Gawker: valleywag, vlogs

Host Joanne Colan Leaves Rocketboom

Nick Douglas — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:34:31 EDT

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 but inscrutable cult favorite into a mainstream online news source. (See for yourself below by watching today's weird episode.) Nor did she achieve the same web fame as her predecessor Amanda Congdon, who left a job with ABCNews.com last year.

No news yet on whether Baron will try to hire a third host for his show, which would mean the show had as many hosts as it's had paying advertisers.

Don't miss vlogger Irina Slutsky embarrassing herself

Tim Faulkner — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:05:09 EST

Here's a little taste of what you'll be missing if you are unable to attend the inaugural Winnies held at Cinespace in Los Angeles tonight: MC Slutsky and her Krew performing "Vlog Deathmatch" live. Sadly, the event will not include any other deathmatches. Like the Special Olympics, everyone is a winner at these vlog awards, hosted by videobloggers Irina Slutsky and Gary Vaynerchuk. Lan Bui, Vu Bui, and Bonny Pierzini of the irreverent Noodle Scar also helped organize the event. Our only disappointment: With no losers in attendance, how can we possibly cover the event?

State of the Vlogosphere: Sunny, chance of suck

Nick Douglas — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:31:50 EDT

NICK DOUGLAS — In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 frames per second. Just check these stats from Mefeedia. In its report on "the state of the vlogosphere," the video aggregator reports that the number of vlogs has risen from 617 to over 20 thousand in the last two years. Let's project that growth rate to next year.

Above is a chart of Mefeedia's figures, showing the number of existing vlogs in January 2005, 2006, and 2007. Based on a scientific method known as "dragging and clicking in Excel until, frustrated, I just hand-enter the shrinking percentage into a calculator," I've projected the number of vlogs in January 2008 based on the shrinking growth percentage (Mefeedia's figures show 1316% growth in 2005 and 139% in 2006, so we projected 14% growth in 2007).

With those figures, we're looking at another three thousand vlogs by next January, for a total of just under 2400. Not too bad. Of course, the number of vlogs worth watching will stay at 0 until Ze Frank returns in a glorious chariot hailed by trumpets and angels.