She snapped a pic, tweeted it out (“New SI swimsuit coverrrr!!!!”), and boom went the proverbial dynamite.

“They unveiled the billboard for a few minutes to tape it for the Letterman show and then covered it back up,” Wardlaw told the Huffington Post. “I guess they didn’t cover it fast enough.”

Here’s Wardlaw’s photo, which has been viewed nearly 5,000 times:

And if you can’t get enough of Irina Shayk, here’s a video from SI:

He had been with the program since 2007, and the crowded show will not be replacing him with another anchor.

Olbermann had been rumored to be off the show since early August, but NBC has not confirmed the initial reports. Today, Deitsch tweeted, “NBC Sports has officially (and finally) confirmed that Keith Olbermann will not be on Football Night in America this season.”

Deitsch expands on the situation in his comprehensive rundown of NFL broadcasting for the season that begins tomorrow:

Keith Olbermann will not be back on the Football Night In America but the Keystone Kops manner in which NBC Sports refused to officially comment on Olbermann’s status for weeks was beyond silly. If Olbermann is gone, say it, and move on. SI.com was told a couple of weeks ago that “the higher ups” would soon thunder down with a decision, and that came long after this Aug. 5 report declaring that Olbermann would not be back on the show.

The studio show includes Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Peter King.

We’ve reached out to NBC Sports, MSNBC and Olbermann (via Twitter) for comment.

—–
» Follow Steve Krakauer on Twitter

Although it provides no new information about what happened that night in Milledgeville, it provides plenty of firsthand accounts of encounters between the quarterback and a slew of waiters, friends, and teammates.

The picture that we get from these accounts is of an immature and bruthish athlete – the teen movie antagonist, brought fully to life in an outsized 6-5, 241 pound frame. Midway through the article, you fully expect him to knock over someone’s tray and make fun of their glasses.

Here are a few of the always abrasive, sometimes scary social interactions between the world and the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Courtesy of Sports Illustrated:

On the night that Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting a young woman:

Earlier at Capital City [the Georgia nightspot where the alleged incident occured], witnesses say, Roethlisberger had held aloft a tray of tequila drinks and shouted, “All my bitches, take some shots!”

In the weeks leading up to the latest incident:

A man who agreed to be identified only by his first name, Craig, says that a few weeks before the Milledgeville incident, he overheard Roethlisberger making lewd comments to a pregnant waitress at a Pittsburgh T.G.I. Friday’s. The waitress, when asked last week, recalled Roethlisberger’s saying such things as, “Did your boyfriend forget to pull out?”

From 2008, around the time Roethlisberger was accused of assualting another woman:

Roethlisberger visited Cabo Wabo Cantina on the grounds of the Harrah’s resort with Joyner, Barravecchio and a female friend. There, according to a lawsuit filed by former Cabo Wabo waiter Alvaro Brito, the group “mocked, made fun of and mimicked” Brito while he asked the woman for I.D. to prove she was 21. (Roethlisberger produced the I.D., which showed her to be 27.)

As the quarterback left, the lawsuit alleges, he asked Brito if he knew who [president of the resort Kevin] Koster was and told Brito that Koster was a friend of his. A few days later Brito, who had worked for Harrah’s for 12 years and earned $47,000 a year, was fired.

From a few years ago:

Mark Baranowski, owner of the popular Cabana Bar in Pittsburgh, says that when the quarterback first came in with a group of hangers-on a few years ago, he refused to pay the $5 cover and used a variation on the Do you know who I am? line to intimidate an employee at the door.

Baranowski, through an intermediary, told the staffer Roethlisberger wasn’t banned but added, “Tell him he’s an arrogant a——, and every Steeler can get in without a cover except him.” Roethlisberger has not been back to the Cabana Bar.

From one of Roethlisberger’s friends:

[A friend of Ben's] is embarrassed by Roethlisberger’s pettiness and immaturity during pickup basketball games—he says Big Ben will whine about team selection, talk mean-spirited trash and flex his biceps when he makes a good play. He despairs when he sees Roethlisberger blow off attempts by older Steelers, such as Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw, to give him advice.

From teammate Hines Ward:

Veteran receiver Hines Ward, who during his six seasons as one of Roethlisberger’s favorite targets has never had a close relationship with the quarterback, called the suspension “justified” and added, “When you’re in the quarterback position, everybody looks to you and there are certain situations you can’t put yourself in.

