Forbes Article on YouTubers - Including Rhett and Link

Today Forbes published online an article titled "The World's Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2015." The ranking and article includes Rhett and Link.

Read it here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2015/10/14/the-worlds-highes...

On how Forbes determined the pre-tax monetary earnings of each YouTuber, the write-up states:

The list measures earnings before subtracting management fees and taxes. Our figures are based on data from Nielsen, IMDB and other sources, as well as on interviews with agents, managers, lawyers, industry insiders and the stars themselves.

It seems Forbes' estimates are from pretty official sources. Also, the video that goes with the article shows that Rhett and Link, Michelle Phan, Lilly Singh, Lindsey Stirling, and Rosanna Pansino all actually gathered for a Forbes photoshoot and presumably talked directly to Forbes interviewers.

Still, I wonder about the veracity of their claims and if the numbers were really released that easily or exactly by the YouTubers and their management representatives -- there is something of a tradition of media outlets attempting to guess the net worth of YouTube creators, which are then often shot down as wildly inaccurate. The article is interesting to process.

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Permalink Reply by Jaymie Nunnery (Jayameez Cat) on October 16, 2015 at 10:26am

@Victoria, I read somewhere, I don't know f it was the Q&A or somewhere else, that they were wanting to direct people to the main channel more because that was the direction they wanted to go, with scripted content. I think they love GMM as a side project, but they really want to go into more scripted content like a show with a continuous story line or even a movie. This #Sketchtober project is giving them information about what the audience likes...or if they even like it at all. Maybe they want to direct more people to that channel to ncrease profits and move into acting, comedic or otherwise.

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Permalink Reply by Carol (Aelrindyl) on October 16, 2015 at 10:34am

Yeah seems they are testing the water (just made a post in Sketchtober to this effect).

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K-ModPermalink Reply by Gumbo V3.0 on October 16, 2015 at 11:35am

That would certainly make sense. The daily GMM format must certainly be a grind. They are even placing more scripted skits and off-site snippets into the GMM episodes, perhaps leading to a sketch comedy format instead of unscripted chatting as the main emphasis. The show's production quality has also now become much more polished with the addition of the GMM Krew for support, so something like The Mythical Show would be much easier and better looking if done today, in my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Lara Young on October 19, 2015 at 1:51pm

looked for a copy at the barnes and noble today - but all they had was the 'special edition' with Trump on the cover.