Introducing Breaking Ads - Companies can now break their own news on Breaking News, thanks to a new sponsored story product called “Breaking Ads.”  GE is the launch sponsor, highlighting its stories about technology and innovation directly in our real-time streams spanning our mobile apps and BreakingNews.com.As companies create their own stories, Breaking Ads is powerful way to reach an influential, on-the-go audience in a timely fashion. While a growing number of sites offer native advertising for entertaining stories and funny photo galleries, Breaking News is a trusted place for companies to quickly post important, mission-critical updates.  Each ad is a news update in itself, optimized for a mobile audience — and in this case, it links back to GE’s stories on GEReports.com.  The updates are targeted to appear only when stories of a similar nature appear nearby, and they’re disclosed as advertising to avoid any confusion with Breaking News’ coverage.We’ve experienced incredible mobile growth over the last year, and the addition of Breaking Ads is part of our mobile-first commitment to offer sponsored experiences that work naturally on devices.  For more about the new product, see Digiday’s story on the launch, and follow @breakingads on Twitter.  If you have any questions about Breaking Ads, please drop us a note.Meanwhile, we’re working on an exciting new release of Breaking News, our biggest product update since we launched over two years ago.  Stay tuned!(Post by Cory Bergman, @corybe on Twitter)

Introducing Breaking Ads - Companies can now break their own news on Breaking News, thanks to a new sponsored story product called “Breaking Ads.”  GE is the launch sponsor, highlighting its stories about technology and innovation directly in our real-time streams spanning our mobile apps and BreakingNews.com.

As companies create their own stories, Breaking Ads is powerful way to reach an influential, on-the-go audience in a timely fashion. While a growing number of sites offer native advertising for entertaining stories and funny photo galleries, Breaking News is a trusted place for companies to quickly post important, mission-critical updates. 

Each ad is a news update in itself, optimized for a mobile audience — and in this case, it links back to GE’s stories on GEReports.com.  The updates are targeted to appear only when stories of a similar nature appear nearby, and they’re disclosed as advertising to avoid any confusion with Breaking News’ coverage.

We’ve experienced incredible mobile growth over the last year, and the addition of Breaking Ads is part of our mobile-first commitment to offer sponsored experiences that work naturally on devices. 

For more about the new product, see Digiday’s story on the launch, and follow @breakingads on Twitter.  If you have any questions about Breaking Ads, please drop us a note.

Meanwhile, we’re working on an exciting new release of Breaking News, our biggest product update since we launched over two years ago.  Stay tuned!

(Post by Cory Bergman, @corybe on Twitter)

How Breaking News keeps news junkies current in a crisis

The Verge wrote up a story about how Breaking News works behind the scenes to balance speed and accuracy.

Breaking News looking for a mobile developer

We’re growing our team, and we’re looking for an experienced iOS application developer, preferably based in Seattle or New York.  If you think breaking news is broken, come help us fix it.  Millions of people already depend on our unique approach to blending verification with social media, and we’re hard at work taking Breaking News to the next level.

We’re an agile team that works under the umbrella of the NBC News Digital Group, but in a separate startup environment.  In many ways, it’s the best of both worlds: the freedom to create disruptive new products with the backing of a large media company. 

To learn more about the job, reach out to @magnetbox, drop us a note or search for job number 9843BR on NBCUniCareers.com.

A tough call on a big story

A day ago, we explained how we balance speed with rumor control at Breaking News. Then we were faced with a tough decision, challenging our convictions on a very big story.

Despite three major news organizations reporting an arrest in the Boston bombings, we waited. As a curation team that’s literally branded “Breaking News,” waiting is agonizing.  We watched the tweets stream across the screen, but something just didn’t feel right.

“Lots of noise in the system right now,” explained Tom Brew, who heads Breaking News’ editorial team.  Added senior editor Stephanie Clary in our team’s backchannel chat, “CNN reporting arrests made, but still feel best to hold for a bit.”

CNN was alone on the story, and NBC said its sources maintained there’s no arrest. A short time later, Fox News reported an arrest, and the Boston Globe sent a short tweet, “Arrest in Boston Marathon bombing.”

As we occasionally see in situations like these, news organizations break a story sourced to the same person — or even sourced to each other. So I sent the Globe a tweet asking for clarification:


Moments later, the Globe updated to say they had sourced the news to CNN.  “I think we’re good to keep holding,” Stephanie explained in the chat.

Then the story crossed on AP. That’s three major sources: CNN, Fox News and AP, which is typically the tipping point for Breaking News on a high-risk story.  At this point, Tom and Stephanie were poised to report an arrest, but CBS joined NBC in citing sources denying an arrest had been made.

“I say we still hold,” Stephanie said. “CBS local backing off, too.”

