This year’s NAB Show is focusing its lens onto the exploding content creator economy, with conferences and special exhibit areas showcasing the tech and programming.
Bridging the two worlds of online content creation and traditional broadcast will be discussed in a number of sessions, including one with Jefferson Graham, a Los Angeles based writer-photographer.
Jefferson is the host of the PhotowalksTV travel series on Scripps News and YouTube, a photography instructor for Kelbyone.com, the author of the popular Substack Photowalks newsletter and a former tech columnist for USA TODAY.
Article continues below“From YouTube to TV (and Back): Building a Cross-Platform Content Brand,” takes place on Monday April 20, 4 PM-5 PM in Rm. 239/241 of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the show.
Jefferson, whose “Photowalks TV” YouTube channel hosts more than 1,000 videos and more than 36,000 subscribers, will discuss how his relationship with Scripps News group evolved over time, moving from weekly updates on a morning news show to his own hosted show.
“I was brought on to be a travel contributor to Scripps News and to go on the air every Friday morning with travel segments,” he said. “At a certain point, I went to the guy who brought me on, and said ‘I'd like to do a whole TV show based on my YouTube channel’ and he said, ‘well, send me something.”
“So I sent him some ideas, and that was on a Friday,” Jefferson continued. “On Monday, he told me, ‘you're on the air in two weeks. We're going to do six episodes, but you're going to expand the YouTube show into a half hour—half hour being 22 minutes—and you're going to do it in three segments. You're going to do an 11 minute segment, a seven minute segment and a four minute segment. That's how we do it in TV.'”
Jefferson said the tone was also different. “On YouTube, the series was about visiting great places and showing viewers where to find the best photo spots,” he said. “For TV, I re-jiggered it into a traditional travel show, one that's shot on a phone, with four minutes of photo tips at the end of each show.”
Planning for a TV show—with its strict time limitations—was probably the biggest challenge transitioning from YouTube to TV, Jefferson said.
"I did episode on Barcelona as a YouTuber, and I had 10 minutes of content… I didn't have 22 and I can't go fly over to Barcelona, to go finish it, right? So that was a challenge,” he said. “But the way you fix that is you just know going in that you're making a TV show, and you're not going to have that problem again, so you just shoot more stuff.”
There are also legal issues that differentiate the two platforms, according to Jefferson. He has used royalty-free background music and obtained other music from some low-cost subscriptions for his YouTube channel but he ran into some rights issues when moving to TV.
“When I made the deal with Scripps, I started off recutting some of my older episodes, and I had to wipe the soundtracks clean and start over again with new music,” he said. “But I have an advantage that most people don't have—I play the guitar, so I'll just record a soundtrack and put it on there. And then my brother is a professional pianist, and I'll call him, and tell him I need some ‘driving music.’”
The half-hour “Photowalks on Scripps News,” airs at 10 AM (ET) on Sunday mornings and replayed at 10 PM (ET) that night, with the previous week’s episode rerun at 10:30 PM on Scripps News affiliate stations. Jefferson says budding content creators who want to get the attention of their local TV stations have a great opportunity in YouTube to experiment with their program strategy.
“I would do what most people are doing, put every story up, put extended interviews, do live chats with my anchors. I would use everything at my disposal to shoot the vertical videos I've done interviews with Scripps reporters,” he said. “One of them was a digital reporter in San Diego, and she shot the interview vertically, because that's how they wanted to run it. I would use every, every avenue available to reach the audience, wherever they are.”
Joe says the relationship with Scripps also pays off when he visits communities where Scripps owns a local TV station.
“I get to work with some of the local people there, so big shout out to WCPO in Cincinnati!” he said. “They spent a day with me shooting and then I also went on the air and did a segment with them, that was fantastic,” adding that he also worked with local broadcasters in Detroit, San Diego and Missoula Mont as well
Jefferson adds that the two platforms work off of each other, and as a result boost viewership for both outlets. Since launching in the fall of 2024, more than 70 episodes have been broadcast on Scripps and Jefferson says the relationship has been lucrative. Without revealing his financial arrangement, Jefferson said “it's great because they pay a lot more than YouTube does.”
To register for the NAB Show, visit www.nabshow.com.
