The initiative, which quietly went live in recent weeks, falls under the remit of New York Post CEO and publisher Jesse Angelo. “The vision is, could you make rapid-response, funny, topical video about what’s trending on social, that is designed to travel on social, and mostly be consumed on phones?” he told Quartz on the sidelines at the Newfront event. “It’s really about making people laugh.”

To that end, IAF is being staffed mostly with improvisational  comedians, he said, and is being led by John Devore, previously the managing editor of talk show host Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco digital offering.

Angelo acknowledged the clear similarities between IAF and BuzzFeed’s own video play (probably best known for this video with US president Barack Obama). ”It has some similarities in that it’s targeted at that [younger] generation, but it’s not just native like BuzzFeed is,” Angelo says.

In addition to YouTube, the videos will distributed on News Corp properties, opening the way for advertising support from its own clients. He said the content is “is pretty tailor-made for native [advertising].”

At the event, News Corp and the New York Post also showcased higher-brow video fare, including One More Night, an intriguing series about shuttered music venues in New York City.

Of course, News Corp’s billionaire owner, Rupert Murdoch has praised BuzzFeed before.

Neither Thomson nor Murdoch was in attendance this morning. A spokesman said they were in London.

News Corp, of course, is not unfamiliar with video content: up until fairly recently it was part of the same conglomerate that owns Fox News and the 21st Century Fox film empire. In any case,  the fresh push into internet video, outlined at the Newfront today, is a nice illustration of where the rapidly converging internet, publishing, and video industries are heading.

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