I chimed into the chat, “Is there a way to attribute an arrest to some, and no arrest to others in a single update?”

“I think this is where we can provide clarity versus confusion, and just hold a bit,” Stephanie wrote. “Because I think it’ll be more clear soon.  No local orgs reporting it independently is odd to me.”

Stephanie nailed it: moments later, House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said there was no one in custody. ABC reported “no arrest yet.” CNN began backing off on the air, which soon turned into a retraction.

In the heat of the story, Stephanie illustrated what makes Breaking News different. Twitter was a mess, rumors were flying on Facebook and Reddit was coming up with its own bombing suspects.  As the only breaking news source that’s independent and agnostic in our curation — we don’t favor any brands, even those of our parent company NBC — we’re in a unique position to help bring a little clarity and order.

But just like any other news organization in this white-knuckled business, we don’t always get it right.  We’re not better journalists, we just approach breaking news from a different angle.  It’s an imperfect science, and it’s our policy to be massively transparent when we get it wrong.

Over the last couple years, we’ve talked to many people who were surprised to learn we have editors behind the scenes at Breaking News. “Oh, you’re not just another aggregator?” they’d ask, looking at our mobile app.  Every update around the clock is published by our editors, I explain.  We’re a real-time news service with an editorial filter, occupying a new space between free-wheeling social networks and the rich storytelling and context provided by new organizations.

In a world of intensifying information overload, sometimes less is more, and prudence pays off.

(Post by @corybe. Download our mobile apps here.)

How we balance speed with rumor control: With any big story these days, social networks are both an asset and liability. Matt Roller summed it up this way, tweeting this soon after the Boston explosions:“Twitter does its best work in the first five minutes after a disaster, and its worst in the twelve hours after that.” - @rolldiggityAt Breaking News, our goal is to balance speed with an editorial filter, keeping rumors at bay while incorporating hundreds of sources.  With the Boston story, we’re not quite as fast as Twitter (the crowd is always faster), but we provided a lightning-fast stream of coverage that avoided or downplayed nearly all incorrect reports, including a third explosion, a bombing at the JFK Library and a Saudi suspect in custody.  Here’s our technique: moments after the explosions, our editors tracked dozens of Boston news sources — news organizations, officials and eyewitnesses — looking for a new report on the story.  Just as on-the-ground news organizations compare sources before reporting new information, our editors compared these new reports with coverage from other news and official sources. For example, when one news organization reported that five unexploded devices have been discovered, we noticed that no other news organization or law enforcement source was reporting anything similar. In that scenario, we table the story and wait for a second news organization to confirm with its own sources or an official source makes an announcement. There was no confirmation, and the story turned out to be false.We use this multiple sourcing approach for reports with a higher risk or a history of being wrong, and that’s where our editorial experience comes into play.  Early reports from mass casualty stories are often in flux,  and here are a few examples we’ve learned:     - Leaked reports of suspect descriptions are nearly always wrong and overly vague — in this case, it was a “dark skinned” or black man with a black backpack — so we avoid reporting any description until officially released by law enforcement.      - Initial reports of a second suspect are nearly always wrong.  Most mass shootings in the U.S. are initially reported as a “possible second suspect” but nearly universally are the work of a single person.   - Casualty counts are often inflated in the first hour or two, sometimes dramatically.  So we tend to report these numbers carefully.  Interestingly in Boston, the opposite was true: early estimates were remarkably low. These are just a few of the red flags that we’ve learned along the way, and they also apply to eyewitness reports, which we run through a more stringent verification process.  We have two rules of thumb: 1) If it’s too good to be true, it probably is 2) As much as we want to be fast, it never hurts to wait a beat.This is an imperfect science, and we’re not always right. But when we’re wrong, we want to be the first to admit it, applying the same urgency of telling a breaking story with the occasional necessity of correcting it.  We’re working on a new version of Breaking News — coming early this summer — that takes our unique blend of reliable, real-time coverage a step further.  Stay tuned…(Post by @corybe. Photo by Elise Amendola / AP)

How we balance speed with rumor control: With any big story these days, social networks are both an asset and liability. Matt Roller summed it up this way, tweeting this soon after the Boston explosions:

“Twitter does its best work in the first five minutes after a disaster, and its worst in the twelve hours after that.” - @rolldiggity

At Breaking News, our goal is to balance speed with an editorial filter, keeping rumors at bay while incorporating hundreds of sources.  With the Boston story, we’re not quite as fast as Twitter (the crowd is always faster), but we provided a lightning-fast stream of coverage that avoided or downplayed nearly all incorrect reports, including a third explosion, a bombing at the JFK Library and a Saudi suspect in custody. 

