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Warning the below is not true:
“Rocketboom fans may have to pay to see Joanne Colan, now that show co-creator Andrew Baron has told Marketwatch that advertising isn’t working out as he would like. No decision has been made, but Baron said advertisers “are just not happy to do small deals” like Rocketboom has been doing.”
Its not true at all. Rocketboom will remain freely available. The point I was making is that we are not happy with advertising right now. The advertisers are not being very flexible and down-to-earth and we are just not happy with the idea of mass advertising on Rocketboom. Its not ruled out, it just feels wrong so far.
I think pre-roll/mid roll commercials on content like ours is a terrible mistake, product placement will not work for us (LonleyGirl can get away with product placement because the whole show is full of myth and psychological mayhem already), groups like Federated Media while helpful to talk to, haven’t addressed video advertising just right yet, and so we have been exploring other ways to do more than just merely sustain, without advertising, or taking hold of people with venerable mental states.
Some kind of sponsorship model, more along the lines of NPR or PBS might be best for content that exists for the sake of content itself.
The real success story lay in obtaining finantial support from the active and participatory audience – I continue to refer back to a build upon/turbo version of Jason Kottke’s mico donation experiement.
I think there is a difference between a reader of a link blog and an audience member/fan of a daily show, and it’s that loyal audience/fan mentality, one which I seem to express myself for others as well, that could inspire progressive support of the show.
A combination of audience support and museum-like sponsorship support could work together to keep centain kinds of content free.
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