Kent Nichols, co-creator of the popular video podcast Ask A Ninja, has started a new blog, and it already looks like it could become essential reading for indie new media content creators. His first post takes a look at YouTube and why video podcasters and vloggers shouldn’t depend on it: “YouTube doesn‚Äôt care about any [...]

Ninjas everywhere are celebrating the International Day of the Ninja, an annual Dec 5th event popularized by the Ninja of Ask a Ninja. If you haven’t noticed ninjas celebrating the day yet, well, it’s because they are ninjas. And if you have been lucky to see ninjas celebrating, they’re probably nonjas. If you’re a non-ninja [...]

The Association For Downloadable Media (ADM), a newly-formed organization dedicated to “providing standards for advertising and audience measurement for episodic and downloadable media,” announced today the election results for the 20 positions on its board. Podcasting News Publisher Elisabeth McLaury Lewin talked with some of the newly-elected board members and committee heads, asking about what [...]

The Association for Downloadable Media (ADM) announced today the election results for its Executive Board (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer), Advisory Board seats, and committee chairs. The ADM, a newly-formed industry organization dedicated to standardization and monetization of new media, has been formed to focus specifically on any content downloaded by consumers, and will work [...]

TechCrunch published a controversial piece of linkbait over the Thanksgiving holiday on the “secret” strategies behind successful viral videos. The essay, by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, suggested that the days of indie video podcasts like Ask A Ninja becoming viral hits through hard work and creativity are gone. “The Wild West days of Lonely Girl and [...]

At the recent Podcast and Portable Media Expo, I had a chance to talk with Douglas Sarine (L) and Kent Nichols (R), the guys behind the viral video podcast hit Ask A Ninja. I was suffering from laryngitis at the time – which meant that I spent most of the interview listening. It’s just as [...]

NBC Universal has announced that it plans to limit the length of pre-roll advertising (ads displayed before you get any content) in short Internet videos to 15 seconds or less. NBC’s move appears to be part of a trend towards shorter, more targeted advertising in Internet video. Unfortunately, it looks like MTV is bucking this [...]

The winners of the Webby Film and Video Awards were announced today, with winnders ranging from Hollywood heavy hitters like NBC‚Äôs The Office Webisodes to Eepybird.com‚Äôs The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments. The Webby Award Winner for podcasting was NPR Podcasts, which also was the People’s Voice Winner. Organizers also announced the recipients of [...]

Looking to take his popular online comedy video podcast “to the next level,” Tim Street, Creator and Executive Producer of French Maid TV has signed with United Talent Agency. ‚ÄúSeeing what UTA has done for Ask A Ninja, Ze Frank and Sam Has Seven Friends‚Äô Big Fantastic I couldn‚Äôt see signing anywhere else. These guys [...]

The guys at Ask A Ninja have posted an interesting take on the way MySpace is limiting what users can do at the site: Over the last few months there has been a lot of debate over Net Neutrality, which basically boils down to one company blocking access to to another companies servers in order [...]