'Tis the season for adorable multimedia

One of my coworkers made this silent-film style video on cutting your own Christmas tree.

I couldn't resist plugging it.

Chew on this

What's black and white and read all over ... for 20 minutes?

Europe's commuter rag:






The news tab's Web site boasts 5.5 million weekday readers in Switzerland, France and Spain.

And, Trend Watching listed 20 minutes among its examples of snack culture. Snack culture is third in its 8 Important Comsumer Trends for 2008.

Digest this: A newspaper an element of snack culture.

Is this the fast food of news?

Trend Watching describes snack culture this way:

"SNACK CULTURE represents the 'transient sphere' on steroids, catering to consumers’ insatiable craving for instant gratification. SNACK CULTURE thus embodies the phenomenon of products, services and experiences becoming more temporary and transient; products that are being deconstructed in easier to digest, easier to afford bits, making it possible to collect even more experiences, as often as possible, in an even shorter timeframe."

Yes, it's drive-thru journalism.

20 Minutes says the name refers to the average time a European commuter spends in public transportation on any given weekday. The tab, est. 1999, publishes 27 different editions with to provide a diffent local emphasis for each edition.

Is 20 minutes setting a new bar for how much news reader can/will consume? Or are they just giving busy urbanites what they want in this ever-speedy communication age?

The read question is: are we talking deep fried news? Or the 100-calorie pack?

Metaphores aside, will this be good for us?