Ashton Kutcher: Twitter will change media
Plus, "aplusk" says that it offers him a way to reach the same audience that a studio would spend tens of millions of dollars to reach through traditional advertising.
PASADENA, Calif.--Ashton Kutcher said that the fact he beat CNN to a million Twitter followers is a significant deal.
Kutcher, known to his nearly 3 million followers as "aplusk," said that it shows that one individual can have the power to reach as many people in a new medium as a media conglomerate.
"Individuals are becoming consumers and (the) editors of the media," Kutcher said. "It has and will forever change media."
While he doubts his content has the broad relevance of, say, CNN, Kutcher said having such a large audience is both fun and useful for his job as an actor.
"It gives you an ability to stay in tune with your audience...but also as it has continued to grow, it gives me a great platform to syndicate content."
Kutcher noted that half the budget of a film is spent on marketing, basically trying to reach the potential audience of that movie.
"I can do it for free (by) pushing a button," Kutcher said. "There's a value proposition with my other job."
Although he spoke of Twitter specifically, Kutcher said the real advance was widely distributed, real-time microblogging. He said that someone will probably come around with a microblogging service that syndicates better and searches better than Twitter.
For those who want more aplusk, here's a video interview that CNET News did last year with Kutcher on the launch of his entertainment Web site.