In the short walk from Gallowgate to Percy Street in the city centre of Newcastle and into Chronicle Towers, Adam Pearson is stopped three times. He's told by one person 'to keep up the good work,' while another tells him 'I love what you do,' and the third simply just shouts his name.
It's a 30-second walk but it was already a glimpse into the world of Adam Pearson - or Adam P as he's known to his followers. "It does get a bit mad at times," he tells me, "but I do appreciate the support."
Adam is one of the countless YouTubers who have found an unexpected level of fame talking about what they love the most - Newcastle United.
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A quick search on Youtube brings up at least 30 different channels - some with a few dozen subscribers and others - like Adam, who have tens of thousands. It's a platform that has seen content creators dedicated to the world of Newcastle United grow, especially since the October 2021 takeover.
Some were there before, documenting the often downtrodden ride of being a Newcastle United fan, establishing themselves within a competitive market, while others have seized on the global attention that came with the co-Saudi buy-out.
For some, their videos are a chance to offer analysis of games, or an opinion on transfer rumors, for others it's about being informative or controversial but for all, a love for Newcastle United underpins it all.
With such a rise of Youtubers focusing on the club, Chronicle Live has spoken to six of the platform's most popular content creators - amassing more than 132,000 subscribers in total.
This is the rise of the Newcastle United YouTuber.
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"It's the best feeling in the world," Adam Pearson tells me, "that I get to wake up and talk about Newcastle United."
It's a simple answer to a question that he gets asked a lot - 'how does it feel to cover Newcastle United?" but the reality of the situation is slightly more complex.
Adam is one of several Newcastle United YouTubers who have made creating content their full-time job. Alongside Matthew Renton of The Magpie Channel and Eddy Hope of Tyneside Life - their ability to pay the bills at the end month comes hand-in-hand with their content bringing in the views.
Both, Adam and Matthew, took the decision to leave their career paths - one starting out in the university and the other training to become a teacher - to focus on YouTube full-time. Adam's announcement to drop out of higher education has been viewed more than 18,000 times on YouTube, a sign that even for a football content creator few subjects are off-limits.
The decision was met with a divided response - many backing his move, others questioning the sustainability behind but 12 months on, the 21-year-old maintains it's been worthwhile.
"I don't think it was a gamble," Adam argues, "I love Newcastle, I'm always at the games so it was never a case of 'I can't do this.' I felt I knew what I was doing with the channel and always had a direction for it.
"Nothing is guaranteed, I was confident though - that's why I made the move. It was something I was planning on doing but I felt that when the takeover happened it was the perfect opportunity to go ahead with it. It was a little bit instinctive to just say 'I've had enough and I'm going to do something I enjoy.' It was the best feeling in the world."
When asked if his videos provide enough income to leave him comfortable, Adam is sharp with his reply: "I'm happy," he responds.
Matthew of The Magpie Channel - currently with 22,600 subscribers - takes a slight take on his decision to totally change his career. He opted out from training as a teacher and took up several different roles such as working in call centers during the day, freeing him up during the evenings to make content.
For him, it was only in the last few months he could make the move to do YouTube full-time.
"It was a huge decision," he concedes, "It depended on signing a sponsorship for the season for one of the channels."
"That allowed me to know I've got that income because YouTube is always a gamble. One day you can get a good amount of views but the next day no one is that interested or clicking, it all depends on the club really.
"When I was training to be a teacher, I realised I didn't want to become one and needed a new career. I asked myself what can I do where I wake up every day and enjoy my job - and this was it.
"It's only become full-time in the last nine months where it's become viable to pay the bills - it's reached that point now but before that, it was working 9-5 but I was up until two in the morning doing work for the channel."
For Eddy Hope, his situation - and his content - is slightly different from other Newcastle YouTubers. While Newcastle United forms a large foundation of his output, there is a certain focus on the culture and history of the club and city in each of his videos.
Entering his fifth decade and having retired from his previous career, the decision to pick up a camera and microphone wasn't as big a roll of the dice as some of his younger competitors - at least not in terms of income.
"I'm earning a modest amount of money through YouTube through advertising which I have no control over," Eddy says, "that allows me to make investments in software and equipment. You have to do that to become better and I hope that will see my videos go to another level in terms of production where it's a bit more of a wow factor. Where the viewer becomes not only interested in the content but also stimulated by the production.
