• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 14, 2006

Former Rocketboom vlogger Amanda Congdon--among the Web's first video stars--has landed TV gigs on ABC and HBO.

Four months after her bitter break with Rocketboom founder Andrew Michael Baron, Congdon is preparing to serve as an ABC news correspondent and also host a vlog on abcnews.com. Additionally, HBO has tapped her to develop a show.

While Congdon might be the first vlogger to land on TV, plenty before her have jumped from the Internet to traditional media. Consider the swarms of bloggers that now have book deals, or the new crop of talent discovered on YouTube; Carson Daly in June signed 20-year-old Brooke "Brookers" Brodack to a development deal.

It shouldn't be a surprise by now that online exposure can lead established media companies to sign up talent. If people want to see/hear/read someone on the Web, it makes sense to think they'd do so on TV or other traditional media. In fact, Web users serve as a vast free focus group for TV and newspaper executives. While Web users might not fill out studio-approved surveys, they spontaneously submit comments. And they don't need to say whether they would watch a performer more than once; they vote with their mouses every time they return to a site.

It's that time of year again! You're invited to enter OMMA magazine's Agency of the Year awards for 2006. Click: https://www.mediapost.com/aoysub/ to submit your entry. Thank you.