Liam Payne’s One Direction bandmates have shared a heartbreaking tribute after he tragically passed away at the age of 31. Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson jointly shared a statement from the One Direction Instagram account as they have been left 'completely devastated' by the loss of their 'brother' Liam.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, 17 October, a day after it was announced that Liam had passed away, the bandmates shared a joint statement and signed it "Louis, Zayn, Niall and Harry". They emotionally said: "We're completely devastated by the news of Liam's passing.

"In time, and when everyone is able to, there will be more to say. But for now, we will take some time to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly.

"The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever.

"For now, our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and the fans who loved him alongside us. We will miss him terribly.

"We love you Liam."

Hard news:

After I reported on Liam Payne’s death on the evening of Wednesday, 16 October (which can be seen below), it was vital that we kept a look out for any tributes or breaking news stories associated with his passing. One tribute that came through, and that I had been looking out for, was from his band One Direction. After spotting it on their Instagram page, I was able to write it up as a breaking news story and publish it quickly. I was then able to add details into the story, including photos and background. This was important coverage for us as it was a huge showbiz story and our readers were already incredibly engaged with Liam’s passing, meaning a tribute from his former band was vital to report on, especially for our under 35 audience.

It was also in the public interest to report on Liam’s death as he was a hugely well known celebrity. We were able to rightfully report that he was dead as it had been officially confirmed.

Everything I wrote on Liam’s death was handled with sensitivity and care, as not to be an intrusion into grief or shock (clause 4) to his family or friends. Under IPSO, I also made sure that my reporting was accurate (clause 1), including all my comments and statements in the articles, which were all credited correctly. I also ensured that none of my articles speculated details of his death, such as the cause or what happened, if there was no evidence or statements to confirm this.

With our reporting of Liam’s passing doing well on OK! online, we published a number of other articles that received high engagement. (Please click on the headlines in bold to view the article).

Rita Ora and Dermot O'Leary lead tributes to One Direction star Liam Payne after his death aged 31

Soon after his death was confirmed, I pitched the idea for a tribute story and wrote it up quickly with messages from a list of celebrities. I found these tributes on social media platforms, and because they were in the public domain, I could use them in my story with a credit to the celebrity. The following day another reporter, who was on shift, added further tributes to the article which allowed us to keep the story updated as new tributes were released. For SEO purposes it was essential that we included ‘tribute’ ‘Liam Payne’, ‘One Direction’, ‘death’, ‘aged 31’ as more people are most likely to search for these terms.

Niall Horan opens up on ‘heartbreaking’ last meet-up with Liam Payne days before death - saying it was 'goodbye forever’

With tributes flooding in, I ensured to keep a look out for any further messages, including personal tributes from his bandmates in One Direction. With this in mind, I saw Niall Horan’s tribute within seconds of it being published on his public Instagram account. I had a breaking template already prepared before seeing the post, which allowed me to write and publish the article within a few minutes. This helped us be one of the first publications to share this.

Audience engagement:

One Direction's Niall Horan breaks cover with girlfriend for first time since tragic death of bandmate

Another story I wrote was based on photographs of Niall when he was seen in public for the first time after news was confirmed of Liam’s death, this received a huge engagement with our readers. This had strong visual content as the article was solely based on the photographs that we were able to purchase and use at OK!. I wrote about the photographs, describing how he looked and his relationship with Liam to strengthen the article. This article saw over 25,383 page views, with 95% of readers on a mobile device and 74% coming from social, according to Chartbeat. By sharing this story on our social media platforms we were able to engage with our audience which received reactions and tributes to Liam Payne.

Liam Payne’s letter to 10-year-old self resurfaces - 'you’ll have the most amazing time of your life'

I also checked across other news outlets to see if there were other angles on Liam’s passing that would work well for us. While on the PA website I found a story about Liam’s letter to his 10-year-old self. I pitched this in our afternoon conference and wrote it up for one of our splash stories on OK! online the day after his death. It had an emotional and unique angle focused on something he had written in the past, providing a strong development and coverage on Liam’s tragic death. This article gained over 9,257 page views with 70% of our readers coming from social and 27% from internal. I tweeted this story numerous times from the OK! account and opted to use a photo of Liam from when he was younger as the social image which I felt worked best, given the angle and emotional impact.

Liam Payne dead at 31 after fall from hotel in Buenos Aires as star's last movements are revealed

When reporting on the death of Liam Payne, I also created two stories with reports from the Mirror, one of these was confirming the news of Liam’s demise, following statements from official authorities. For this we were able to Guten the Mirror story, while ensuring all details were correct, to allow us to get the copy published as soon as possible. Once it was published I tweeted it from the OK! account as soon as possible, as the majority of our readership comes from social media. This article gained 42,799 page views, with 37% of our readers being loyal and 74% coming from social.

Liam Payne's final post 45 minutes before death as he shared breakfast with blonde woman

Another story of mine was from another Mirror article that we saw was doing well, so we in turn, used Guten to create our own version. This was a huge success in terms of engagement and page views on the OK! website. The article, which can be seen below, saw 234,611 page views on OK! with 83% coming from social and 95% from mobile devices.