Twitter has begun rolling out a new homepage in the US that more clearly reflects the kind of company it is. And that company, like Google (despite its denials), is a media company.

The new Twitter homepage reflects the fact that while it has tens of millions of registered users it has far fewer very active users as we reported here recently.

Many users of Twitter are happy to monitor and look rather than to tweet and Twitter has smartly realised that it needs to tap into that more successfully.

Other changes on the new home page scheme are that we no longer see top tweets or trending topics. What we get instead is the avatars of its most popular users. Great news for some of the biggest users of Twitter.

As Mashable notes the biggest change, however, is the language. It is no longer about “discovering” what’s happening, but using Twitter to follow your interests like a social media newspaper or magazine.

“The old Twitter.com led with ‘Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world’. The new homepage has a different pitch to prospective users: ‘Follow your interests: Instant updates from your friends, industry experts, favourite celebrities, and what’s happening around the world’, Mashable says.

That sells Twitter much more as a media channel where you can get the latest breaking news or celebrity updates.