Finally, from a store owner in the Pittsburgh area:

At Yinzers in the Strip District, 50-year-old owner Jim Coen has moved his bin of Roethlisberger jerseys to a storeroom in the back. “That’s thousands of dollars worth of merchandise right there,” Coen says. He points to the little girls’ pink number 7 shirts emblazoned with Roethlisberger’s name. Says Coen, “Would you buy your daughter this jersey?”

None of these quotes have any bearing on the more serious charges leveled against Roethlisberger. Those charges have been dropped.

But if the above stories are even partly accurate (and these are just a few – go to Deadspin for the authoritative collection), their publication in SI confirms a few things:

1. Any supposed kid gloves that Roethlisberger has been treated with by the media are now completely off.

2. He will have to work even harder than before in getting NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to reduce his suspension.

3. He is the new poster boy for athlete entitlement, sports’ most dubious honor.

This bit of info comes courtesy of SI.com’s Jimmy Traina, who interviewed Andrews, and decided to run it early in his for the must-read Extra Mustard section after this People magazine cover was released.

Although Andrews skilfully dodges any official statement regarding her relationship with Maks, she did, “thank People for letting us know about this hot romance because we didn’t know we had it.”

Besides potentially crushing the dreams of people who believe that true love can be found on dance-based reality television, Andrews also responded to criticism that “Dancing” undermines her credibility as a reporter:

I don’t know what damage I’m doing. I’m basically killing myself to not embarrass myself. I’ve been in the top three in scoring each week, behind an athlete and a professional dancer and singer. I’m not sure what damage I created for myself. What am I doing to be a bimbo? I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.

Sidenote: it’s interesting that SI is calling out People on prematurely trumpeting Andrews’ and Chmerkovskiy’s “hot romance”, considering both mags are owned by Time Inc. Sibling print publication fightttttt!

Left: Time, August 28, 1971, illustration by Bob Peak. Left-handed Oakland Athletics pitcher Vida Blue was the American League Cy Young Award winner and MVP in 1971 as he posted a 24-8 record.

Right: Esquire, July 1966, design by George Lois. “What’s Joe DiMaggio doing with himself these days?” asked the cover headline. That’s Lois posed as Joltin’ Joe in Yankee Stadium.

Left: Time, September 8, 1969, the year the New York Mets won their first World Series. Illustration by Willard Mullin, the long time New York World-Telegram sports cartoonist who created the famous Brooklyn Bum character.

Right: Sports Illustrated, August 21, 1995, marking the death of New York Yankee Mickey Mantle. The Mick played his entire 18-year career for the Yankees, winning three Most Valuable Player awards, 16 All-Star nods, and seven world championship rings. In 1956 Mantle won the Triple Crown crown, leading the American League in home runs, batting average, and RBIs. Design: Steve Hoffman. Photograph by George Silk.

Left: Jet, April 26, 1962. “Black Gold on Green Diamonds” features five African American baseball stars: New York Yankees catcher Elston Howard (1963 American League MVP, first black player on the Yankees); Chicago White Sox left fielder Saturnino Orestes Armas “Minnie” Minoso, (“The Cuban Comet,” first black player on the White Sox, he led the league in getting hit by pitches 10 times); Chicago Cubs left fielder Billy Williams (“Sweet Billy” was the 1961 Rookie of the Year); Los Angeles Dodger infielder Jim Gilliam (1953 Rookie of the Year), and New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid (1951 Rookie of the Year, two-time MVP, and the man many consider to be the greatest all-around player of all time).

Right: Time, September 22, 1947. Illustration of Jackie Robinson by Ernest Hamlin Baker. Robinson was the first African American Major League Baseball player of the modern era when he broke the color line playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was named Rookie of the Year that year, and went on to win the MVP title in 1949.

Robert Newman is a print and online media consultant. His website is www.robertnewman.com. His Facebook page can be found here. Linda Rubes is a magazine art director and consultant.

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.

Tiger Woods, 1997 Masters Champion. Photo from CNN SI.

Late last week the AP reported that this April’s Masters at Augusta National could be the place for Tiger’s first tournament since the incidents of the last few months. It’s perfect for the imagery, as I’d argue that its one of two venues in the sport  with which Tiger is probably most associated (to me, the other is Pebble Beach, which coincidentally happens to host June’s U.S. Open). The downside? We’re about to get a landslide of ridiculous, hyperbolic narratives as to what it means to the sport of Golf, sports media, the world at large, etc.

