• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, April 9, 2007

Fox TV Studios is working with Hearst to develop video clips for the Web sites of CosmoGIRL! and Popular Mechanics, the companies said this morning.

Cosmogirl.com will host a scripted show that focuses on three juniors in high school. The clips, each between two and three minutes in length, will air twice a week. While it will be professionally produced, there's a user-generated component: some plots will come from e-mails sent in by consumers.

For Popular Mechanics, the studio is creating what sounds like information-oriented clips that feature so-called "hands-on guys" -- presumably do-it-yourself builders.

News of the partnership comes several weeks after Hearst said it planned to build out its magazine's broadband offerings.

The move also comes when Web publishers are increasingly interested in obtaining professionally produced short-form video -- generally seen as far more marketer friendly than consumer-created clips. In addition to the Fox/Hearst venture, former Disney chief Michael Eisner's studio, Vuguru, is creating an 80-episode serial drama that will run on MySpace and other sites.

But, while pros are moving online, the industry has yet to come up with video ads that work for clips that are no more than three minutes long. For now, few users appear willing to patiently sit through 30-second repurposed TV ads in exchange for just three minutes of video.