http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/talkingtech/story/2012-04-12/hollywood-collective-agency/54233860/1
Forget Variety.Michael Green has put down the bible of showbiz and is actively seeking the next big star among a wave of homegrown YouTube producers and performers attracting millions of viewers online.
Green, who represented stars such as Roseanne Barr and Martin Lawrence at the height of their TV careers, realized there was a new business to be had from the online audience.
“It’s a seismic shift,” says Green, the CEO of The Collective, a company he formed to manage careers and work with Internet creators to produce content.
Other Los Angeles-based firms — Big Frame, Maker Studios and Mighty Fresh lead the pack — are also looking to YouTubers as a major new source of potential income.
Why not? The popularity of some YouTube performers and their “channels” dwarfs many TV shows, and their videos have been seen more than a billion times. Ray William Johnson, Shane Dawson’s ShaneDawsonTV, Dane Boedigheimer’s Annoying Orange, Justine Ezarik’s iJustine and Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch’s Freddiew channels are among the biggest.
YouTube itself is on a major expansion kick this year, trying to keep viewers tuned in longer by shifting them from watching single videos to channels.