It started earlier this month when Bill Simmons talked about the return of Woods and put it in terms of Muhammad Ali’s return to boxing from Vietnam War-era exile. That didn’t sit too well with most, ranging from the normal snark minds at Deadspin all the way to former ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann. The latter’s comments started a short-lived firefight between the two personalities, but, as seen in a  response to Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer, the ESPN brass seemingly tried to wash their hands of the back-and-forth.

Dan Levy gave a great wrap up on the whole situation, and maybe the Tiger-Woods-as-Muhammed-Ali column was  Simmons just trying to not back down from a comment he made during one of his weekly chats. The Olbermann interjection was entertaining, but he’s as explosive a personality as Simmons and has as many (more?) haters as fans. All of that was blown bigger than usual because of who it was, and it was basically just one author taking a shot at the first “Tiger’s Return” column when you strip it down.

It’s about to get worse, folks. “Tiger’s Return is going to be the biggest media event since X” is about to be the story that fills in the gaps between early round play of the NCAA tournament.The statement just got released: Tiger’s return at the Masters is confirmed. Also breaking: Rick Reilly’s head just exploded as he figures out how to depict this as the most cinematic blockbuster sporting event since the Chariot scene in Ben Hur.

Don’t believe me? The tipping point is about to close, and in the newest addition to the genre of Tiger’s return, the comparison comes from CBS Sports president, Sean McManus, as documented by Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch:

“I think the first tournament Tiger Woods plays again, wherever it is, will be the biggest media event other than the Obama inauguration in the past 10 or 15 years,” McManus said.

The reporter — taken aback by that claim — asked if he had heard correctly.

“It is hard to overestimate how much interest there will be,” McManus continued. “Tiger Woods is the most famous, most recognized, most accomplished athlete in the world, and his celebrity and prominence is even larger than it was. When you look at the fact that he gave a very simple press statement with no questions and every broadcast and cable news network in America carried it with great interest, I think that is an indication that whatever he does has enormous interest. And whatever he does on the golf course for the first time since Thanksgiving will be of interest to almost every man and women in this country.”

This is my one appeal: let’s try and keep the excitement in check. I’m asking a lot, I know, of the sports media to not overplay a story. Don’t bill this as the return of the Prodigal Son – let’s not forget for a minute *why* Tiger has been missing from Golf since November and it wasn’t an excuse to avoid the 16th Hole at the Phoenix Open. We’ll watch – Tiger or No Tiger – mostly because it’s a major tournament that is one of the first signs that Spring is actually coming and golf season is upon us. I know most believe that Golf media lives and dies by the Swooshed-One, but let’s try and behave with some dignity.

Follow Dave on Twitter

Another March 2008 cover, this one featuring Georgetown’s DaJuan Summers. Interestingly and somewhat amazingly, this cover features a typo, misspelling Summers’ first name as “DaJaun.”

March 2005.

March 2009, featuring multiple players. Additionally, this cover introduced women into the mix.

Robert Newman has served as the design director of several magazines, including Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, and New York. His Facebook page can be found here.

In April, SportsGrid will take Mediaite’s proprietary Power Grid algorithm and apply it to sports, gauging the performance and popularity of over 5,400 players, teams, coaches, front office execs, and members of the sports media.

To get a leg up on the launch, and the crazy arguing that will ensue (LeBron vs. Kobe, Ohio State vs. Michigan, Stuart Scott vs. local sports anchor Chip Carter), SportsGrid’s Dan Fogarty and Glenn Davis count down their Top 25 sports bloggers and internet personalities.

There are plenty of heavy hitters on the list, but much like every good lineup needs a three-point specialist or a defensive stopper, this squad wouldn’t be complete without writers who serve a more niche audience. Think of them as Bruce Bowen, minus the contempt from their peers.

Note: if you are not a fan of the gratuitous use of sports puns when arbitrarily ranking bloggers, TOO BAD, because we’re going to the hole until the fat lady sings.

With that in mind: every team needs a couple of goons to start fights, and some bangers on the inside…

HA. Turns out we didn’t have to put it past them! Behold this week’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue featuring an entire spread of Lindsey Vonn half-naked (45 pictures in all). Nicole M. LaVoi was merely a week ahead of the game. Here’s what she has to say about the latest development (Vonn is one of four female athletes pictured in bikinis in the issue, by the way).

