“In the year 3000, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook will merge into one super time wasting Web site called YouTweetFace.” -Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien

This prediction came this week on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. While “YouTweetFace” is a quite humorous interpretation of the multitude of social media platforms available, this was not the part of O’Brien’s statement that most caught my attention.  

“Time wasting” seemed to be the underlying message. The degree of ridiculousness put behind all of these new media tools would certainly come to mind for outsiders not familiar with the impact of digital media. According to comScore, Twitter grew 3,000 percent over the past year. Businesses are rapidly tapping into this market to promote their messages and to find new customers.

While it may be a waste of time for some, those interested in profiting from the social media wave are finding the time invested in it to be worthwhile. At many organizations today, there are full time social media experts on staff. Marketing and PR companies have entire departments dedicated to using such online tools. The proof is in the pudding – or the YouTweetFace platforms. Bottom line: companies are willing to pay for these experts. This shows that businesses perceive a value in the digital media Web sites that O’Brien lightheartedly jokes about. 

For anyone looking to join the social media space, YouTweetFace.com is no longer an available domain name. However, there are many other options: YouTweetFaceNow.com, YouTweetFaceStore.com and YouTweetFaceToday.com. Endless possibilities to waste time.

The media revolution is in full force.  According to the New York Times:

After a century of continuous publication, The Christian Science Monitor will abandon its weekday print edition and appear online only, its publisher announced Tuesday. The cost-cutting measure makes The Monitor the first national newspaper to essentially give up on print.

As the Pulitzer Prize winning Christian Science Monitor goes online only, the Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Oregonian have all reported declining circulation numbers, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal and the Portland Business Journal.

Today, the Puget Sound Business Journal announced the launch of its beta TechFlash site.  Lead contributors are the well-established technology/business writers from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, John Cook and Todd Bishop.   The Web site and online community has plans to launch a tech job board in the future.

You can view the press release here.

Interesting posting yesterday on the PR 20/20 marketing and PR Blog.  It notes that among PR Week’s  Power List of the top 25 influential people, NONE of them are Twitter users.

The blog posting cites amazement that these people who were awarded the mark of “power” are not even innovative enough to use the social media service.  To me, however, this draws attention to two possibilities:

1. These Powers Listers are indeed missing something and are old-fashioned in their ways
2. OR – Twitter really isn’t a necessary tool for modern success

AdvertisingAge today published an announcement of the folding of CosmoGirl magazine. This follows the trend of several of the teen targeted publications, including Teen People and ElleGirl, which have gone out of print as well.

However, the print-age has not dried up completely. The publisher of CosmoGirl will take on the same role at Hearst’s NEW Food Network magazine. This seems to say that teens are less interested in hard-copy information, while there may still be hope for print in the “mom” demographic. This also reinforces that one of the best target markets to go after is affluent women.

Today’s TrendCentral Technology Articles announce PMc, the first magazine designed exclusively for the iPhone.  This is another sign of the digital movement of today’s media. It is surprising to me that such a product has not been created until now. I am curious to hear if this is a product that current iPhone owners see themselves using. TrendCentral writes:

PMc: Noted photographer Patrick McMullan is taking on a new media: the iPhone. The first magazine created to be read exclusively on the iPhone, PMc intends to cover subject material in the realm of luxury, entertainment, and fashion. A single page of PMc will have about one hundred and fifty words of text from a variety of guest writers, including many notable authors. The bi-monthly digital rag will be available for download at Apple’s Application Store, and we expect it to be followed by a flurry of imitators looking to leverage the newest of new media.