Moving pictures: big publishers plunging into video

The uneasy combination of print magazine publications and video is picking up momentum as major players set up their own video production deals. Time Inc. created its own in-house video division which will channel productions to some 130 various magazine websites and to cell phone screens. In March, Rodale Partners announced that it is partnering with video producer Brightcove to create Internet video channels for flagship Men's Health and probably later to Prevention, Runner's World and Women's Health. Before that, Brightcove struck a deal to provide video services to Newsweek.

Now, according to a story in MediaDaily News, Hearst Magazines -- in particular Cosmo Girl and Popular Mechanics -- has cut a deal with the Fox network to produce video.

The first video content for CosmoGirl is a drama centered on the travails of three female best friends during their junior year of high school. The format of the series, as yet unnamed, is apparently designed for mobile consumption with two new "Webisodes," no longer than three minutes, appearing every week.

According to Hearst, the plot will be driven in part by suggestions from viewers, who are invited to email the show's producers true stories from their own lives.

Popular Mechanics will get a different series, with real mechanics and designers delivering pearls of technical wisdom, but in the same format (biweekly, each episode no longer than three minutes). As with the CosmoGirl drama, the "Webisodes" can be watched at Popular Mechanics' Web site, in addition to mobile devices.

Brightcove is a new open internet TV service that is aiming its business model largely at commercial content providers (like magazines) who not only need/want to provide video channels to augment their titles, but want to monetize them, too. To find out more about this, you can look at a video briefing by Chairman Jeremy Allaire at the time of the company's launch.