'Vlogger' Cyber-Culls The News
For those striving to stay on the cutting edge, blogging is so "last year." Now, it's all about "vlogging."
CBS News Correspondant Jim Axelrod reports video blogging is the latest trend in Internet posting.
Last October, vlogger Andrew Baron launched Rocketboom.com on an ambitious five-day-a-week schedule.
"I just could see that there were all these bloggers that were doing commentary on the news," Baron says. "The next step is to obviously do that with video."
Baron creates the "vlog" with Amanda Congdon, who was picked from hundreds of aspiring actresses who applied to put on the three-minute daily blog.
Rocketboom cyber-culls what it calls video nuggets from the Web. More and more, it also dabbles in news.
One two-minute episode shows a range of features, including a blender that works by yelling at it and a a vest that simulates hugs.
"We don't really hold back," says Congdon.
In just nine months, 50,000 viewers are logging in.
Production costs for Rocketboom are low, since they use just the basics — a camera, computer, table, chair and a map that hangs behind the set.
"I think it's somewhere around $25 a day," Baron says.
And with costs so low, there is money to be made.
"If we were to put a 15 second ad at the end of all of our shows, that would garner us a quarter of a million dollars annually," Baron says. "That is sort of what the value is of our show right now."
It wasn't that long ago that only multi-national corporations could afford to broadcast audio and video. But vlogging is suddenly putting that power in the hands of just about anyone. Vloggers around the world are signing up as Rocketboom.com correspondants.
Zadi Diaz was a Rocketboom viewer, and is now a correspondent in Los Angeles. Diaz thinks younger people are more comfortable in front of a camera — even without training.
"I think that the camera isn't as intrusive to our generation," Diaz says. "We kind of see cameras all over the place."
For vloggers, it's all happening faster than they can click.