Anyone questioning the reach of Twitter only has to look at this new fact: Twitter now has more web traffic than The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times.

Of course Facebook is much, much bigger -- but for some reason non-users tend to take Facebook more seriously than Twitter. It's probably the Harvard connection and the similarity with MySpace. Twitter is a different animal. It's more interesting.

And now it's more visited online than the New York Times and Wall St. Journal sites. That's pretty incredible. Of course Twitter doesn't create original content. Does it?

The story goes on to answer its own question. Of course there's original content on Twitter. Tweets can link to blog posts, articles, videos, audio, etc.

I've gotten some questions recently about whether companies ought to use Twitter as part of their communications strategies.

The microblogging service is certainly becoming more mainstream, and useful conversations on a broad range of topics abound. If an organization has someone willing to devote a little time/effort to manning a Twitter account, it might well be a good idea. There's one easy way to find out.

Use Twitter Search to check keywords focusing on your area of interest. If the tweets that come up are useful from a business perspective, that's a strong sign that a Twitter strategy would be helpful to you.

There's an essay making the rounds by Clay Shirky that really digs into the future of newspapers and journalism.

Here are a few excerpts:

If you want to know why newspapers are in such trouble, the most salient fact is this: Printing presses are terrifically expensive to set up and to run. This bit of economics, normal since Gutenberg, limits competition while creating positive returns to scale for the press owner, a happy pair of economic effects that feed on each other.

Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable.

Late last month, another major newspaper died.

The Rocky Mountain News was one of two competing dailies in the Denver area. The video below tells the story of the Rocky's final weeks.

Many implications suggest themselves. Most important: Who will be left to report the news after this recession is over, since it is local newspapers like the Rocky -- not Google News -- that field the hundreds of reporters who sit in town meetings and cover local sports in communities around the country?

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

PRWeb has just come out with a neat new feature called Tweetit, which ties into the current Twitter craze

Basically, Tweetit allows PRWeb users to schedule Twitter messages, which are called tweets, to be posted as their press releases are put out on PRWeb. The tweet can be customized and includes a link to the release. (Below is a quick video demo from PRWeb.)

In case anyone is still wondering about the mainstream status of blogging, President Obama yesterday launched a White House blog.

It's a pretty simple blog. There are no comments. However, it does serve the same need that many companies and other organizations have for creating blogs.

• It allows a website to have dynamic content. (Blog headlines are on the homepage.)
• It provides a new, more informal venue for news.
• It lets other websites link to your content.
• It provides subscription access -- via RSS.

Now, it seems unlikely that the president himself will be posting. But that's OK. As long as staffers don't masquerade as Obama, then all is well.

For the second time in two months, a major publication is giving up on print.

PC Magazine is shutting down its print edition and focusing on its PCMag websites. In late October, The Christian Science Monitor said it was closing down its daily print edition and would move that content online.

For Ziff Davis, the owner of PC Magazine, the move seems to be more a final step in its evolution to online than a catastrophe. According to paidContent.org, only about 7 jobs will be lost, related to print-specific tasks.

How can we carry on PR and communications when budgets are being cut and resources tight? Why not just put the whole thing on hold until business improves?

Tough times like we're experiencing now have always been a challenge for PR and marketing -- which are often the first to experience budget cuts. But take heart. Good communications can continue.

That's why we're launching the free newsletter, "In Difficult Times." In it, we will show readers how to do more with less. In some cases, it's a thoughtful approach to existing tools and workflow.

In other cases, it's embracing Web 2.0 distribution channels, which tend to be far cheaper than their traditional media brethren.

The Christian Science Monitor, a highly respected national newspaper, is throwing in the towel on paper.

The Monitor has announced that it is giving up its daily newsprint and ink distribution -- and instead will be a web-only publication. It will run the presses only for its weekend edition. Poynter Online explains:

The Monitor, celebrating its 100th birthday this month and next, is the most prominent newspaper to date to take the online plunge. But, like some of the others that have quit daily print publication this year, it has special circumstances that would not apply to the typical metro daily. In the Monitor's case, those circumstance include a modest circulation -- about 50,000 -- combined with national distribution. Also, it is owned by the Church of Christ, Scientist, which has been willing to underwrite operating shortfalls though the years but not the big losses that come in the current deteriorating print climate.