ScribbleLive or CoveritLive: which CMS is best for publishers?
A couple of days ago I wrote about ScribbleLive, a really innovative way for journalists to create and update stories for online publications.
Another Toronto company, CoveritLive, has a different take on the same concept. CoveritLive provides many of the same features — CMS, easy addition of multimedia, user comments, multiple ways to add content, Twitter integration — but focuses on better engaging readers. CoveritLive allows you to add polls, design a repeating ticker of information, and just generally seems less intimidating than ScribbleLive to a lay user. As well, CoveritLive has the advantage of constantly refreshing, so readers get new posts about a story the second they are added.
So does that make CoveritLive better than ScribbleLive? Not necessarily. CoveritLive acts more like a widget than a full-on independent, self-contained story page like ScribbleLive. It’s great for keeping readers engaged, but I have a hard time imagining it being used to cover something like the Thailand protests with authority and professionalism.
On the other hand, take a look at how CoveritLive is used by the CBC to host running commentary between broadcaster Jeff Marek and fans out in cyberspace during the Oilers-Flames game; it completely removes barriers between fans and journalists and keeps engagement high.
Either one of these tools makes a great system to interact with users, but it depends on the context for which one is better. For hard journalism, ScribbleLive takes the cake. For reader engagement and interaction, CoveritLive has what you need.
