``For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you,'' staff writer Lev Grossman wrote in the cover story.

Time's selection of ``you,'' published in the magazine's Dec. 25 issue, was made from a list of nominees including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, China's President Hu Jintao, former Secretary of State James Baker and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The issue will be on newsstands Dec. 18 and features a reflective mylar cover that allows readers to see themselves mirrored in a computer screen above the word ``you.''

``A mother in Baghdad with a videophone can let you see a roadside bombing, or a patron in a nightclub can show you a racist rant by a famous comedian,'' Time Editor Richard Stengel wrote. ``These blogs and videos bring events to the rest of us in ways that are often more immediate and authentic than traditional media.''

100 Million Videos

YouTube, founded in 2005, draws users that watch 100 million videos a day. That traffic drew a $1.65 billion offer in October from Google Inc., the Internet's most visited search engine, to buy the video-sharing site.

News Corp. bought MySpace.com, a social-network site where users create their own profiles, for $650 million last year, while Yahoo! Inc. has offered $1 billion to buy Facebook.com, a site that started with college students and expanded to allow anyone to use it.

Other Web sites have sprung up to compete with MySpace and Facebook such as Piczo and XuQa.com.

The magazine also recognized ``newsmakers,'' those whose actions in the past year have affected people's lives, for better or worse.

Chavez to Colbert

The list includes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Pope Benedict XVI and Cuba's Raul Castro. U.S. newsmakers included President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Ford Motor Co.'s Bill Ford, comedian Stephen Colbert and the Iraq Study Group.

Last year, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, his wife Melinda Gates and rock star Bono were named by Time as its ``Persons of the Year'' for 2005 for their philanthropic efforts. President Bush was named ``Person of the Year'' for 2004, and the American soldier was chosen in 2003.

``Person of the Year'' doesn't necessarily honor its recipient, and controversial cover choices for issue have included Adolf Hitler in 1983 and Josef Stalin in 1939 and 1942.

Time magazine started the annual cover story in 1927 with Charles Lindbergh, the aviator who made the first solo trans- Atlantic flight. The first woman selected was Wallace Warfield Simpson, whom Britain's Edward VIII abdicated the throne for, in 1936. The magazine also has awarded the cover to phenomena, such as the computer in 1982.

Other recent winners include New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 2001; Bush in 2000; and, in 1999, Jeffrey Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc.

The only three-time ``Man of the Year'' was former President Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, 1934 and 1941.

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