The announcement was made during NBC's "Today" show.
President Obama was named Time''s person of the year.
President Barack Obama is TIME's 2012 Person of the Year.
TIME managing editor Rick Stengel revealed the choice on NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday morning.
Obama was also the magazine's choice four years ago.
As it has for the past 85 years, TIME selected the person – or sometimes group – that its editors determined had the single greatest impact during the past year.
Recent recipients include The Protester, 2011; Mark Zuckerberg, 2012; Ben Bernanke, 2009; Barack Obama, 2008; Vladimir Putin, 2007; You, 2006; Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono, 2005; and George W. Bush, 2004.
Notorious TIME Man of the Year choices included Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1943 and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.