Independent journalist Johnny Harris has about 6.5m subscribers on the video platform YouTube. He learned his trade at Vox doing innovative visual storytelling projects, but built his own success from highly-produced, 40-minute documentaries on all sorts of obscure topics that attract millions of views.

"I don't think I would have ever made it as a journalist in the old way because I wouldn't have been able to fit within the norms of traditional journalism," he concedes at last week's International Journalism Festival in Perugia.

He was talking about the emerging content creator economy that journalists can take advantage of. This bustling space has given him a place - and an audience - for detailed explainers on complex topics that might struggle to work for traditional media.

"Especially at the beginning, you have to be on a treadmill for a lot of years," he explains.

"You have to publish a........

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