WebProNews » Amanda Congdon

ABC: Amanda’s Been Canned

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:03:57 +0000

Ex-Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon won’t have her contract renewed with ABC, after a year of working with the network.

It looks like the Amanda Across America tour will include a stop at the unemployment office. An unremarkable year with ABC, aside from a mildly controversial stint doing videos for chemical giant DuPont, ended not with a bang, but silence.

MediaBistro’s TVNewser confirmed what FishbowlLA and Gawker had been whispering about – Amanda Cong-done:

Here’s the statement from ABC:

"It’s been a great year with Amanda – a great experiment for both of us. We thank her for her many contributions and know that she’s about to embark on new endeavors and expect there will be times in the future that we can again work together."

We think this translates to "here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?" in Hollywood-speak. As for her response, there isn’t one on her personal blog, which has not been updated since September 12th.

When news of her work for DuPont, approved by ABC, began making the rounds in March, Congdon blew off criticism, saying "I am not subject to the “rules” traditional journalists have to follow."

That may or may not be true, but Congdon is certainly subject to the whims of traditional media, as ABC has demonstrated.

Amanda Booms On To HBO and ABC

Mathew Ingram — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 16:05:02 +0000

As many people predicted when Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon split up so acrimoniously with her former partner Andrew Baron (which I wrote about here), it didn’t take long for someone to see the potential benefit of having an attractive video-blogger with a built-in following on their payroll.

Amanda has signed a deal with ABC to appear regularly on ABC News Now and also to do a regular video-blog for ABC’s website, and is also developing a show with HBO as well.

Business Week magazine has a Q&A session with Amanda, in which they talk about the differences between putting together a video-blog and a segment for a daily TV news show. She also hints that she will be able to do a little more, well fact-checking than she could at Rocketboom.

It isn’t going to be something that we throw together and hope the facts are right. It’s ABC News, so it definitely needs to be not false information. At Rocketboom, the fact checking was a little bit-it was what it was, it wasn’t always perfect. I was doing it on my own. At ABC, I will have people to help me.

Amanda is wrapping up her Amanda Across America project, where she made the announcement about HBO and ABC today, and says she will continue to do video-blogging at her personal site, Amanda Unboomed, althought the format may change. And despite some ongoing criticism of Amanda for the fallout from the Rocketboom fiasco, she’s getting props for her recent moves, including some from Janeane – who wins the prize for best headline.

And while Amanda is moving from Web to TV, there are those who have gone the other way, including former CNN anchor Daryn Kagan.

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Mathew Ingram is a
technology writer and blogger for the Globe and Mail, a national
newspaper based in Toronto, and also writes about the Web and media at
www.mathewingram.com/work and www.mathewingram.com/media.

Amanda Congdon Rockets To Disney

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:57:54 +0000

The House of Mouse has given former Rocketboom anchor Amanda Congdon a new home, where she will contribute to ABC News online and television broadcasts.

She’s also planning to develop a comedy series for HBO. Freed from the three-minute, small-screen constraints of the Internet, the one-time host of the Rocketboom video blog is capitalizing on her 15 minutes of fame as quickly as she can.

An ABC executive must have glowed when discussing Congdon’s potential in a BusinessWeek interview:

“She certainly has the eyes and ears of a great many people who may have only trafficked in Internet information,” says Michael Clemente, executive producer of ABC News Digital Media. “I would love to see her talking to [Illinois Senator] Barack Obama, new people with new products, and all sorts of things.”

Catherine Holahan, the writer who crafted the article as well as a mild Q&A session with Congdon, dubbed her a “cewebrity” for her web celebrity. Though Congdon isn’t the first person to crossover from online to traditional media, she is probably the best known right now.

Amit Agarwal suggested how others might follow Congdon out of the Internet tubes:

Female vloggers with pretty faces and huge fan-following are just few in number but very much in demand especially among the TV channels who are keen on exploring this new world of vlogging.

Frank Barnako’s take on the Congdon buzz shifted quickly into gleeful prodding at the new “cewebrity” on his blog at MarketWatch:

“While I will be giving commentary,” the 25-year-old actress continued, “this will be information that has been verified.”

(Now, THERE’s a concept!)

“It isn’t going to be something that we throw together and hope the facts are right,” she added “It’s ABC News, so it definitely needs to be not false information.” At Rocketboom, Congdon said she did her own “fact checking. “At ABC, I will have people to help me.”

(I couldn’t make this stuff up.)

It’s one thing to make it up the hill, but another to stay there. Congdon is hooking up with very big media today. Tomorrow, who knows where she may be?

