July 6, 2006
Calacanis offers Condgon a job and Andrew Baron's side of the story
Following the news of Amanda Congdon leaving Rocketboom, Jason Calacanis offers her some advice, and a kick ass job at Netscape.
So, my offer to you is do your daily report for Netscape and we'll pay you whatever you need to get paid AND you can own all of the rights to your video forever (just give us like a six month exclusive window on Netscape). We will set you up with our kick-ass studios, get you an office, and I've got a full-time video editor at your disposal (i.e. they can go with you anywhere). Also, we'll set up a travel budget so you can go cover whatever stories you want.
The Washington Post writing about her departure, wonders, whether "without its attractive host -- some say she was why most people watched, anyway -- Congdon's departure could spell doom for a wildly popular site that helped launch the popularity of video blogs.
... Aside from its host, Rocketboom attracted a lot of attention because it showed promise in turning video blogging into a lucrative business. Rocketboom was said to be drawing 300,000 viewers a day to it's videoblog, and was about to start charging advertisers $85,000 a week.
Baron' side of the story:
Congdon's partner, Andrew Baron, reached yesterday afternoon, said he didn't know Congdon was leaving Rocketboom until he saw her video blog.
He said Congdon, an aspiring actress, announced two weeks ago that she wanted to move to Los Angeles to pursue interests in Hollywood and that she wanted to do so within a week. Baron said that the short notice wouldn't work but that Rocketboom and Congdon were negotiating a way to make it work. Over the past 12 days, Rocketboom has replaced Congdon's hosting duties with short features from its correspondents around the world, Baron said."
Congdon replies to Baron:
Amanda Congdon's statement on "Andrew Baron's spread of misinformation".
I am disheartened by Andrew Baron's decision to spread misinformation. He knows I cannot move to LA without a job...but insists on spinning things this way to shore up his assertion that I am "walking away" from Rocketboom. I did not walk away. I did not accept Andrew's idea of "partnership".
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