Time's stroke of genius: Twitter, iphone and Steven Johnson

This is one of the cleverest magazine covers I've seen in a long time. My favorite writer on my favorite social media service served up on my favorite gadget.  Striking image and brilliant marketing concept all in one. (Yes, this tweet has already spread across Twitter like wildfire).

Congrats, editor Rick Stengel on a masterstroke.

The article is online here.

And check out the Robert Wright piece too. His upcoming book "the Evolution of God" is utterly fascinating.
21 responses
I'd have to agree on this point, Chris. This is a really nicely executed concept and design. Simple. #TIME mag cover
The #TIME magazine cover about Twitter is very cool. Article is even better.
Genius is right. I wonder what will be said when people "bing" (unlikely) this issue 50 years from now.
Excellent concept. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy.
this is genius!!! #TIME
That is sweet!
Awesome cover.
Looks like #TIME may become relevant again.
I might be typing the dash wrong, but it looks to me to be 141 characters.
That's funny. It's a short dash on @stevenbjohnson's original tweet. They made it long for house style. Can you do an em-rule dash on twitter? On a Mac it's shift+opt+- to type it, but would a phone display it?
wow! this reminds me of the shiny Youtube cover that #TIME did sometime ago.
I couldn´t disagree more. Twitter itself is just a manifestation of much larger changes that are happening. It is just one example (and most likely an ephemeral one) of the digital media evolution that is going on.

By focusing on twitter it makes them look as if they are trying too hard to "have their finger on the pulse" all the while being totally outdated.

I've got to get me one of those phones!
exactly what i thought when i saw the cover. very creative.
i wonder if Apple paid for product placement. also, @stevenbjohnson must've gained quite a few followers
Internet is back in Iran,ppl get access to twitter & FB, there's no suspicious in this. Most ppl know abt proxy anyway
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