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Amanda Congdon chats with Guy Kawasaki

Glenn Letham — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:15:45 +0000

Amanda Congdon, video blogger, actress, and much more has recently added a video interview with one of my favorite evangelists, Guy Kawasaki.

I know, where’s the geo in this? No worries, its not strictly a geo thing, however, its down-right interesting and cool! AnyGeo reader Andy tipped me off about his post (thanks again Andy) and I had to rethink a bit what I could recall about Amanda. Sure, there’s the eye-candy factor, however, she’s also one of the most well known video casters on the web – she’s also appeared on CSI so she must be pretty damned cool! Amandy hosts the video cast on her blog AmandaAcrossAmerica, which notably uses a Google mashup UI… nice touch (that’s provided by Mapbuilder.net). If you have 10 minutes to kill today sit back and listen to Guy… he’s a great motivator and holds a wealth of knowledge about many things including venture capital funding, the art of the start up, PR, marketing, business 2.0, the web, blogging, and hockey! I’ve met Guy and even got a signed copy of his latest book a while back (thanks again Guy)… enjoy the video cast and bookmark Amanda and Guy’s blog! Gee, maybe one day I can get an interview with Amanda!!! I won’t hold my breath though ;0) See http://amandacongdon.com/america/ & http://blog.guykawasaki.com/.

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Anything Geospatial: Tracking developments affecting GIS, geospatial technologies, location-based services, mapping, google earth and google maps. Published by the creator and editor of GISuser.com & LBSzone.com

Blip.tv Gives Glimpse Of TV Future

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:05:31 +0000

Blip.tv co-founder and COO Dina Kaplan has no shortage of energy. She’s a five-three or so bottle of Jolt Cola, shaken up and gushing forth about her company, which is proud to host the unboomed Amanda Congdon’s cross-country video tour, AmandaAcrossAmerica, (sponsored by AAA?).

Download Video: Real | Win | MP4 | Quicktime

Of course, we’re guessing Dina got that spunk during her brief stint as a Kentuckian. She tells me she was a TV reporter at WAVE3 News in Louisville for three years (Louisville, by the way, is only really in Kentucky on Derby Day – we don’t care much for red birds and figure them Louisvillians can just be Hoosiers the rest of the time).

We caught up with Dina at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo to chat with her about her company. Blip.tv bills itself on its webpage as a video-sharing site. But it’s no YouTube, says Kaplan. Blip.tv hosts web video shows, not just “one-off” amateur videos, and helps promote and monetize them.

“You should have to worry about creativity. We’ll take care of the servers, the software, the workflow, the advertising and the distribution,” reads the About blip.tv page.

Kaplan also said the company just signed a deal with Akimbo to make Blip.tv content available on television through its remote-controlled, Internet-connected RCA Akimbo Player. Sounds like the Internet on your TV is pretty much here.

Unfortunately, Dina just informed me, Amanda Congdon blew straight by Kentucky while we were in California. Too bad for Amanda. Kentucky is only like the most beautiful dang-ol’ place in the world! And we can prove it. Stop and smell the goldenrod, it’ll be worth your while.

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Rocketboom 2.0 Delayed, Fans Lash Out

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:24:31 +0000

Rocketboom fans have been hanging on for the next boom since Amanda Congdon’s dramatic unbooming. The next incarnation is now two days late as the world awaits how the new hostess will handle her duties, and to see if Rocketboom 2.0 will reach liftoff.

Andrew Baron did some fancy footwork in the aftermath of Congdon’s surprise announcement that she was leaving the show to procure former MTV Europe hottie Joanne Colan. After all, you can’t replace a hottie with a not-a-hottie – especially since many had attributed Rocketboom’s success solely to Congdon.

Rocketboom’s dirge was sung throughout the blogosphere upon the announcement as Congdon and Baron kicked the buck back and forth. Whether she was fired or she quit no longer matters, it’s all about what happens next.

And so far, what happens next isnothing. Colan was expected to make her Rocketboom debut Monday morning at 9 AM. Monday came and went with no maiden broadcast and eager fans were met with acknowledgement of the delay and an expectation a Tuesday morning launch.

Meanwhile, Baron reminds the public on his blog how much of the show’s production sits squarely on his shoulders:

Fact: Out of all the scripts in the history of Rocketboom Amanda has edited nearly every single one, but over 95% of the scripts on Rocketboom have been written by me.

Fact: Over 95% of the directed episodes in the history of Rocketboom were directed by me.

