The understatement for the first quarter of 2010 is that CBS Sports has had an okay start to 2010. First, its broadcast of Super Bowl XLV became the most watched television program in history. Then, it got to recharge the batteries through the month of February while the media world converged upon Vancouver - before setting up its annual domination of March through its broadcast of the NCAA tournament. Most people are dreaming about brackets this week and the least-productive Thursday and Friday in the American work calendar. But there's another spring event in the CBS Sports catalog that is going to be a spectacle: this April's Masters. Forget about all the normal stories about Augusta and what its history means to the sport. This year's event has the tease of Tiger Woods return as its big draw. (more...)

On Sunday the NCAA announced the 65 teams that will play for college basketball's championship, affording some teams the opportunity of a lifetime while bitterly disappointing others. In recent years, to celebrate the occasion of one of America's most beloved sporting events, Sports Illustrated has produced annual March-Madness-themed covers that cram in pictures of at least one person from every team in the tournament. View Robert Newman Design's full March Madness cover gallery here. (At left: March 2008, featuring Kansas' Brandon Rush. This was one of a series of covers for that year, each featuring a different player as the central figure.)

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In anticipation of SportsGrid, Mediaite's upcoming sports baby (babies having babies!), we've decided to count down our list of the top 25 most influential sports bloggers, writers, and tweeters currently shaping the online sports narrative. (more...)

video Make no mistake, this Sports Illustrated photo spread of Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn is definitely supposed to make you think of sex. The other day sports blogger Nicole M. LaVoi caused a bit of an online stir when she accused Sports Illustrated of oversexualing when they put on the cover, fully clothed, in a downhill skiing position. As I noted at the time considering this was a position skiers are required to take in order to ski it was hard to see the source of the outrage: "Is this maybe a case of the viewer seeing what they want to see? I mean if they had her posed in a bathing suit (and lord knows I wouldn’t necessarily put it past them) then, yes, the author would very much have a point." (more...)

Ladies and gentlemen — eh, who are we kidding, gentlemen — your Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2010 Cover Model: Brooklyn Decker! As has become something of a tradition, the announcement was made on the Late Show with David Letterman, which broadcast the unveiling of a giant nearly-naked billboard in Times Square. Decker has additional SI heft by marriage: her husband is tennis star Andy Roddick. Wow, too bad their babies will be so ugly. (more...)

I mean more so than you normally would upon seeing an attractive, fully clothed, woman on the cover of a popular magazine. That's what sports blogger Nicole M. LaVoi apparently feels is the message here. She thinks that Sports Illustrated, which admittedly does not have a stellar track record where these things are concerned, has intentionally put Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn in a sexualized pose for their cover. (more...)

I saw the Sport Illustrated demo video long before the iPad was  released. It was everything the iPad should have been on Day One. A mind blowing demonstration of what the future of the magazine could be.

The problem is, the iPad cannot currently do what the demo presents, and it should, right now. Flash is the only current technology that would make that possible. (more...)

For the average unemployed American (one of every ten of us, at this point), finding a job is a rigid process. They build up resumes and try to sell themselves to the highest bidder using the best of their talents as bait. In fact, the last thing most jobless people give up on in their search is their own abilities and experiences. But former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is not your average jobless American, and he's on the prowl with a kitchen-sink approach to impressing potential bosses that has led him to dabble in everything from authoring books to impersonating Elvis to trying out for a bevy of celebrity reality TV shows (on Celebrity Apprentice, premiering in March). (more...)

2009 has been a horrible year for the magazine publishing industry. Much has been made of the perfect storm of an ad recession (brought about by a dismal economic climate), and the growth of up-to-the-second digital media. But in the midst of this blizzard of bad news, there has been one beacon of hope for editors and publishers alike: Stephen Colbert. Vanity Fair tells us that putting Colbert on the cover leads to sales! (more...)

video Stephen Colbert made headlines when he announced last month that his viewership (or, as he affectionately calls them, "Colbert Nation") would take over as primary sponsor of the United States' speed skating team in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. And the fans have delivered, raising approximately $250,000 for the team in the time since. (more...)

Everyone in the universe is excited about the Time, Inc.'s proposed tablet PC magazines. With some good reason - the demonstration video below, showcasing Sports Illustrated (and narrated with gusto by SI editor Terry McDonell) is pretty snazzy. Think of a Kindle that is in color. And can play video. And runs on a real computer. And that you probably shouldn't take in the bathtub. (more...)

Breaking It's been widely reported that Time Inc. has been planning a rather significant round of lay-offs before the end of the year. The conventional wisdom around New York publishing circles was that the lay-offs would be coming after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case, as a Time Inc. spokesperson confirmed exclusively to Mediaite: "Yes, sadly there are layoffs today across a number of titles at Time Inc." (more...)

Andre Agassi's shocking (or book-selling!) confession that he abused crystal meth in the late '90s has been the primary promotional push for his upcoming autobiography, and like so many juicy gossip bits today, the info was first reported via Twitter. (Remember Obama's "Jackass"-gate?)

But the Agassi early report was not only surprising and disappointing for tennis fans -- it also caused a minor commotion for media outlets like CBS News, whose Katie Couric/Agassi 60 Minutes interview aired last night (two weeks after the news hit), and Time Inc., who planned to break the story with exclusive excerpts in People and Sports Illustrated. (more...)

In this very challenging climate for the magazine industry, editors will go to almost any length to increase newsstand sales (and/or media attention) for its title. Case in point: ESPN the Magazine's will announce today plans for their premiere "Body Issue" featuring more than 30 male and female athletes posing nude or semi-nude, raising eyebrows about the "naked" play for sales. (more...)

The Magazine Editors category on the Power Grid has engendered some good debate here at Mediaite's global headquarters. Summing up: should a Magazine Editor be rewarded more for the public profile of the title they oversee, or more for how they promote their own name. Well judging by the most recent rankings it appears that the side that argued on behalf of magazine title awareness won the debate. (more...)