Demand Media snaps up CoveritLive

The acquisition comes as Demand is beefing up its original content offerings

Content and domain company Demand Media announced Thursday that it has acquired CoveritLive, a live blogging and commentary company that has powered live events for such notable brands as ESPN, Ford, News Corp and BBC. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

“Like Demand Media, we started CoveritLive to help fill the gaps in online content. We saw an opportunity to cover live events in a way that no one had before by combining talented writers, multimedia and two way engagement via comments and polls” said CoveritLive founder and president Keith McSpurren, in a prepared statement. “As a Demand Media partner, our joint customers have seen the value of combining our service with Pluck’s integrated community platform. It’s a powerful combination that helps marketers engage consumers before, during and after an event.”

Last weekend, when the Academy Awards were in full swing, CoveritLive powered live event coverage for TMZ, the Daily Beast, People, Entertainment Weekly, and Variety, with some two million people tuning in to follow CoveritLive-powered coverage. 

The company's platform allows bloggers and reporters to deliver real-time commentary on events, upload pictures, create polls, and more. Demand Media made a strategic investment in CoveritLive back in 2009, giving it a minority stake in the company. Demand's acquisition of CoveritLive will complement Demand's current social media platform, Pluck.

Demand is clearly stepping up its game when it comes to offering high-quality original content, which is sure to give shareholders a big boost of confidence after Google announced last week that it has implemented changes to its algorithm which will affect nearly 12% of search queries. Reports have pointed to Demand Media as Google's special target in these endeavors, although Demand claims that the changes have not affected its business. 

Whether or not Google is truly weeding out Demand pages from its search results, the fact remains that since going public over a month ago, it has a slew of new shareholders to think about. Earlier this week, Demand announced a new partnership with TV cooking phenomenon Rachael Ray, who will act as the lead creative voice over Demand's eHow Food Channel.