Fact: I created/incorporated and directed/developed many of the reoccurring conventions of the show such as the clicker, the head turns, the paper throws, the chair spins, etc.

Fact: I have edited well over 50% of all of the episodes.

Fact: I have Produced every single episode.

Fact: I have Published every single episode.

Fact: I have found/picked over 90% of all of the stories that we have ever used.

What was Congdon doing as Baron boasted? She was being interviewed on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, possibly with a little placement by her new agent over at Endeavor.

Tuesday morning yawned and opened its eyes to a Rocketboom.com server error screen. The world continues to tolerate a “coming soon” update, and finally, after 9AM was long gone, a note from Baron confessing that Congdon may have been a larger part of the show than he had acknowledged:

Rocketboom was obviously very dependent on Amanda’s role. Since she left so suddenly, I have tried to get the episodes up and running as soon as possible, though I am not comfortable with the way they are going yet.

It’s easy enough to recreate the same thing, the challenge here is to do the next.

If you ever looked to the archives, you may have noticed that there is one episode that has always been missing: the first episode. There is a reason why.

The first thought for some is that it is part of a larger publicity grab, but the web-opera has already attracted perhaps more publicity than Baron could have imagined. A delay at this point is just embarrassing, not suspense.

And what of Joanne Colan? Very little so far. Colan has acknowledged her new position by setting up a weblog where she officially titles herself “Host of Rocketboom.com.”

A delay is not a death sentence, at least not yet. But if there are enough diehard Congdon fans like the anonymous commentators on Colan’s blog, then the show could be in trouble indeed. These commentators not only have vowed their allegiance to Congdon in the first comments Colan will ever receive, but have even criticized her for being British.

your british ya know with amanda she is american so she can say what she wants but your a foreigner so your comments will just come off as elitist critisism that you have no place saying. oh and one last thing i hope you know that you may call yourself the hostess of RB but i think most everyone on the internet will agree with me that that title shall forever be amanda congdon’s.

Ouch. Good thing that comment was anonymous. A few tips: watch your homophones and run-ons; run a spell check; look into punctuation; and speak for yourself. British girls are sexy.

The majority of the commentators thereafter were taken aback by those comments, and have at least wished the new host luck while promising to give her a chance to make her mark.

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Congdon Replaced By English Accent

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 19:36:53 +0000

How will Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron replace his vamoosing attractive, smart, witty, and charming anchor Amanda Congdon? The space in front of the upside down map of the world will be filled by an attractive, smart, witty, and charming anchorwoman with a British accent. So, ha!

Huffington Post’s “Eat the Press” provides the inside scoop that Congdon will be replaced with former MTV Europe VJ Joanne Colan.

Colan was expected to make her maiden Rocketboom broadcast Monday at 9 AM, less than a week after Congdon’s sudden and perplexing exodus.

Though it appears that the broadcast from the “interim” host has been delayed, or operating on West Coast time, as Colan’s vlog report has yet to appear.

“In addition to being a fetching blonde,” writes Rachel Sklar, “Colan is also ‘smart and funny,’ and brings to the show and the added credibility of an English accent.”

Because we know, “wubba wubba wubba‘ would sound stupid if an American said it.

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Slightly Sunburned, Congdon Strikes Back

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 17:51:13 +0000

“Dirty laundry is not attractive,” writes Amanda Congdon, the now former Rocketboom video blogger with a cult following. Her sudden public exodus yesterday sparked the Internet version of the Star Jones Wars of last week. Everyone knows that if you’re going down, you should go down shooting.

The online gossip machine wheezed and sputtered immediately when Congdon gave an emotional final broadcast revealing her “unboomed” status thanks to her disinterested partner, and then disappeared to the beach. Her partner and 51 percent owner of Rocketboom, Andrew Baron said he learned the news the same way everyone else did – by watching the show.

But that may be because, as Amanda intimates on her new “Amanda Unboomed” weblog, Baron was a bit of an absentee landlord. Congdon, who published her response to an email from Baron, says his aloofness in dealing with the show’s production culminated into Independence Day office fireworks when he told her she was the be “the face of Rocketboom,” and nothing else.

Owning a 49 percent stake in the company, Congdon obviously didn’t respond well to the notion. Dropping some more fuel on the fire, Baron said she would have forfeit her stake in the company if she moved to Los Angeles, a stipulation to which Congdon says she never agreed.

In Congdon’s response to the email, she reiterates that Baron had not only been aware of her plans to move to California since May of 2005, but the two had agreed the show should be produced from both coasts.

