If the usage habits of the young are any indication of the future of media consumption--and they usually are--then the cell phone will soon become THE de facto personal media device of the 21 st Century. People from the ages of 18-29 and minorities are more likely than other consumers to use their phones as personal computers, cameras, MP3 players and more, according to a joint survey from AOL, the Associated Press, and the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Nearly two thirds of young adults use their phones to send text messages, more than half take pictures with their …

It's been a mixed start of the year for media stocks. Measured against the broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 index, which gained 3.7 percent in the first quarter, most media companies underperformed in the first three months of the year, with the notable exceptions of Walt Disney Co. and Sony Corp, which both hit 52-week highs in the first quarter--with Disney's share price growing 16.5 percent. What caused Disney and Sony's Q1 success? Investors want to see companies investing for the future, and the digital future looks bright for both companies. Disney's expanded deal with Apple for digital delivery of …

The most successful new media companies have been "purpose-driven," writes The New York Times, meaning the services they provide have outweighed the importance on making money -- at least at the outset. Google, Yahoo and Craigslist all started out in a similar fashion, focusing on strong "purpose-driven" products like search, a hub for information and content and free classifieds. Of course, each of these Web companies went on to become masters of online advertising, making them the media giants they are today. The Times article points to a new breed of "purpose driven" Web companies, LaLa.com and Chowhound.com, recently …

And when do people really love those purpose-driven companies? When they allow for something to happen that would have never been possible before. Take the lost and found postings on Craigslist. The Associated Press tells the story of a 24-year-old woman who recently lost her new $300 iPod. Her boyfriend suggested that she check the lost-and-found section of Craigslist, and low and behold, after posting a message, her iPod was returned to her less than 24 hours after losing it. In fact, Internet good Samaritans can be found daily on Web message boards; items more valuable than iPods, such as …

A new study from the Newspaper Association of America, which is in the midst of trying to rebrand the entire faltering industry, shows that online audiences are growing rapidly at newspaper sites. One in three Internet users, or 55 million, visit a newspaper Web site each month, according to the new study, released today at the trade group's three-day annual convention in Chicago. From January to December 2005, unique visitors to newspaper sites grew 21 percent, while the number of page views jumped considerably by 43 percent. The industry's struggle with the transition online has been one of the top …

Movielink and CinemaNow, two online movie services founded by major Hollywood studios, will begin selling major films like " Brokeback Mountain," which was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, the same day the DVD's are released in stores. Movielink has signed download deals with six major studios: Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., MGM-Paramount Pictures, which are the co-owners of Movielink, as well as Twentieth Century Fox. CinemaNow has signed Sony, MGM and LionsGate Entertainment Corp., the studio that produced "Crash," winner of Best Picture. This is a massive step forward for digital delivery, which will now surely overtake DVD …

Chinese users are now more abundant and spend more total time on the Web than US users, according to Charles Zhang, chairman and CEO of Sohu.com, whose research says China now has between 150 and 200 million Internet users, who spend nearly 2 billion hours per week online, versus the 129 million hours spent by US Internet consumers. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the US had 154 million active Internet users in January 2006. This information was released by Sohu, when the company opened trading on the Nasdaq last month. But why did it go unnoticed asks Natalie Pace of Forbes.com. Well, …

In 11 short months, YouTube, a Web site where Internet users can post video content, has become one of the most popular sites on the Web, drawing 9.1 million people per day in February, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. It shows 30 million videos a day, making it one of the biggest providers of video on the Web, just behind Microsoft, but ahead of competitors Google and Yahoo, which charge for video content. Why is it so popular? Again, it's all about its "purpose driven" ease of use: users can post content in minutes. Some of it is copyrighted, however -- like …