"[Can you go full time] Not quite yet but is heading that way, then again I'm not driven by money - I'm fascinated by the journey. I just want to try to be a better version of myself and live a fulfilled life doing interesting things and meeting people.
"That's what drives me. If you're focused on making money to buy a better car or an extension on your house, you're always chasing happiness and that's when I think it can impact your mental health.
"I am happy with the gains I'm making."
Going full-time is not doable for everyone - the responsibility of a mortgage or a family means the gamble to pack in the day job is too risky. The commitment to a channel can become a 24-hour operation as Newcastle Fans' TV founder Lee Lawler explains: "I could go full-time," he admits, "I could take a sabbatical and trial it for 12 months. It's a risk, of course, it is.
"Some other NUFC Youtubers are full-time but for me, I've got kids, a car, and a house to run. We'd love to do it and live off Newcastle - just talking about the club. I would love to do it but it's just too much of a risk because you just don't know what's around the corner."
And that very real risk is why some have even stepped away from making content - fans like Kendall Rowan who began making a name for herself on YouTube in 2020 after losing her job as a cabin crew during the COVID-19 lockdown. Featuring on other Toon podcasts led her to opportunities with Sky Sports and the BBC but the pressures of raising a young family and needing a stable income have resulted in her stepping away from her 'dream.'
"It's been really difficult," she admits. "I was really struggling to balance work, creating content, and my home life too.
"It is very difficult to balance a full-time job with content. For two years it was my full-time focus but I was doing it for free. Up until this year, I wasn't getting any paid opportunities, I was doing it because I loved it and wanted to get my foot in the door.
"Now I've gone back to work full-time - I work Monday to Friday, in a totally different career. It is difficult to balance that and I underestimated just how difficult it would be [to stop] because doing content and talking about something I love got me through some very difficult times, so to have that taken away because I need to go and seek a more stable career until content creation becomes my full-time career has been a difficult transition.
"I do miss having that freedom to film whenever I want - to do a match review or a player analysis but I am hoping one day soon it becomes my full-time career."
The pressure on creators is massive - of course, the cost of following Newcastle home and away is no different from the thousands of fans who do exactly the same. Yet those on YouTube follow United with the purpose of producing videos for others to watch - and often it isn't as simple as just pressing record on a mobile phone.
There is planning, scripting, and editing to take into account - as well as the traveling to grounds up and down the country.
"For a game recently, I slept in the car," says Lee from NFTV, "I had just finished an 11-hour shift and thought what do I do? There were train strikes, so I decided to drive down through the night. I've got a big car, and luckily I can fit a mattress in the back of it.
"With match days it can be a 24-hour operation. As soon as I see the fans arrive on the coaches, I'm excited but I'm already thinking about afterward and where we will be meeting, and what'll we be talking about. As soon as that final whistle goes, my focus is the channel.
"We need to get those videos out. I need a base - sometimes it's a hotel and I'll stay up all night working on getting the content out. It really is sometimes a 24-hour day.
"For the trip to Southampton for example, I had an 11-hour shift before and after the game - I felt rough on the Monday but it's for love of the club. I love Newcastle United."
Some channels like NFTV have spent thousands of pounds on top-of-the-range camera equipment in the hope it can set the channel apart from the competition, while others like The Magpie Channel, Adam P and Tyneside Life just use a mobile phone.
"Everything is just done on the phone now," Matthew from The Magpie Channel says, "it's just so much easier. The cameras are just as good [as an actual video camera] and it's set up on a rig with a microphone - it's all wireless and it's really good.
"When we first started we had a camera but I felt we were just making life harder for ourselves because you're carrying it around and you can't get into many grounds with it and it takes a long time to upload the content."
Adam shares a similar train of thought: "It's [my equipment] not that advanced, I've got my phone and that's it because you don't really need much to start up a YouTube channel. You can have cameras and look more professional but at the end of the day, the content is going to be the same. The phone is sometimes a little more natural. If I'm at St James' Park and a new signing comes in, I just have my phone and it's just more in the moment - you just feel it more."
But for NFTV, there is belief in such a large investment into camera equipment. "It makes us look professional," Lee argues, "If we're interviewing a big name, it doesn't look great if you're recording it on just a mobile phone. It looks so much more professional with a microphone in your hand, and a camera on a tripod."
Like the well-established fanzine True Faith, NFTV has a city-centre base which is another sign of the serious nature of the Newcastle United content creator market. But while the likes of NFTV, Adam P, The Magpie Channel and Tyneside Life put out videos on a near-daily basis, those at True Faith have a little different approach.
