Scribble secures $4M in funding for live-blogging CMS

Summerhill leads first major funding round for CMS used by Reuters, Mashable, Hearst

For professional bloggers and news organizations, the speed with which content goes live online can mean the difference in thousands more people reading information on your site versus a competitor's. The content management system Scribble Technologies announced Thursday that it received $4 million in it latest round of funding.

The round was led by Summerhill Venture Partners. Rogers Ventures, an existing early stage investor, also participated in the financing.

Scribble Technologies, most well-known for its CMS ScribbleLive, is a Toronto-based company that, since its founding in 2008, has attracted the likes of Reuters, Press Association, Hearst, Television Inc, Mashable and Microsoft to its blogging and content updating interface.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Summerhill to bring to market the next step of the evolution of live blogging," Scribble's CEO Michael De Monte said in a statement. "Today's funding news marks the first major investment in live blogging, which validates the demand consumers have for real-time content as global events unfold."

What it does

All news and blogging groups use content management systems (CMS) to upload text, pictures, video, polls and other content. Depending on the system, this process can get updated in real-time or with some delay.

Scribble has marketed itself to news providers as a real-time, Twitter-like updater of content that is best suited for delivering breaking news content as it occurs.

The company's business model is a traditional monthly fee for service and currently offers a freelance journalist package, a pilot program and the enterprise model.

Summerhill's investment in Scribble is a reflection of the desire to find real-time content and publishing solutions that can not only update text but aid in the creation of reader response and interaction.

Scribble said it will use this funding to "strengthen its market position and aggressively expand its sales, marketing and software development activities."

This funding will also go toward the LiveArticle arm of the company that aims to revolutionize live-blogging and allows news organizations to summarize ongoing events by refreshing the content with new photos, videos and social media content in real time.

Over the summer Scribble launched its iPhone application and updated the Blackberry CMS manager it has available.

Image Source -- Flickr