Here’s our technique: moments after the explosions, our editors tracked dozens of Boston news sources — news organizations, officials and eyewitnesses — looking for a new report on the story.  Just as on-the-ground news organizations compare sources before reporting new information, our editors compared these new reports with coverage from other news and official sources.

For example, when one news organization reported that five unexploded devices have been discovered, we noticed that no other news organization or law enforcement source was reporting anything similar. In that scenario, we table the story and wait for a second news organization to confirm with its own sources or an official source makes an announcement. There was no confirmation, and the story turned out to be false.

We use this multiple sourcing approach for reports with a higher risk or a history of being wrong, and that’s where our editorial experience comes into play.  Early reports from mass casualty stories are often in flux,  and here are a few examples we’ve learned:

    - Leaked reports of suspect descriptions are nearly always wrong and overly vague — in this case, it was a “dark skinned” or black man with a black backpack — so we avoid reporting any description until officially released by law enforcement. 

    - Initial reports of a second suspect are nearly always wrong.  Most mass shootings in the U.S. are initially reported as a “possible second suspect” but nearly universally are the work of a single person.

   - Casualty counts are often inflated in the first hour or two, sometimes dramatically.  So we tend to report these numbers carefully.  Interestingly in Boston, the opposite was true: early estimates were remarkably low.

These are just a few of the red flags that we’ve learned along the way, and they also apply to eyewitness reports, which we run through a more stringent verification process.  We have two rules of thumb: 1) If it’s too good to be true, it probably is 2) As much as we want to be fast, it never hurts to wait a beat.

This is an imperfect science, and we’re not always right. But when we’re wrong, we want to be the first to admit it, applying the same urgency of telling a breaking story with the occasional necessity of correcting it. 

We’re working on a new version of Breaking News — coming early this summer — that takes our unique blend of reliable, real-time coverage a step further.  Stay tuned…

(Post by @corybe. Photo by Elise Amendola / AP)

It’s that time of year, and Breaking News is headed to SXSW in Austin.  We’re sponsoring the very popular “Awesomest Journalism Party” on Saturday evening, featuring awesome Texas food and beer.  This party is always PACKED — just a couple blocks from the convention center — but you can gain an edge with a VIP ticket.If your news organization is a #breaking tipping partner (you can check at the bottom of this page), send a tweet to Breaking News’ Stephanie Clary to ask for a VIP ticket.  She’ll give them out on a first-come-first-serve basis. When we run out of our allocation, you can always RSVP for a regular ticket.Being on the VIP list allows you expedited entry in a separate line. However, please come early to be safe, as in past years the party has generally filled up and there has been a wait even for the VIP list. But people who got there early usually had minimal problems.See you there!

It’s that time of year, and Breaking News is headed to SXSW in Austin.  We’re sponsoring the very popular “Awesomest Journalism Party” on Saturday evening, featuring awesome Texas food and beer.  This party is always PACKED — just a couple blocks from the convention center — but you can gain an edge with a VIP ticket.

If your news organization is a #breaking tipping partner (you can check at the bottom of this page), send a tweet to Breaking News’ Stephanie Clary to ask for a VIP ticket.  She’ll give them out on a first-come-first-serve basis. When we run out of our allocation, you can always RSVP for a regular ticket.

Being on the VIP list allows you expedited entry in a separate line. However, please come early to be safe, as in past years the party has generally filled up and there has been a wait even for the VIP list. But people who got there early usually had minimal problems.

See you there!

Over 300 Twitter accounts #breaking the news

Over a year and a half ago, we began an experiment to whitelist Twitter accounts from participating news organizations as a way for them to tip our Breaking News editors in real time.  We’ve now crossed the 300 mark, spanning news organizations large and small, global and local — the largest news tipping network on Twitter.

It works by appending the #breaking or #breakingnews hashtag to a news organization’s tweet (it also works for #amberalert and #silveralert).  Moments later, our editors are alerted of the tweet, which helps elevate the story above the tornado of real-time reports in social media today.  You can see the alerts by clicking the “all sources” button on BreakingNews.com.

In many cases, if it’s the first time we’ve seen the story, our editors will promote the story in our mobile apps, website and @breakingnews with a direct link, crediting the originator.  Altogether, we send over 200,000 clicks a day to original breaking stories, not to mention a burst of social followers and big SEO stake in the ground. 

Our thanks to all of the participating news organizations.  Hashtagging your breaking tweets helps us give credit where credit is due.

To learn more about how to whitelist a news organization’s Twitter account into the network — and to see which stories our editors tend to link — visit our Breaking News partner page.