"Our Youtube is a bit of a magazine show," explains Charlotte Robson, "we'll pick three topics about Newcastle United, generally nothing too serious, and have a bit of fun chatting about it. That is what I enjoy the most, Alex [Hurst] is one of my closest friends and it's just having a chat with my best friend. It's such a fun thing to do and if people want to watch it then that's an added bonus.
"YouTube is a really interesting medium, we see it as a bit of a challenge and something different. It's a totally different audience to the podcast, so it's trying to appeal to a very different section of people - younger people really.
"It is interesting to see if we can do that, if we can connect with younger people and if we can keep our podcast relevant and interesting to a wide selection of people."
But just how do all the different creators handle the competition? "It would be nice to be the most popular," admits Charlotte, "but it can't come at the cost of enjoying ourselves. I think that comes across on camera. If we weren't enjoying ourselves, people wouldn't enjoy watching it. So it kind of goes hand in hand for me.
"It's really cool that loads of people are trying different things and making content, and being creative, it's a hard world to do that in. The fact that people go out and do it, makes me feel good about humanity even if I don't engage with it."
But for those relying on the success of their channels to pay their bills, is the take on it a little different? "It is quite competitive," claims Adam P, "you will see people work together but it is a case of trying to do the best you can.
"You're always going to have people who butt heads and compete, that's natural, it's just human instinct to compete. It is what it is. I just try and get on with my own work, but I'm always happy to talk to people and help others."
Lee from NFTV adds: "It's healthy competition. You look at the Youtube World there is beef on other channels but I don't think there is with the Newcastle content creators - it's very rare there is beef.
"I think the takeover has helped with that. It may have been different had Mike Ashley still been in charge because we'd all be negative but as a channel, our views do better when Newcastle do well."
Yet with every game, Newcastle United wins - the criticism and scrutiny of the club grows. The make-up of their ownership has opened the door up to attention from across the globe. It brings both positive and negative aspects.
For both Charlotte and Kendall, two women prepared to voice their opinion on Newcastle in an arena where the number of prominent female voices is scarce, the negative side of YouTube is quite alarming. Both have been the target of sexist and misogynistic comments.
"It was really hard for me to deal with the negativity at first," says Kendall, "the unnecessary trolling, and I've had a lot of it. There have been times when I've felt like deleting social media altogether, other times when I've been made to feel like I don't deserve to speak about my club, and other times when my actual daughter - who was two at the time - has been targeted.
"That was really hard. It has impacted my mental health and at times I've questioned my knowledge - something that has come naturally to me as I've been a football fan all my life."
Kendall shares instances where she has been told to go and 'make the butties' or her young daughter was subject to racist slurs.
"It's something that I will get used to and over time you do but it won't be something I will ever accept or deal with mentally because I am someone who takes things to heart.
"I'm very sensitive especially when children are targeted just because of a footballing opinion. It's still very difficult for me to deal with and these toxic people don't see how it affects you in your day-to-day life.
"You might come across as a strong person on social media like it doesn't affect you but it does. We're all human and we all do have feelings. It's something that still happens on a day-to-day basis."
The sexist and personal comments aimed at Kendall, sadly are familiar to Charlotte on Truth Faith TV too. "I think it's quite sad," she says.
"It doesn't affect me really. It's maybe because I am a bit older. If I was a young girl mid-20s, I might be like 'oh god.' A lot of the comments can be on the cusp of being quite rude and often I'm just left asking 'what goes through people's heads?'
"I think for some men, fewer than used to be, it is jarring to see women in this space but they're going to have to get used to it, I'm not going anywhere and more women are going to come through."
But does this abuse put other women off from joining the debate? "There should be more women [involved]," responds Charlotte, "there are some really knowledgeable women on NUFC Twitter, some really cool and interesting women who I like a lot but if creating content is not for them then you can't shoe-horn them into it.
"That's their choice. I can understand why it wouldn't be. I don't feel like a particularly glamorous person. Sometimes when we do True Faith TV, I've just rolled out of bed, or I've just done a day's work - I don't try to be too concerned with that side of things but even then you still get comments about it.
"It doesn't put me off particularly. As the club gets bigger, I think more women will see people out there doing content and think 'yeah I'm going to do that,' I think that will happen naturally.
