The Guardian political corresspondent Andrew Sparrow. Picture: Andrew Sparrow Publishers looking to succeed in live blogs need to focus on “intensely newsy” topics and write with personality, according to The Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow. The reporter has written a live blog on politics for the publisher since 2008, which he was recognised for when he won Press Gazette’s Political journalist of the year award in 2011. He told Press Gazette why live blogs aren’t for every story, and how former editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger’s early investment in tech helped lead to The Guardian seeing around 15% of its total page views come from live blogs. How did you start out in live blogging? Sparrow started live blogging for The Guardian “when website news was just taking off”, with the role advertised as being to “constantly update the politics news”. Sparrow added that having to continually rewrite a conventional news article for breaking news “didn’t make very much sense”. “In 2008, it felt like digital news was being written according to rules that were created for print, and …