In a move to monetize its site traffic, Yahoo has announced it’s going to start making its own short clips. In a reversal of its prior strategy, Yahoo is making original video content to appeal to segments of its audience that represent its biggest users, e.g. mothers. It is getting “famous” hosts to anchor these shows (e.g. Ali Landry, a former Miss USA – does anyone remember her?) and allowing advertisers to “own the environment” around these discussions.

Original content does have the prospect of garnering an audience, provided it is both original and relevant. And, producing video content suitable for the web isn’t as expensive as it used to be – so production costs can be reasonable. But, the big test for Yahoo right now is whether producing original content like short segments on celebrity mothers and TV recaps is a better (read profitable) strategy than working with great content producers to tailor their stuff to these audiences. I get that their prior strategy failed since it was more of a one-way broadcast of random syndicated content that was not well targeted, but this seems like this is at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Time will tell – and we will all be watching (or not, as the case may be).