On the week of the lowest TV ratings since the dawn of civilization, Steve Rubel breathlessly announces that Rocketboom refuge Amanda Congdon will soon light up the skies of Hollywood. On the other side, Allan Jenkins offers a big fat humbug.
Actually, neither are even close to the truth.
Amanda was a star in the sense that in an age of microcontent, cheap tools and narrowcasting anyone can be a star. She had an audience of 350,000 (comperable to the cable news networks for the sake of comparision) and with some ad income could have made a fairly decent living. I’m not priviledged to the arrangements between her and Andrew Barron but I can read a media kit and Rocketboom could have done quite well.
That’s the era we live in, the Long Tail (everyone do a shot) means that everyone with some talent and access to the right tools can find an audience and make a halfway decent living. With no gatekeepers, a guy like John Unger or a band like The Gentle Readers can find an audience and even prosper.
And that’s where both Allan and Steve get it wrong. To Allen, if you don’t find Amanda and Rocketboom interesting, well fine. Someone did obviously and that’s fine. And to Steve, acceptance and adoption by the mass market no longer equals success. In fact for many, it’s just the opposite.
