Are There Profits in YouTube Starts?

Its 20,000-square-foot Chelsea production studio is just part of its plan to capitalize on viral talent.

May 10, 2015
By Reid Cherlin

"Look, it can be nighttime in the diner or daytime in the diner!" says Dannielle Owens-Reid, kneeling on a blue leather banquette. As she slides a dimmer switch, the New York City streetscape behind the diner’s windows plunges into dusk and then recovers to mid-afternoon brightness. Owens-Reid and her friend Kristin Russo are the stars, founders, and animating spirits of the YouTube channel Everyone Is Gay, a comedy-inflected advice series for LGBT youth. Today they have been shooting an episode on dating tips — hence, using the diner set — but Owens-Reid keeps dissolving into hysterics. “Don’t break character in the middle of your date!” says Russo. “Don’t go on a date with your best friend is a tip,” says Owens-Reid, laughing again, and they end the session.

The phony restaurant, and the many other sets surrounding it, are all part of a soundstage called the YouTube Space, located on two floors just above YouTube’s New York offices in Chelsea. The Space opened in October last year, joining four others in London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and São Paulo. The idea of the Spaces, YouTube says, is to act as an incubator for the video-makers — always called “creators” — who make the company what it is.

Read on at New York Magazine ➝