Amanda Congdon Leaves Rocketboom
Amanda Congdon, star of Rocketboom, announced today that she's leaving the program apparently over some disagreement with her partner, Andrew Baron.
As you can see from the chart below. Rocketboom's rise has been nothing short of remarkable. The vlog has more than 250,000+ daily viewers, a promising advertising future and a presence on TiVo. The site attracts nearly as many eyeballs as CBS.com and NBC.com, at least according to a Alexaholic. Much of this success can be attributed to the partnership between Congdon and Baron. They're like Lennon and McCartney.
I wouldn't bet against a TV network or studio signing Amanda to a contract. Now is their opportunity. After all, both Lennon and McCartney went on to be very successful in their own right after the Beatles broke up. (via Dave Winer)

Tags: Rocketboom, Amanda+Congdon, Andrew+Barron






Hoooly schmolly!
Posted by: Kingsley | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 12:48 PM
This is too bad for both Andrew and Amanda but that's business for ya. Strange things can happen when there's good money to be made in any situation.
I believe that the Rocketboom brand is bigger than Amanda though. And there are tons of smart, attractive women vying for spots on TV. So I don't think she's going to be in the high demand you predict.
If Rocketboom fails to follow with a likable host soon, the vacuum will be filled. That's the beauty of the social media revolution.
Posted by: Rob Safuto | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 01:11 PM
Wow, what a shocker. It is true though, once money and some major interest comes into play, friction can start. I wish them both the best of luck, but I honestly believe that RocketBoom will be just fine.
Posted by: Drew Olanoff | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 02:04 PM
I agree that RB is huge, but I don't see any point on that graph where Rocketboom has any more than half the traffic that CBS and NBC have individually - hardly the "nearly as many" viewers you mention. Or am I just reading it wrong?
And I know you're not the kind of guy who uses the oldthink term "eyeballs" to mean users or readers or viewers or humans. But you just did.
Sorry to make my first comment on your excellent site a double negative, Steve. I'll try harder next time!
Posted by: Tim WIndsor | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 02:39 PM
Grrrrrrrrr.. I think your trend#4 is now pretty prophetical !! :)-
Posted by: /pd | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 04:17 PM
Steve
Interesting shake up - what do you think that this will do to the Rocketboom brand, and its relationships with TiVo and others?
It sounds like creative differences are to blame, but it also sounds like Andrew Baron was surprised by the turn of events.
What's with the ABC and NBC comparison, though. The graph makes it look like Rocketboom's daily reach is a tiny fraction of big media site's.
What's interesting to me from the graph is that the big broadcasters lines are trending down, while Rocketboom's was trending up.
Posted by: elle | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 04:28 PM
I have to admit, those numbers you quoted for Rocketboom seem this side of unbelievable to me.
They were probably a lot better off sticking with their current format, since it was working.
Posted by: Darren McLaughlin | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 04:34 PM
elle,
TV site stats are probably trending down because it's off season right now, since June. I expect they'll pick up again in the fall when the new TV season starts.
Posted by: Joost Schuur | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 04:40 PM
You missed the bigger story, Steve. Everyone is expendable.
Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 09:01 PM
Steve, the unfortunate thing about the graph you use is that Alexa measures stats from users who have the Alexa toolbar installed - ie tech geeks. So it's hardly surprising that a new media darling like Rocketboom indexes very high with that type of audience, whereas the old media companies index much lower. I'm sure it's throwing the comparative traffic of those sites way off. Despite the graph, my hunch is that 1% of the population are currently going "holy crap" whereas 99% of them are going "WHO left WHAT?"
Posted by: Steve Coulson | Wednesday, July 05, 2006 at 10:03 PM
Lennon and McCartney? Is that the best reference you can make here?
Posted by: Dave | Thursday, July 06, 2006 at 02:15 AM
Re: the Alexa toolbar -- actually, the bias in Alexa stats is anti-tech geek. That's because you have to be running IE on Windows to use the Alexa toolbar, and alternative browsers like Firefox and alternative OSes like OS X and Linux are disproportionately popular among geeks. So Alexa numbers tend to be biased in favor of the less technically literate, who just use the browser and OS their computer came with.
Posted by: Jason Lefkowitz | Thursday, July 06, 2006 at 08:23 AM
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Posted by: 12 | Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 10:40 PM