Desktop alerts are here!  We just rolled out a new update to our Windows 8 app that brings major Breaking News alerts to your desktop and tablet — even when you’re not inside the app.As you can see above, a Breaking News alert has appeared on the upper-right of the screen.  Depending on the news, we typically send one or two a day, focusing on the biggest stories.  You’ll need to activate the notifications when you first download or update the app.We’ve also launched a “live tile” that displays the latest breaking stories — smaller stories that we update throughout the day — on the Start screen.  For more details about a report, you can pop open the Breaking News app and drill down to the source of the story.  For our news partners, this will mean more clicks as Windows 8 scales.Both of these additions make it easy to stay on top of the news in real-time with minimal interruption while you work.  Download the Windows 8 app right here. If you have a Windows Phone, we have an app for that, too.

Desktop alerts are here!  We just rolled out a new update to our Windows 8 app that brings major Breaking News alerts to your desktop and tablet — even when you’re not inside the app.

As you can see above, a Breaking News alert has appeared on the upper-right of the screen.  Depending on the news, we typically send one or two a day, focusing on the biggest stories.  You’ll need to activate the notifications when you first download or update the app.

We’ve also launched a “live tile” that displays the latest breaking stories — smaller stories that we update throughout the day — on the Start screen.  For more details about a report, you can pop open the Breaking News app and drill down to the source of the story.  For our news partners, this will mean more clicks as Windows 8 scales.

Both of these additions make it easy to stay on top of the news in real-time with minimal interruption while you work.  Download the Windows 8 app right here. If you have a Windows Phone, we have an app for that, too.

Breaking News launches on Windows Phones

Got your hands on a new Window 8 phone?  Or a Windows 7.5+ device?  We’ve just launched the Breaking News app for Windows Phone featuring the same lightning-fast coverage you’ve come to expect on BreakingNews.com and our iOS and Android apps.  

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Our team of journalists scour the planet for breaking news, quickly sifting out unconfirmed reports and boiling it all down to a simple, straightforward feed of real-time news. You can track your favorite stories, browse the biggest stories of the day and drill down to the original reports. There’s no faster source of reliable news on a Windows Phone.

We’ve just launched the app, but we’re already working on an update: live tiles and notifications are coming soon.

If you have a Windows 8 tablet or PC, we have an app for that, too.

Why Twitter’s army of ‘Mechanical Turks’ will not conquer breaking news

Twitter revealed this week that it uses Mechanical Turk — a crowdsourced pool of people — as an innovative way to help identify and classify search queries as soon as they’re trending. For example, the Mechanical Turks could associate the phrase “Big Bird” with a Presidential debate.

Twitter’s announcement prompted a tech blog to proclaim, “Watch out CNN, new Twitter search capabilities will rule breaking news.”  The premise: if humans can help organize trending content on Twitter — perhaps in its Discover tab — then “why would anyone get breaking news from another source?”

But there’s a big distinction between trending content and breaking news. While Twitter’s Turks will help bring much-needed context to the platform, they’re not journalists who verify whether something is true.  As we’ve seen with the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and Superstorm Sandy, Twitter rumors ran rampant.  Some rumors turned out to be true, but many were inaccurate or even malicious.  Some were important, others were trivial.

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At Breaking News, we rely on experienced journalists (that’s one of them, Stephanie Clary, above) to verify real-time reports and prioritize their importance.  We also add context, associating reports with ongoing stories, topics and locations.  But accuracy and importance — along with speed — are the essence of breaking news for any news organization.

Let’s take an example from Twitter’s own blog post: the tweet with a photo of Flight 1549 floating in the Hudson River from January 2009.  Using Mechanical Turk, they would be able to associate that tweet with searches for “plane crash,” for example, as well as elevate it on its Discover tab.  But Twitter won’t know whether the tweet and photo are real or fake.

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It turns out that Breaking News’ Lauren McCullough discovered that tweet when she worked at The Associated Press, quickly verifying its authenticity (and obtaining permission) before it was published — the first news organization to do so.  As it ran on the AP wire, hundreds of newsrooms picked up the photo, bringing a trustworthy story to the masses.

In recent years, Twitter’s platform has attracted a growing wave of eyewitness news reports scattered among a firehose of other tweets.  Its audience is growing, too.  Verification and prioritization matter more than ever.  That’s one reason Breaking News exists: we provide a verification layer over the crush of real-time reports, boiling it down to what’s true and what’s important to you.

We believe Twitter is not a sweeping substitute for breaking news, but a complement.  Some consumers get their breaking news from Twitter — that’s why @breakingnews is there — others get their breaking news directly from trusted sources.  Others do both interchangeably.  Twitter will not replace news organizations, but as it has, it will work in concert with them.

Just as Twitter is taking steps to become more relevant for its users, so are we.  We believe breaking news is broken in many ways — a broadcast-style of journalism grafted to the web — and we’re working on a new version of Breaking News reinvented around the mobile device. 

Stay tuned!  (Post by @corybe)