Rocketboom host Joanne Colan is leaving the show, according to a report in Valleywag: According to a source at the Creative Artists Agency, host Joanne Colan is leaving Rocketboom, one of the Internet’s first prominent news videoblogs. During her tenure, Colan never managed to transform the show (directed by creator Andrew Baron) from a quirky [...]

Former Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon gets profiled in the New York Times, and somehow the NYT doesn’t even cough up a link to her new video blog, Sometimes Daily. “It’s weird,” says Congdon. The Times article also seems fairly dismissive of everything that Congdon has done: Ms. Congdon, 26, became the closest thing to an [...]

Former Rocketboomer and ABC onliner Amanda Congdon‘ has a new gig – SometimesDaily: The teaser proves Congdon’s still got a pair of fans – but will more tune in after her long  absence from podcasting? And is Jason Calacanis still ready to fight for her like a rabid dog? We’ll see when SometimesDaily kicks off [...]

Rocketboom founder Andrew Michael Baron has announced that he’s auctioning off his Twitter account: Baron is effectively wanting to monetize the attention that his Twitter account receives. Per the eBay auction: The winner of this auction gets my account with all of my followers. The account is in my name now, but the winner of [...]

When we talked with Rocketboom’s Andrew Baron recently, he cited the idea of creating a spectacle as one of the ways to create great viral video. “Videos of spectacle translate on the net,” notes Baron, “An idea that is very original and unique, while extreme, can be videotaped and put up on YouTube to get [...]

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 [...]

Rocketboom and Blip.tv have announced a partnership to incorporate interactive advertising into the weekday video podcast. The result is more intrusive than some other Internet video ad types, but is an interesting new ad option. Here’s how Blip.tv’s Mike Hudack describes the system: That new technology is an entirely interactive QuickTime overlay advertisement that looks [...]

Gawker is reporting that pioneering video blogger Amanda Congdon and ABC will be parting ways: We hear that ABC News vlogger Amanda Congdon’s contract won’t be renewed. Congdon, who came to fame at RocketBoom, started contributing to their website late last year. She has been quite productive recently taking tours of homes in Santa Barbara [...]

Pioneering video podcast Rocketboom has introduced a new sponsorship system, with YouTube as the first sponsor. The show plans to charge $3,000 per episode for sponsorships, which will include: Post Roll Sponsorship Gratitude. White text on black background. Company logo and byline. 7 seconds. Travels with all videos to all platforms (incl. web, phone, tv, [...]

Pioneering video podcast Rocketboom is considering charging for it content, because it doesn’t have the size of audiences that large advertisers are looking for. “It’s frustrating that we haven’t worked it out by now,” said Rocketboom creator, Andrew Baron. “Even though we have a relatively large audience, advertisers are just not happy to do ‘small [...]