Not so long ago, Amanda Congdon split from Rocketboom, and the
news of the separation was the biggest news in the blogosphere.
It was all over Techmeme for days, as everyone pored over
her blog posts and comments by Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron.
For those who have forgotten, Amanda co-created or co-owned or
was hired to front (depending on whom you believe) Rocketboom before
leaving over a row with Baron.
Now, there are reports
that she has parted company with ABC — where she was doing
occasional video reports — and there has been barely
a peep.
Why? Hard to say, really.
More To Do With Rocketboom Than Her
I think that the attention she got when she
left had a lot to do with Rocketboom, and what her acrimonious
departure said about it as a new media venture (hint: don’t
give the
talent 49 per cent of the venture unless you really
mean it).
The fact that she could go from a video-blog to a major TV
network
also said something about old media turning to new media for talent,
which is something everyone loves.
So why the lack of interest now? I’m going to go out
on a limb here
and say that one of the reasons is that she just isn’t very
good.
She
was quirky and refreshing in a way when she was on a show filmed in some
guy’s basement
(and yes, she has a couple of prominent assets as a video-blogger), but
on TV she is just… well, irritating.
That hasn’t
stopped other people
from a successful TV career, but most of them have had actual talent to
fall back on.
Written by Mathew Ingram, a technology journalist. Catch his views on the intersection between media and the web at MathewIngram.com. This post is licensed under the Creative Commons.
