YouTube boosts its channel lineup with a Reuters partnership and celebrity news

To help boost the quality and amount of original programming available, YouTube is launching a handful of new premium news-related channels to its site, which includes two celebrity and entertainment channels and an offering from Reuters.

The video site previously committed $100 million to seeing its original-content strategy through. Other original content channel partnerships include Madonna’s DanceOn, World Wrestling Entertainment’s Fan Nation, and exclusive bits from the Onion News Network.

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Two of most recent channels, which launched Monday, include Penske Media-Ion TV’s Entertainment News Television channel and Young Hollywood’s Young Hollywood Network (YHN) channel.

As for the Reuters channel, it will offer 10 original shows that should bring plenty of exclusive video and attention to YouTube. The new programs include:

• Reuters Investigates, featuring investigative journalism and special reports from around the world, in coordination with Reuters award-winning Enterprise unit.
• The Trail, with Reuters political reporters covering the presidential candidates on the campaign trail.
• Felix TV, with Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon, named by Time magazine one of the top 25 financial bloggers.
• Media Bite, featuring Peter Lauria, editor of technology, media and telecommunications, and his team of reporters covering a media world experiencing massive change.
• Tech Tonic, with Anthony De Rosa, Reuters Digital’s social media editor, dubbed by The New York Times “the undisputed king of Tumblr.”
• Freeland File, with Reuters Digital editor Chrystia Freeland interviewing top news-makers.
• Fast Forward, hosted by Chrystia Freeland and featuring Reuters’ top commentators and journalists
• Money Clip, with Lauren Young, personal finance editor and former editor at BusinessWeek and SmartMoney.
• Rough Cuts, with Jen Rogers, showcasing the remarkable news video that Reuters video journalists shoot around the world, allowing viewers to see and hear that video in greater depth than most television networks can offer.
• Decoder, explaining in succinct and surprising ways the key topics in the news, ranging from the debt ceiling to the Strait of Hormuz.

The focus on spending money to obtain exclusive video content with a focus on news seems like a smart move for YouTube. News is more frequent than scripted content and producing exclusive pieces can generate a significant amount of traffic. Even if YouTube fails to bring in more people to its overall network of premium channels, the new news-focused channel partnerships should (at the very least) pay for themselves.