Demand Media buys CoveritLive: content farm meets liveblogging

Notorious content farm Demand Media announced today that it has purchased CoveritLive, a popular “liveblogging” tool used to cover events as they happen. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

CoveritLive events reach over 60 million people monthly, the company said. The tool is used by companies like News Corp, BBC and ESPN to add live commentary and other interactive features to stories. Last week it powered Oscar ceremony content for over 2 million readers from People, TMZ, Entertainment Weekly and others.

The acquisition comes shortly after Demand debuted as a public company last month. The company is widely considered a content farm because it specializes in creating content that’s tailored for search engine traffic. A recent update to Google’s search algorithm took aim at Demand and similar sites that take advantage of search engine loopholes to better rank their content. The company maintains that it can survive based on the value of its content from sites like eHow and Cracked.

Demand Media is known for quickly creating articles based on search trends. But with a liveblogging tool like CoveritLive in its arsenal, it will be able to create timely content even faster. It also makes the company a driving force behind many other publications for their own live coverage.

Demand Media previously made a strategic investment in CoveritLive in 2009, which gave it a minority stake in the liveblogging company. Demand says that CoveritLive will join its portfolio of social services, like its community platform Pluck.