CoveritLive's Keith McSpurren on liveblogging for news, premium models and moderation

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"I don't use CoveritLive (CiL) much anymore, because I don't have anything interesting to say," says Keith McSpurren, the president of the liveblogging software firm.

It's more likely that with a four-person team and 25 million page views coming through the site in the last week, McSpurren is too busy to liveblog (he doesn't even really like the phrase liveblogging, but it stuck after previously being called 'altcasting', he adds).

But that hasn't stopped over 65,000 events being covered with the software in the last year, seeing the site's daily traffic peaking at 10 million page views for the US election, he tells a gathering at London's City University . CoveritLive is now looking to introduce premium packages: around $25 for one-off use, for example; or, for a site like the Sacramento Bee which makes multiple use of the software, $100 a month.

Rates will be decided on a case by case basis, depending on the number of uses and audience sizes, and the package will include extra features for paying users, says McSpurren.

The aim, however, is to keep costs low and the software simple; to create a 'live publishing platform,' where adding multimedia elements and third-party feeds, such as Qik, Twitter and Mogulus, are at the user's fingertips, says McSpurren.

"Publishers are struggling to deal with a large number of tools. They need to have all the technical elements in place so it's ready for live coverage," he says.

"The software will continue to evolve as the needs of journalists evolve." When Journalism.co.uk first interviewed McSpurren at CiL's launch , the potential for liveblogging news events with the software was a key aim.

The number of CiL users would increase by five times if it was used throughout the news groups, where individual journalists and titles have already taken up the tool, estimates McSpurren.

This in turn has benefitted CiL, who have spread the product to media companies from the bottom up and not from the top management down, he says.

The system has been particularly popular with newspapers: the Houston Chronicle has made it an integrated part of their reporting; while other publishers have adopted a TV model, scheduling live event coverage on a regular basis.

Feedback suggests journalists like using it because of its easy, instant messaging-type interface and because it doesn't require an IT department to implement it - they don't have to ask for permission, says McSpurren.

"Our system allows people to instantly publish a lot of stuff. It has been a learning curve for writers to get used to what's the best way of publishing," he says.

"It's more a radio show than a total collaboration show. You have skill as a writer covering what you cover, so your real-time coverage will be better than most coverage."

The idea of 'democratising' information and news online doesn't have to be 24 hours a day, seven days a week, adds McSpurren. Liveblogging and tools like Twitter should be used for appropriate events and not ubiquitously, he says.

Learning to be selective with updates and with what comments you publish is important, he adds. Handling comments has been a particularly difficult lesson for some journalists - CiL requires users to approve comments to publish them, which some journalists have said is too time-consuming.

But it's about publishing comments which add to the conversation and keep it flowing; the format shouldn't be the same as messageboards where separate threads break out, says McSpurren.

It is meant to be a broadcast tool, says McSpurren, yet it's 'lumped in with social media': "It's not meant to be a few-to-few chat."