A regional daily’s live online coverage of transfer deadline day this month provided it with a huge web hits boost.

Using CoverItLive blogging software, 40 students worked from the University of Sunderland worked alongside Sunderland Echo journalists to cover what has become one of the busiest news days in the sporting calendar.

The main blog received over 10,000 hits on the Sunderland Echo’s website, sunderlandecho.com, while transfer day stories generated by students and subbed by the newspaper’s staff attracted 60,000 views.

In excess of 4,200 comments and questions were also posted on the blog – well up from the paper’s previous deadline day coverage which attracted 2,700 comments.

Echo digitial editor Lee Hall said: “Our event turned out to be an unrivalled success.

“We got 60,000 page views on the Echo site alone – a massive audience. More importantly, the service was first rate for our users, and provided great experience for the students.”

John Price, programme leader for journalism at the University of Sunderland, said: “The event proved a really worthwhile experience for our students. I was delighted with their efforts on the day and the high quality of work they produced.

“The feedback from the students has been great. They got a real buzz from being involved and, for many, it’s motivated them even more to go on and get a career in the industry.”