learning more, please get in touch.

If that’s not enough, we’ve also completely open-sourced the Liveblog code for self-hosted WordPress. You can find it in the WordPress.org plugin repository and on github.

We’re really excited to be able to finally provide this as a service, and look forward to your feedback and contributions!

(Special thanks to GigaOM and Local TV for helping us beta test this new add-on.)