"I hope it happens sooner rather than later because the more diverse the voices the better. "
Kendall is just as hopeful that the future may see more women voice their views on the club but does feel the abuse suffered by those already in play, has had an impact. "Maybe there aren't that many prominent female voices because they've seen what we've had to go through and the abuse we receive, and don't want to be part of that.
"In the last 10 years, Newcastle hasn't been a club that many wanted to comment on, it was very negative, we all know what happened under the previous owner, but it's not been all that exciting to talk about.
"Now it is. We are becoming a talking point - and now would be a fantastic time for female voices. We're quite lucky now that there are so many great female role models in football because there weren't that many when I was growing up - you could count them on one hand really, the likes of Gabby Logan or Natalie Sawyer. Now we're really lucky because of the Youtube world, it's being a big platform that has opened a lot of opportunities for a lot of great women and I'm so grateful for that because the next generation will have so many more great women to look up to than I did when I was younger within this industry.
"It's definitely difficult - mentally and physically, you're always subject to more abuse on your appearance. People make out that because you are women you can't speak out on a man's game, or because you're a woman you're not watching the same game as a man is and your opinion must be wrong.
"Hopefully by the time my five-year-old daughter is in her mid-20s, it's a lot better and that is why I keep doing what I do because I want to combat sexism and show that women can speak on a man's game."
It's a statement that should anger all of us - that for Kendall she feels change still could be years away. The trolls have also targetted those from NFTV, Adam and Tyneside Life - and while at first the comments do 'hit you hard' as Adam puts it, you learn to deal with them.
For Matthew from The Magpie Channel, the best approach was to simply avoid the confrontation some on YouTube were looking for.
"When I first started," he adds, "if I got one bad comment out of hundreds, I'd focus on that one because I hadn't been exposed to YouTube. You'd take it with you and it really used to affect me.
"Sometimes I would snap back and reply to people and get into argument but now I just think why do I care what that person thinks?
"I'm only going to listen to criticism from those who I respect. I'm not going to listen to one man who is taking the mickey, that's not going to bother me. "
Of course, for every negative experience, there are many more positives to talk about. From being stopped in the street and being asked for selfies to paid work with some of the country's biggest broadcasters.
For Eddy of Tyneside Life, he's still getting to grips with the attention that now comes his way: "I do get a lot of attention now - people coming up and wanting selfies or an autograph or just to talk to me - I find it a bit bizarre and surreal, but I am grateful for that and I enjoy talking to people and saying hello.
"I don't read too deeply into that because things are passing through and they can come and go. I might be successful yesterday but things might change tomorrow. I don't get hung up on that attention. "
Adam, who is particularly popular with the younger generation of fans, is approached most days by fans.
"It does get a bit mad at times. I remember when Alexander Isak came into the training ground, I was there doing a video and I literally got mobbed, hundreds of kids came chasing me down the road!
"It's not something I expected but it is a great feeling - I do appreciate the support from people."
Matthew from The Magpie Channel is another who is often approached by fans - on his way up to speak to me, his name is shouted across the road from students at Newcastle Collage. He's keen to get across that the support works as a tool to keep his feet firmly on the ground. "It's surreal, it still feels a bit weird but it's great and I always give people time because, without them, I wouldn't be here.
"You can't let it get to your head - don't take the highs to your head and the lows to your heart, you can't let that happen because people could stop watching you tomorrow.
"In this game, it's a very hard industry - you have to be consistent with your efforts. It's a neverending cycle because you always want to keep improving. You need to keep your head in the game."
But away from the attention that comes with a successful channel and the money that may follow, there's a bigger benefit to it. For Charlotte from True Faith TV, it's working with her 'best mate' and fellow YouTuber Alex Hurst, and for Kendall too - the friendships formed alongside the opportunities are something that stands out.
And for Eddy, his YouTube channel has quite literally turned his life around for the better.
"This is by far my biggest ever life achievement," he admits, "it's been a huge boost for me especially because of the years I had - going through my 40s and struggling with my mental health, I ended up having a sort of breakdown in 2018 so I've had to rebuild myself from scratch. I ended up living in a van with my two dogs in a car park in Richmond thinking 'how on earth have I got myself in this predicament?'
"Then I moved back to Tyneside. I had to reinvent myself and learn from the mistakes I'd made. We all have to take responsibility for the decisions we make and when we do that we are able to move forward. It's been a huge boost all-around starting this channel."
