As Atoosa Rubinstein noted yesterday, everyone’s favorite ex-viral video sensation scored herself a lucrative marketing deal. LonelyGirl15 has entered into an agreement with Neutrogena — over the next few episodes of the YouTube series, a Neutrogena-employed “mad scientist” will appear as a supporting character.

At least this pay-for-YouTube-play is transparent, unlike, say, Amanda “Rocketboomer” Congdon, whose shilling for Dupont was discovered in March, to which the the ABCNews.com contributor played the “I’m not a journalist — I’m a blogger” defense card.

No one bought it.

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Above, the mock-up. Below, ABC News president David Westin‘s memo to staff:

From: Westin, David
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:57 AM
To: ABCTV News ALL
Subject: ABCNEWS.com

Next week we unveil a new version of ABCNEWS.com. This is the first stage of an overall redesign that will ultimately transform the site into a news and information website that will be boldly different — both from what it has been before and from what other, similar sites offer. The new version will be simpler, easier to use, and will feature video more prominently than what we’ve had until now.

ABCNEWS.com is all about our reporting — both on the Internet and on our broadcasts — and that will remain true. One of the important goals for the new ABCNEWS.com is to use the power of the community created on the Internet to take that reporting to new levels. We will actively seek participation by those with something factual to add. We will solicit from our Internet users the questions they want answered by those in positions of power and knowledge.

All of this will complement what we are increasingly providing on the “Be Seen and Be Heard” component of ABC News Now — available on digital cable, broadband, and mobile devices for those who subscribe.

Well before our enhancements to ABCNEWS.com, it has shown exponential growth. In March alone, the site garnered 150 million page views, marking a 22% increase in page views from the previous month. Additionally, the site saw a 13% year-over-year growth in unique users to 11.5 million.

The new ABCNEWS.com is the product of a lot of hard work, and I thank everyone involved.

We hope that you will find the new ABCNEWS.com to be a substantial step forward. Improving the site together is an ongoing process, and we encourage your comments through the message boards we’ve created for your feedback.

Where Amanda Congdon fits into the relaunch remains to be seen. She is, after all, not a journalist.

We’ve been dutifully following the media career of Rocketboom host-turned-ABCNews.com vlogger Amanda Congdon — who is quickly becoming as relevant for ABC as LonelyGirl — including the latest revelation that Congdon has been doing work on the side for DuPont corporation without so-called “full disclosure” — a big no-no not only for ABC but for someone, like Congdon, whose every move is picked apart (however mercilessly) by the blogosphere.

What’s more shocking, though, is Congdon’s response:

As I mentioned on my blog Sunday evening, I made these little “infotainmercials” for DuPont. I love how that ridiculous word spread like wildfire… that was my intention. A little experiment that WORKED. ABC and HBO both approved the DuPont spots. And under the “blogger” title, which is what I am, hello? I am not subject to the “rules” traditional journalists have to follow.

Perhaps not, Amanda, but as a “blogger” you should know that disclosing fully what could potentially be perceived as a conflict of interest is something that all journalists — traditional or not — should do.

In other words, transparency — wasn’t that your problem with LonelyGirl?

FishbowlNY’s Amanda Congdon Coverage:

Joanne Colan, a.k.a Amanda Congdon‘s replacement at Rocketboom, gave Howard Kurtz her thoughts on Sunday’s edition of CNN’s Reliable Sources:

KURTZ: Well, Second Life must be a big deal, because Reuters now has a full-time correspondent covering this virtual world. But I’m wondering if you see more journalists and more politicians getting into this arena?

COLAN: I don’t envy them. I wouldn’t really want to have to sit there, myself, and spend all my time in Second Life, because it’s kind of tiring. You’re aware of your avatar, you’re juggling how to move around. I’m fairly new at it; I’m not very good — I crash into things.

Luckily, Kurtz’ avatar appears to have a handle on walking.

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On ABC News, Amanda Congdon is a cross between her bubbly, tight-shirted RocketBoom persona and a “serious” correspondent. Such as in this video, when she, dressed in an overcoat, intones that her report is about “cow doo-doo.” In five minutes we see lots of pictures, but don’t really learn that much about how cow dung is processed into alternative energy or how big or small a trend this may be.

But there are a few gems, like when Congdon calls a cow “he,” sniffs some processed dung so we can learn it has no smell, and near the end (you’ll have to wait, because ABC doesn’t let you scroll or drag the video), when she tells a “cute” calf twice: “Your poop is not big enough yet!”

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