Is celebrity the new mass medium? With websites like TMZ, PerezHilton, The Superficial and Yahoo's omg! offering a non-stop view into the lives of the rich and famous, is there still room for traditional celebrity media to thrive? These are just some of the pointed questions raised at the recent EconCeleb conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. The day was packed with insights from hard-hitting media executives such as Bonnie Fuller, former EVP and chief editorial director of American Media, Inc., and Harvey Levin, managing editor of TMZ.com.

 

Nearly 200 people attended the event, produced by media company ContentNext. TechZulu caught up with Founder Rafat Ali at the end of the day to get his take on the economics of social media, and what’s on the horizon for ContentNext since being acquired by the UK’s Guardian News & Media (GNM).