The success of Newcastle on YouTube has seemingly coincided with the sale of the club to the Saudi Arabian-backed consortium. The change of direction of the club - from merely existing to being ambitious - has married up with the content being produced by the Youtubers.
In a word - it's positive.
"It's brought positivity," Lee from NFTV says, "you're looking forward to doing the videos. The miles you put in, going to Southampton for example where I slept in my car, long hours and I put out a video, and I knew that had that been under Ashley there would have been a different mindset. It would be negative.
"The whole mindset has changed. It's crazy, we could be taking our channel abroad next year."
Eddy echoes the sense of change: "I had a season ticket since 1993 but I got rid of it in Rafa Benitez's last year because I was sick of the type of football that was being served up, even under Rafa.
"I was just sick of Mike Ashley and where the club was heading. The idea of the channel was to chronicle the downfall of Newcastle United under Mike Ashley and the management of Steve Bruce but then the takeover happened in October 2022 and so Amanda Staveley and the owners have ruined my plans," he jokes.
For Matthew from The Magpie Channel, things had got so bad under Mike Ashley that he was ready to quit YouTube: "I had done a Masters in Broadcast Journalism and had the takeover not happened I was going to leave YouTube because I was bored of complaining all the time, of being negative about the football and Mike Ashley. It was monotonous. I was bored of it."
And that feeling is understandable, for why would you want to spend day after day repeating the same underlying message that Newcastle United was stagnating? With every passing game, it was becoming hard to do as Adam explains: "Before the takeover, we all know how deflating it was.
"It was just hard to produce content on a club that was terrible. No ambition, no willingness to move forward. That's everyone, content creators and fans - it was deflating to follow a team that just didn't give 100%."
Yet things have certainly changed now. Amanda Staveley, Jamie Reuben, and The Public Investment Fund have turned the club into a force to be reckoned with in such a short space of time, while St James' Park has become a fortress once more. Yet for all the positive aspects of the takeover, criticism has followed the deal around - largely due to the involvement of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
Those criticisms, which include human rights issues in Saudi Arabia will only be continued to be asked as Newcastle inevitably becomes a powerhouse of European football but how do the channels deal with it?
"For us, as a fanbase, we look at the club first," says Lee from NFTV, "yes there are issues but there were issues with Mike Ashley too. Of course, it's not on the same level as human rights, and it's important that both sides of the party are educated as well.
"It's a learning experience for both. Some parts of the national media try to target Eddie Howe which I think is unfair."
To enhance his own understanding of the situation - Lee is heading to Saudi Arabia to follow Newcastle's winter training camp later this month.
"We have mentioned it, the bad doesn't change though," adds Charlotte from True Faith, "There's only so much you can say as a fan without repeating 'human rights atrocities are awful,' and 'we don't condone that.' That position doesn't change. I'm not going to sit here and suddenly go 'I don't mind them', I do but nothing else has changed in the bigger picture.
"To keep talking about it in a fun YouTube magazine show, just doesn't work. In the podcast we explore that sort of stuff, those are conversations to have but on YouTube, it doesn't come into at the moment."
And with Newcastle United's growth will come the continuous growth of fan media. Four channels - NFTV, Adam P, The Magpie Channel and Tyneside Life - were given press access for Newcastle's League Cup clash with Crystal Palace back in November, representing a huge nod to their influence amongst the fanbase. Most have also interviewed co-owner Amanda Staveley.
But what's next for the channels? Just how far can they go? "It all depends on the club for me," says Matthew of The Magpie Channel, " if it goes on the trajectory promised then I don't think there is a ceiling.
"The goal for me is to follow the club around Europe. There is nothing more I'd love than going to the Nou Camp in the Champions League."
European trips and more press opportunities are the hope of Lee from NFTV, while Adam was coy about his goals insisting he's 'going with the flow.'
Eddy of Tyneside Life though is a little more downbeat:"I think there is an invisible ceiling of achievement for club-related channels.
"The bigger successful football channels are football in general. Even from the very beginning, I felt there the ceiling of success was about 30K so I knew I had to do something different to potentially break through that. I enjoy doing other subjects. Will that help me breakthrough? I don't know. I just know I enjoy making those videos. Having those adventures and meeting those interesting people."
And what if you're an inspiring YouTuber - what advice do these creators want to share? Be consistent and enjoy it was the underlying message.
As Adam says: "Don't give up. Stick by it. And one day, it will take off."
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