How a former USA Today columnist launched his own travel channel on YouTube--by Simon Owens
Reprinted from Simon Owens' newsletter!
These days, every audio podcast has an accompanying video podcast, but Jefferson Graham was hosting video podcasts before the term even existed. In 2006, he started co-hosting a show with another USA Today colleague who lived on the opposite coast from him, and they’d physically FedEx the tapes back and forth so they could be edited. Jefferson then went on to host several video series for USA Today, including one where he’d interview celebrities about their favorite tech.
In 2021, after 30 years at USA Today, he decided to take a buyout so he could launch PhotowalksTV, a YouTube travel show where he visits different cities and instructs viewers on the best spots to take photos. In 2024, he signed a deal with Scripps News to broadcast the show on its FAST channels, and now new episodes air every Sunday at 10 am.
In a recent interview, Jefferson discussed what it was like to host a podcast when nobody knew what a podcast was, why he took the buyout from USA Today, and how he generates multiple revenue streams through his YouTube channel.
Check out the interview below:
Here’s an article summarizing the key insights from the interview:
When Jefferson Graham began filming a “video podcast” in 2006, the term barely existed. YouTube was a year old. Broadband penetration was thin. Smartphones were primitive. And yet there he was—propping a camcorder on a tripod in Los Angeles while his USA Today colleague, Ed Baig, did the same more than 2,000 miles away in New Jersey. They couldn’t beam video files across the country, so Baig literally FedExed physical tapes to Graham so he could edit the episodes together.
“We’d tape ourselves in front of our video cameras and have the phone speaker going so we could prompt ourselves,” Graham recalled.
Before livestreaming, before remote recording tools, before the modern creator economy, Graham was already doing what today’s creators treat as obvious.
That early experimentation foreshadowed a second chapter of his career: one in which he would leave a major national newspaper, build a travel-photography YouTube channel from scratch, and ultimately license the show to a national FAST network. It is, in many ways, a case study in how traditional journalism skills can be repurposed into a solo-creator business — and how one veteran reporter reinvented himself as a TV host for the streaming age.
A Three-Decade Newspaper Career That Slowly Shifted Toward Video
Graham spent 30 years at USA Today, beginning on a typewriter and ending as one of the most video-forward journalists in the newsroom.
Like most legacy newsrooms in the mid-2000s, USA Today wanted to look innovative. Video was a way to get there, even if the infrastructure didn’t exist yet.
“They told me the dream was that I would do the show five days a week,” he said of those early video podcasts. “But there was a lot of work.”
Still, Graham managed to turn the experiment into a bigger platform. USA Today eventually gave him a celebrity talk show, “Talking Your Tech,” where he interviewed actors, musicians, and entertainers about the devices and apps they used.
Zendaya, Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Iglesias, Jason Mraz — Graham interviewed them all, often in hotel rooms, backstage, or on set.
“I would go interview somebody and they’d want to talk about their movie,” he said. “And I’d say, tell me about your favorite app.”
Over time, Graham became one of the paper’s most visible personalities. But as layoffs mounted, the job changed. Beats were consolidated, teams were reduced, and the constant downsizing wore on him.
“Every year was rougher,” he said. “We would have a team of 10 people. Then we’d have a team of seven. And I would just pick up the three people that weren’t there anymore.”
“There were five buyout offers,” he said. “I usually rejected them because I was happy with what I was doing. But by the end…I had this idea about a travel show.”
The Leap Into Independence
On January 4, 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, Graham accepted a buyout and left USA Today after three decades.
“I really wanted to run with this idea,” he said. “A travel show that would marry technology with travel. Everywhere you go, people are shooting on their phones.”
He had actually been experimenting with the idea — a YouTube series called PhotowalksTV — for two years while still employed. But doing it on the side was awkward. “When you call somebody and they go, ‘Oh, USA Today is calling’ — well, actually not. I’m coming on my own,” he said. “So that was a little tough.”
Once he left the newspaper, he could finally build the channel without conflict.
The PhotowalksTV Formula
PhotowalksTV is part travel show, part mobile-photography tutorial, and part cultural exploration. Graham walks viewers through destinations like San Diego, Santa Barbara, Kauai, Sicily, Lisbon, or Monterey — explaining not just where to shoot photos but how to shoot them on any smartphone.
“It’s a travel show with a photography twist,” he explained. “I take people on a virtual photo walk and show them tips on how to get great vacation photos on your phone.”
Graham deliberately avoids the highly technical tone of gear-obsessed YouTubers.
“I don’t talk shutter speed. I don’t talk f-stops,” he said. “I’m shooting on the same phone they have at home.”
A typical shoot starts with the city’s tourism board, who point him to local experts and hidden gems. He maps out photo opportunities, schedules interviews, and plans a narrative arc — all while traveling light, often with just a tripod and his iPhone.
