CondéNet, the Web unit of Condé Nast Publications, is launching YouTube channels for each of its niche sites, beginning with the food-focused Epicurious.com. Channels for Style.com, Men.Style.com and Concierge.com are expected to launch over the next month, while the Wired.com channel is slated for early next year.

From TV networks to newspapers, publishers are furiously competing for audiences by syndicating their wares across the Web. For many, YouTube represents a key distribution hub because of its immense reach as the Web's top video sharing service.

This trend is an about face for many publishers who not long ago resisted open distribution in favor of walled-off destination sites. According to Richard Glosser, executive director of emerging media at CondéNet, the benefits of syndication now far outweigh the risks.

"The old instinct was to protect your copyright, but any reservation about letting content out is gone," Glosser tells Online Media Daily. "Now, it's about getting exposed to new audiences, driving audiences back to our site, and generating more revenue."

CondéNet will also have the opportunity to sell its advertisers additional inventory when the content it circulated by YouTube. "Advertisers are asking for more inventory," he says. "So now we can work with them and target their ads with our content as it travels to other places."

YouTubers can now subscribe to CondéNet's branded channels, which will alert them whenever new videos have been uploaded. CondéNet plans to update the channels with new videos weekly.

This is not CondéNet's first effort to branch out, as the Web publisher has existing partnerships with MSNBC, Yahoo, Sony Bravia, and a digital cinema network named Emerging Pictures.

"CondéNet has been very focused on creating distribution relationships this year," Glosser says.

Along those same lines, CondéNet made a point to an embed button to many of its site earlier this year to promote the spread of its content online.

This news story is important. I recommend that everyone read it.