Struggling Demand Media Inc. last week changed out its chief executive, but analysts say that might not be enough to reverse the company’s fortunes.

Co-founder Richard Rosenblatt will leave at the end of the month. Another co-founder, Shawn Colo, will take over next month as interim chief executive while the company searches for a permanent successor.

But analysts last week said the move would have little impact on its main Web content business. One of them said Demand remains in “deep trouble.”

The company’s stock peaked at $25 a share shortly after its 2011 initial public offering but has been under $10 for most of the past year. And after the leadership change announcement, shares fell an additional 15 percent, dipping below $5 and making the company among the biggest losers on the LABJ Stock Index for the week ended Oct. 16. (See page 58.)

The Santa Monica Web publisher rose to prominence by driving traffic to its suite of websites when it had good placement on Google Inc. searches. Among the company’s advertising-supported properties are how-to site eHow.com, healthy living site Livestrong.com and humor site Cracked.com.

But two years ago, just as Demand went public, Google started tweaking its search algorithms to weed out what it termed “low-quality” websites, including the largest sites operated by Demand, which tried but couldn’t shed its reputation for producing content on the cheap.

The result was devastating: Hits on Demand’s sites plunged as much as 80 percent. As Google continues refining its search criteria, Demand has been unable to recapture its initial success in attracting customers through the search engine.

“We believe that Google’s continued onslaught put Demand Media in a spiral and no effective solution has been found,” said Sameet Sinha, analyst with the San Francisco office of West L.A.-based B. Riley & Co.

One analyst last week was concerned that the leadership change came just a couple of weeks before earnings are scheduled.

“The timing of the change raises questions about third quarter results and the outlook for the business,” Patrick Walravens, analyst with JMP Securities in San Francisco, said in a note to investors.

The only good news for investors has been the prospect that Demand’s domain services division – which isn’t reliant on Google – could be spun off into a new publicly traded stock. But the company said last week’s leadership change announcement might set the spinoff back several months.

Yet even if the domain services unit is spun off, it leaves Demand with the content business, which analyst Sinha said is “in deep trouble.” Over the longer term, he said the best way out for the company might be to sell that business.