YouTube recently announced an expanded channel lineup, to include a number of high profile partners.

Hearst Magazines, for example announced two channels as part of the initiative, with programming created in conjunction with Car and Driver, Road & Track, and Popular Mechanics for an Automotive channel and Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Seventeen, and Realbeauty.com for a Fashion and Beauty channel. Both will launch in 2012.

We had a conversation with Kimberly Lau, vice president business development and partner relations at Hearst about the channels, and the opportunities that come along with them.

What are these new channels going to bring to the table that wasn’t available with YouTube before?

“The focus and investment that YouTube is making in high-quality premium content creates new monetization opportunities for our brands,” says Lau. “For us, the biggest difference in our content approach is that we’ll be focused specifically on optimizing content for the YouTube platform and on building our channel audience. In the past, we did put content on YouTube but it was secondary to other goals.”

“It’s really about the support that YouTube is providing for premium content developers and the fact that there will be a critical mass of premium content development — these two factors together create new and exciting opportunities for advertisers and engaging experiences for consumers,” she says.

How does Hearst expect the channels to impact its business overall?

The company says the channels will expose its magazine brands to an expanded audience as well achieve scale and better monetization.

“We have multiple goals that include, in no particular order, the opportunity to build and cultivate our brands’ audiences on this platform (the third leg of a social stool that includes Facebook and Twitter), revenue, development of brand extensions, and the opportunity to continue to innovate online,” Lau tells us.

Hearst’s new channels will launch next year. For more on the broader YouTube initiative, read here.