How YouTube changes everything

Reported by Miguel Helft, senior writer  @FortuneMagazine July 25, 2013: 7:03 AM ET

 

(Fortune)

It took Hunter March just days to go from TV studio intern to on-air personality, and on a recent morning he is practicing his newfound craft. Standing atop a three-inch wooden platform, he fidgets as he prepares to tape his daily show. There's no soundproof room and no on air sign to shush passersby. The shoot takes place next to the receptionist's desk in a Los Angeles studio as delivery men and employees come and go. March, a hyperactive 22-year-old with spiky hair and boyish good looks, operates the tripod-mounted camera himself. His backdrop is a graffitied chalkboard with the phrase "Be Awesome" scribbled on it. March takes a deep breath and looks down at his iPhone to read a couple of lines of his script.

Next he turns on the charm -- his smile broadens, his eyes widen -- and he parrots the lines for the camera with the suavity of a seasoned entertainment-show anchor. He repeats the routine with the next line, and the next one, until, well, everything there is to say about the latest Miley and Justin rumors has been said. The show, all 60 seconds of it, airs online the next day, and within a few hours after it's posted, more than 10,000 people have watched it. A few days later the view count is up to 44,000 and still climbing.

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