It gets extraordinarily personal as Amanda states it all “for the record” and for all the blogosphere to see; her “dirty laundry” piled atop an unemployment application, an expired lease, and a cancelled movers contract.

In the comments section, Amanda’s fan club is certain she’s the next face of something or other, and that Rocketboom will be left a North Korean dud without her.

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Congdon Unbooms Herself, Maybe

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:03:11 +0000

RocketBoom star video blogger Amanda Congdon shocked not only her fans, but apparently her partner as well, when she announced this morning that she had been “unboomed.” Though the details are unclear, Congdon has left the building – Star Jones style.

Congdon, whose buxom good looks many have cited as their only reason for tuning in to the Internet’s premiere video blog, seemed on the verge of tears as she put to rest rumors that she was on vacation. She, well, sort of, said she was fired. But various reports around the blogosphere conflict on the nature of the split between Congdon and her (ex)business partner Andrew Baron.

“I apparently have been unboomed,” said Congdon. “Apparently my partner, Andrew Baron, is no longer interested in being my partner. Since he owns 51 percent of Rocketboom, and I own 49 percent of Rocketboom, that’s just something I’ll have to live with. So I’m just kind of accepting. I guess this is my last appearance in front of the map.”

Immediately the blogosphere was abuzz about the news as fans speculated on what happened, even to the extent of theories of a secret romance gone sour, and debated whether or not RocketBoom would survive without her. But the story became especially interesting when Baron announced that he had heard the news the same time as everyone else.

“I have just learned of this myself from watching Amanda’s video. I guess it is in fact over,” wrote Baron. “I’m not sure what I will do – I have no one else to take Amanda’s place and haven’t really ever imagined Rocketboom without her except for the past week as everything has been up in the air.”

Obviously, that sounds very different than her story.

Amanda’s response? She went to the beach, presumably in Los Angeles, which is revealed to be at the heart of the matter. According to Dave Coustan, Congdon was moving to LA, whether Baron liked it or not (you know, because winter in New York City is only slightly less painful than winter in Chicago). Coustan published an email from Baron with more details:

Amanda decided she was unable to stay in NYC and informed me, the Rocketboom business and the rest of the team via her videoblog post this morning that she was moving on.

We wanted her to get to Hollywood to pursue her personal opportunities as soon as possible, but her demand to move this week without waiting any longer, without a justification, and without an adequate proposal for a plan for how the show itself would work, we were unable to uproot Rocketboom from NYC at this time.

Maybe it wasn’t that she was fired. Maybe she interpreted Baron’s reluctance to uproot the company as not being interested in being her partner. Who’s telling the truth? We probably won’t know any more until Amanda comes back from sunning herself.

Steve Rubel reports that Congdon attracted over 250,000 daily viewers, nearly as many as CBS.com and NBC.com. Many speculate also that she may have been offered a position on television, which precipitated her exit strategy.

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Amanda Congdon Talks Syndicating Videoblogs at Syndicate NY

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:06:32 +0000

Video blogs shouldn’t be called “Internet TV”; Congdon said that completely devalues them. “They are a totally unique video experience, usually more casual.”

Amanda Congdon Talks Video Syndication

Editor’s Note: Discuss video blogging and the methods of distributing this medium at SyndicationPro.

In the self-publishing model of video blogging, as Rocketboom does, Congdon noted that “producers can finally keep their integrity as human beings.” She illustrated some steps in a Self-Publishing Business Model that can help those video bloggers achieve a measure of success.

Video advertising, as other sessions have observed, is really just getting started. Congdon said Rocketboom just put up a sponsorship page with rates for advertising on their episodes.

Unlike most video advertising, Rocketboom’s ad options are post-roll only, while most online videos that carry advertising deliver it pre-roll.

“We are charging on a flat fee basis,” Congdon said. “Our prices are significantly lower to help small businesses advertise.” She said niche ads can probably make the most money for video bloggers.

After video ads, Congdon suggested other options within the self-publishing model. Subscriptions, pay-per-view, merchandising (Rocketboom offers t-shirts for example), and consulting can provide a means to support ongoing production of those video blogs.

Although Congdon is the star of the 3-minute show each weekday, it is Rocketboom’s followers that help program it. About 30 percent of Rocketboom content comes from viewers submitting videos to the site.

Growing Rocketboom means they will likely expand the number of correspondents they have now; currently they have eleven. They may introduce a subscription service for premium content on the site too.

Congdon also noted that the fly-around-the-chair stunts Rocketboom does end up leaving her with a bruise every time.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.