will be shocked by the departure of the show's host
Amanda Congdon
. That certainly answers the questions "why hasn't the hair-tossing, script-flinging Amanda been on the show lately?" and why has Rocketboom been running "filler" video in her place.
In a message on the Rocketboom front page, founder Andrew Baron says "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.
Andrew says he will continue to produce Rocketboom from New York, and that he has "big plans" to make the show "better than ever".
I once asked Andrew how he and Amanda got together to start Rocketboom back in October 2004. He said it was as simple as placing an advertisement for a video blog host and auditioning the applicants. Guess he'll be dusting off the job description. This time though, he shouldn't have to explain to anyone what Rocketboom is.
- - - posted 9.30am by Neil Sanderson
Apologies if you were unable to visit nzherald this morning.
Heavy demand from overseas readers overloaded our systems, causing visitors to get the dreaded "Page cannot be found" message. Our technical team are trying to figure out how we can avoid this in future.
The surge in traffic to nzherald was caused by our story
Peace activist hit rocker in spat over girl, say UK police
, which was prominently featured on a popular US site
Drudge Report
.
Wednesday July 5
Reader comment:
I think over the last three years, the nzherald.co.nz has taken several steps in online journalism, that brings it closer to a highly interactive online publication. Unlike, some other websites of print newspapers in New Zealand, nzherald.co.nz has emerged as a stand-alone newspaper, not a mirror-image of the print parent. The frequent updating content, new media-rich content such as blogs, video, graphics have put nzherald.co.nz ahead of others.
As a student of mass media, who had recently researched the online newspapers of New Zealand, I find nzherald.co.nz interactive, user-friendly and see in it the promise of participatory journalism. I hope nzherald.co.nz would emerge as the leader in changing the top-to-down news model of print media to bottom-up and participatory model of journalism. The next major step, for nzherald.co.nz, is to provide the readers the options for personalisation.
- - - posted by Ali
Response:
Thank you very much, Ali, on behalf of the whole team. Our goal is to continually improve nzherald, and the feedback we receive from readers is a great help.
- - - posted 6.20pm by Neil Sanderson
"The world does not need more blogs,"
says Nick Denton. An interesting comment, coming from someone who owns 15 high-profile blog sites and who has been described by
David Carr on nytimes.com
as "an overlord of the blogosphere". Denton's company Gawker Media publishes Gawker (famed for its
Gawker Stalker map
), Wonkette, Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Deadspin and Valleywag, among others. He announced a few days ago that he would sell tabloid news site Sploid and video humour site Screenhead, so that he could focus on those with better potential. The timing appears to be related to the fact there's a lot of investor interest in blogs. As Denton told Carr "There is no doubt that there is a bubble right now."
- - - posted 9.20am by Neil Sanderson
Tuesday July 4
Yachting reporter
Julie Ash
is making an impression with her coverage of the
America's Cup pre-regatta
. Website
Valencia Sailing
refers to her as "the authorative and exhilarating reporter of the New Zealand Herald here in Valencia".
Julie isn't the only yachting star of course. Dean Barker and his Team New Zealand crew not only won the pre-regatta but also the 2006 series.
- - - posted 10.05am by Neil Sanderson
Haka controversy:
Today we'd like to hear what you think of the TV commercial for the Fiat Idea. The ad, which is being broadcast in Italy, shows women performing the Ka Mate haka and has been described by some Maori as culturally insensitive. You can watch the
video in our report
and send us your comments on the
Readers' Views page
.
- - - posted 9.18am by Neil Sanderson
Thanks to everyone who partipated in our
discussion of speeding tickets
yesterday. Some strong views on both sides of the question. And we have
more on the story
today.
- - - posted 9.12am by Neil Sanderson
Monday July 3
A police manager has been criticised
for encouraging officers to enforce speed limits. On our
Readers' Views
page today we'd like to hear your view:
Should the police be permitted to issue speeding tickets?
- - - posted 9.25am by Neil Sanderson
Superman returns
may be just a movie, but at
USA Today
Patrick Cooper
reckons there are some serious ethical questions relating to mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent and his employer, the
Daily Planet
.
- - - posted 9.15am by Neil Sanderson
