New York

AT 21, David Pakman started a little Massachusetts community radio talk programme. While the young broadcaster got his show syndicated on a few public radio stations, it was a YouTube channel he began in 2009, The David Pakman Show, that opened up his progressive political commentary to a whole new digital audience.

The show has since amassed 353,000 subscribers, and roughly half its revenue now comes from the ads that play before his videos. He earns enough to produce the show full time and pay a lean staff.