• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 22, 2008

Even as traditional publishers put the squeeze on digital units, efforts to expand online video are pushing ahead. After initial forays in the last few years, magazine and newspaper sites are upgrading video operations with an eye toward reaping the premium rates that video ads command.

Publishers such as Forbes, Conde Nast, The New York Times and The Street.com relaunched their video platforms this fall with plans for further growth in 2009. Whether those ambitions will be realized is in question as all forms of media and advertising face cutbacks in a deteriorating economy.

After layoffs on the print side, Conde Nast last month cut staff at its CondeNet digital arm as part of a 5% companywide workforce reduction. Forbes in November shuttered ForbesAutos.com and ForbesTraveler.com. And Time Inc. said in October it would lay off 600.

Lately, even doubts about the outlook for professional Web video have crept in. NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker warned of a dramatic slowdown in ad spending at video hub Hulu.com and NBC.com at an investor conference earlier this month.

Market researcher eMarketer maintains that video ad spending will buck the downward trend. It expects the category to increase 45% in 2009 to $850 million, or just over 3% of the $25.7 million total projected in online ad spending.

Digital executives at traditional media companies are counting on such growth. "We certainly expect monetization is going to ramp up as our video footprint grows and it becomes more and more important to us," said Richard Glosser, executive director of emerging media at CondeNet.

CondeNet--like NYTimes.com, TheStreet.com and other large Web publishers--has relaunched video operation on the back of Brightcove's latest video platform, Brightcove 3. It offers a widescreen format, features aimed at improving search engine optimization, synchronized companion ads, and the ability to syndicate video.

Conde Nast plans to extend the new platform to 16 Web properties in the coming months, with upgrades to sites such as Wired.com, Portfolio.com and Glamour.com already completed. Glosser said Wired.com has already seen an uptick in traffic in the few weeks since the new video offering debuted.

Forbes.com likewise this month unveiled a revamped video network with a widescreen, high-definition player and options that allow users to search for videos by different categories including new releases, most-watched and editors' choice.

Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com, said the network is now producing 10 to 15 segments a day across its lineup of some 20 shows. "And that number will explode as we move into next year," he said, noting that the company operates studios in New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and London.

"The issue is that to get more meaningful ad dollars you have to scale views," said Spanfeller. "The 15 million reach of "CSI:Miami" still has a huge place in advertisers' minds."

Even the TV networks' online shows pose challenges for Forbes.com. "If an advertiser is particularly interested in video in finance, Forbes isn't going to be top of mind for them," Chris Allen, vice president and director of video innovation at Starcom USA, said. "They'll look to CNNMoney.com or CNBC.com, or even Yahoo Finance. "

At the same time, the limited inventory of high-end video online has helped keep ad rates high, with CPMs of $25 to $40 compared to $5 or so for display ads. "Publishers see a huge revenue opportunity because they realize the CPMs from video are so much higher than traditional display units," said Allen.

Exactly how much revenue traditional publishers are getting from video advertising is hard to say. But if the Web generally accounts for 10% or less of revenues, video is probably an even smaller fraction again of that amount.

Spanfeller said video contributes about 5% of Forbes.com revenues, but he expects that proportion to double to 10% in 2009 and reach as high as 30% to 50% in the coming years. The site's video ad inventory at present is nearly sold out, he said.

At rival financial site TheStreet.com, Thomas O'Regan, senior vice president for advertising sales, is tight-lipped about video ad dollars. But he said brand advertisers are asking that a higher percentage of their ad spends with the site next year be earmarked for video.

"It's a must-have for all large RFPs we see," he said. "It's now kind of a tried-and-true part of the media mix. It's what mobile will be two years from now."

TheStreet.com also boasts its own video star in Jim Cramer, a Street.com co-founder best known as the exuberant host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Cramer produces multiple videos on news of the day that go up on the site each day before "Mad Money" airs in the evening, according to O'Regan.

"He's a big draw," he said.

Magazines and newspapers are increasingly recruiting talent from the print side to bolster the quality of video content, and maybe even produce their own video personalities. Think New York Times personal tech columnist David Pogue, whose cheeky videos are widely promoted on the newspaper's site.

Starcom's Allen said publishers' efforts to improve video programming are much needed. "Because they don't have much experience working with video, they've struggled to create content that's compelling and constantly refreshed," he said.

In a report released last week, Lauren Rich Fine, director of research for ContentNext Media, questioned the underlying assumption that video has to be a component of news sites at all. "I just watch how people spend their time online. Video slows things down," she said. "People are looking for more efficiency, not less."

Fine is also less bullish than eMarketer on video ad spending next year. "It's not going to be a big year for people trying to experiment," she said. "Since video is sold at a premium, I'm not convinced it will be a big year for it."

For his part, Allen advises that magazines and newspapers focus on pitching video as part of cross-media buys to boost efficiency as marketers pull back on spending. "Put together a deal that has pages in the print publication and an online video extension to that," he said. Publishers such as Conde Nast and Meredith are already taking that approach, Allen noted.