• Turns out bullying the Times is not a smart political scheme. [NY Sun]
• Rocketboom finds a new pair of jugs to sit in front of the camera. As for Amanda Congdon? Yeah, she's signed with Endeavor. [ETP, Micro Persuasion]
• Simon Dumenco knows some things for sure — like how he loves when readers spit up their Diet Coke while reading his column. [AdAge]
• When it comes to gay marriage, Hillary Clinton has a canned response ready for ya. [Queerty]
• You mean Times staffers expect to be paid for their work — weeks and months after their original bylines ran? [E&P]
• Meanwhile, Daily News staffers face another dilemma: to blog or not to blog. [Gawker]
• Hey, lady? Everyone is in Dennis Crowley's Dodgeball network. We get more text messages from him than our real friends. [NYT]
Could it be? The most successful experiment in vlogging suddenly shut down without warning? The vlog that snagged $40,000 in its eBay advertising auction, gone? And DMCA Infringment Notifications had nothing to do with it? There's tumult and turmoil (we've been dying to say that for a while) at Rocketboom, where Amanda Congdon held court over the day's news with NY1-quality graphics and camera tricks. But as the public notice on Rocketboom's homepage will tell you, Amanda has gone Hollywood. Yep, seems she's gotten offers around town and now she's grown too big for the Boomers. She's probably all fancy now and has an agent, manager, TV series pilot, book deal, and fragrance on the way. She doesn't give that away in the video announcement (above) she produced herself and posted yesterday, but you just know she's sipping Krug with Danny Masterson right about now.
Amanda Congdon has decided to move to L.A. to pursue opportunities that have arisen for her in Hollywood.
We wanted to meet her demands to move production out to L.A., however, we are a small company and have not been able to figure out a way to make it work, financially and in many other ways at this time. While we continue to remain with open arms, Amanda has in fact quit and left Rocketboom. So sadly, we bid Amanda adieu and wish her all the best.
Rocketboom goes on.
Andrew Baron, the founder and creator of Rocketboom, will stay with the company in New York and will continue to produce and direct the show. We are in the daunting process of recruiting a replacement for Amanda.
While Amanda will be sorely missed, we have big plans for Rocketboom and are determined to make the show better than ever.
After Field Week and a week on hiatus, we know that you are hungry for the news! Rocketboom will be back with a news episode and an interim host this MONDAY, JULY 10.
Amanda, meanwhile, will soldier on in L.A.-L.A. land with her 49 percent stake in Rocketboom, while former producing partner Andrew Michael Baron will continue on once he finds new talent. Hey Andrew: We hear Star Jones isn't hosting anything these days.
Editorial Director
