FedEx has signed on as the first advertiser in the New York Times' new Video Lounge, reports ClickZ.

FedEx produced videos that feature employees telling stories of their time at the shipping company. The videos link back to the "Stories" section on FedEx's own website.

The video offering from the NYT is its bid to claim a portion of the online video market, but is solely devoted to long-form advertising. The Times created the Video Lounge as a response to both viewer frustration with pre-roll, and advertiser desire to flesh out their ads on the site.

Videos will eventually appear outside the Video Lounge but will be clearly marked as ads. Longer ads are intended to complement, and not necessarily replace, 15- or 30-second preroll spots that appear elsewhere on NYTimes.com.