Amanda Congdon Leaves ABC News

With no new installment of her videoblog for ABC News on Wednesday and a rumor posted by Gawker this morning, it came as no surprise when Mediabistro finally got an official statement from ABC (DIS) that Amanda Congdon will no longer be hosting a weekly show for its web site.

I contacted Amanda, who told me that it was her decision not to continue on with ABC now that her year is up:

It’s been a fun, productive time filled with lots of traveling and lots of learning about traditional news media. I’m excited to begin a new project in the digital space in the very near future.

Presumably her new projects will be with Oxmour Entertainment, which she started this year with partner Mario Librandi.

After a nasty public breakup with RocketBoom (where she first gained online notoriety) in July 2006, Congdon signed on with the Endeavor Agency, debuted her eponymous ABC videoblog in December, and subsequently launched her own show online, Starring Amanda Congdon. She also participated in a series of online “infotainmercials” for DuPont (DD), raising ethical questions over conflict of interest.

For ABC’s part, while the company didn’t seem to have trouble finding sponsors for their videoblog, their efforts were a tad tone-deaf — though available as an iTunes or RSS podcast, online the show was trapped in the network’s flash player and clips couldn’t be embedded. Now wiser in the ways of mainstream media, but with online experience and expertise as well, Congdon’s new projects should prove more savvy.