Behind the scenes, it’s a family operation: his wife often films him; his brother composes music; his son contributes animations.
It is, by necessity, a lean creator business.
The Scripps Deal: A Travel YouTuber Becomes a TV Host
While most YouTubers dream of building a direct-to-consumer brand — sponsorships, merch, online courses — Graham had a different ambition.
“My dream was to get on TV,” he said. “That happened in September of 2024 with Scripps News.”
The breakthrough came through a contact who had previously booked him for travel segments. Graham emailed him one day and simply asked: Can we do a show?
“He said, ‘Can you show me something?’ I sent him something on Friday. On Monday, he called and said, ‘You’re on in two weeks.’”
Scripps ordered six episodes, then renewed it for 30 more starting January 2025. The network broadcasts the show on:
Roku
Amazon
Apple TV
Peacock
Pluto
Tubi
LG, Sony, Vizio, and TCL smart TVs
The show airs Sundays at 10 a.m. Eastern, programmed like a traditional network.
For a creator who spent decades in newspapers, appearing on millions of televisions is surreal.
“People used to say, ‘Hey, the tech guy.’ Now they say, ‘The travel guy.’”
A Business Model Built on Fragmented Revenue Streams
Between 2021 and 2024, before the Scripps deal, monetization was a patchwork.
“I was getting minimal money from YouTube,” he said. “But I did have other sponsors — SmugMug, Mylio, Blackmagic. I was making much more money doing that than the YouTube money.”
The biggest break came from Best Western, his dream sponsor, which covers the most expensive part of travel content: accommodations.
“Eighty percent of the cost of a travel show is hotel rooms,” he said. “I knew that if I could just sign a deal with one of these hotels, I’d be in much better shape.”
After seeing another YouTuber partner with the chain, Graham made contact, delivered a pitch for a Route 66 series, and was hired. Best Western has now sponsored three campaigns.
He also monetizes through a Substack newsletter focused on mobile photography and travel. It has around 5,500 subscribers and 77 paid supporters.
“I’ve said, if you’d like to support me, I’d be more than happy to take your money,” he laughed. “It’s hard to give people extras because I’d do them anyway.”
The Scripps deal provides additional income, but most of that is used to pay his editor.
Still, for Graham, the show is a long-term investment: a library of content that may eventually become licensable elsewhere.
“A year from now, I’ll be at 100 episodes,” he said. “Perhaps I’ll be able to resell the 100.”
A One-Man Production Company With Global Ambition
Despite the constraints of a small team, Graham shoots relentlessly. He has filmed episodes across the U.S. and internationally in Sicily, Barcelona, Seville, Paris, and Portugal. A major semi-quincentennial series is planned for 2025, covering Boston, Providence, Newport, Hartford, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
“I love creating,” he said. “I love taking my photos, putting them into a show, hosting a show. I’m a happy person doing this stuff.”
If the channel grows, he knows exactly what he’d invest in: people.
“I’d hire a dedicated person to shoot with me,” he said. “Somebody with a yellow clipboard reminding me where I’m going next.”
It’s a modest dream compared to large-scale travel shows (“Somebody Feeds Phil” has a crew of 13; Samantha Brown’s PBS show has nine). But for Graham, one person would be transformative.
What His Career Says About the Future of Journalism
Graham straddles two eras: the collapsing world of legacy media and the chaotic, opportunity-filled creator economy. He believes more journalists will follow the path he took — though it won’t be easy.
“The great news is that anybody who loses their job can pick it back up tomorrow,” he said. “If they’re willing to work really hard.”
But he also sees limits.
“There has to be subscriber fatigue,” he said. “You can only support so many newsletters. I don’t know how big the Substack world can really go.”
Still, he believes strong personalities — and strong communities — will thrive. And he’s curious to see what high-profile hosts do next.
“Would I pay Stephen Colbert $5 a month to watch him? Sure,” he said. “But I don’t know how high it can go.”
For local news, he sees a huge opportunity for entrepreneurial journalists.
“There is a big hunger for local news,” he said. “Somebody’s gotta start a SantaBarbara.com and serve the community.”
In many ways, Graham himself embodies the model he’s describing: a journalist leveraging institutional experience, building a digital audience, and creating a premium product that can live on multiple platforms.
From Newspaper Reporter to Streaming-Era Travel Host
Three years after leaving USA Today, Graham is not only hosting a weekly travel series on a national FAST network but also building a growing library of evergreen episodes that he believes will create long-term value.
He’s producing more than ever, traveling more than ever, and creating more than ever — often with nothing but a smartphone, a tripod, and help from his wife.
“I love to create,” he said simply. “I love making video programs.”
And even after 30 years inside a major newspaper, his second act feels as fresh as the first time he pressed record on a camcorder.