The critique here is the same, when we DO see female athletes (some of the best in the world at their respective sports!) which happens in only 6-8% of all sport media, they are more often than not in poses that highlight physical attractiveness, femininity, and can be interpreted as sexualized. Is it coincidental that the four female Olympians portrayed here are all blond, attractive, feminine looking, and sexy according to societal norms?Arguably, the Vonn SI cover can be interpreted (or not) as sexualized, but these images are clearly sexualizing in nature and tone.

Also:

The last point I want to highlight is these type of images also reinforce to consumers what is most important and valued in terms of female athletes and females in general.

Apparently, these conclusions were also reinforced on Vonn et al. over the years. Why else pose?

Update: Vonn has apparently injured herself and may or may not be able to compete in all her event, which in this context is begging for some sarcastic “at least she has her bikini modeling career to fall back on” except that when you devote your life to a sport only to get this close, it’s not so funny. So hopefully the injury is less serious than it sounds. Video of her (short) interview with Matt Lauer below.

Related: SI Swimsuit Cover: Brooklyn Decker Joins Illustrious Pantheon, Tweets About It

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The SI swimsuit cover is a big deal, and now Decker joins the likes of Carol Alt, Tyra Banks, Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Elle Macpherson, Heidi Klum, Paulina Porizkova, Kathy Ireland, Rebecca Romijn, Rachel Hunter (aka Stacy’s Mom) and Beyoncé. This issue features previous cover model Bar Rafaeli, plus Twilight‘s Ashley Greene clad only in body paint (yowza) and young tennis star Ana Ivanovic rolling around in a pink bikini in a tub of pink tennis balls. Good thing she has modeling to fall back on.

Decker, who made the cover last year via the inset, didn’t know until yesterday that she was the 2010 cover girl, tweeting the night before that the models were all “freaking out, unable to sleep 2night, on pins and needles, trying to figure out this darn secret!?! ARGH!” and assuring followers that “a lot of people have been asking if we know who it is.. we really, I mean REALLY don’t know!!” Once the announcement was made, she tweeted proudly to thank fans, then again with a bit of media analysis: “The issue is amazing, glowing, fun, the girls are happy.. it’s not over-the-top, the girls and editors should be so proud! THANK YOU ALL!!!”

Brooklyn didn’t seem to sleep much, tweeting after the revelation shortly before midnight and then again at about 5 a.m. with a link to her shoot video and promoting this morning’s Today Show and CNBC appearances (CNBC? Why yes, and tonight they’re running a behind-the-scenes “business of” video). Her hubby also excitedly tweeted his pride (“so happy/proud of my wife… the new cover for sports illustrated swimsuit issue!!!! unreal… so excited!!!!!!!!!!”), and there’s a nice back-and-forth between Decker and Sports Illustrated senior associate editor M.J. Day, who also doesn’t sleep, and is also on it promoting #SISWIM and the live UStream and the @SI_Swimsuit twitter feed. What would Babette March think? Day also captured her covergirl at ease in this TwitPic:

Here’s Letterman making the official announcement tonight, with a gag version thrown in for good fun:

The S.I. Swimsuit Issue is a big deal every year, and a slice of American magazine history, credited with bringing the bikini into polite company and ushering in the era of the supermodel. But in this age of multi-media, it’s positively a juggernaut. CNBC *may* have some ulterior motives in having produced the documentary Business Model: Inside the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue — not that we’d know anything about that — but it’s a a $1 billion enterprise with highly-paid models shot by highly-paid photographers in far-flung locations, from the Maldives to Portugal to India, and that’s the kind of money 2010 media companies don’t lay out unless there is a guaranteed payback. (Indeed, it’s one of the few sure home runs left in the glossy world.) The SI Swimsuit issue remains a sure thing, with the combination of gorgeous photos of gorgeous models in gorgeous locations, and the brand cachet that still animates the franchise. According to Randall Grant, SI Swimsuit photog and senior designer for SI.com, there are more than 1300 images and more than 100 videos on SI.com — and, of course, there’s an app for that. They are not kidding around. No doubt there will be brisk traffic to the Swimsuit 2010 site on SI.com (and here are just a few of the reasons why).

Over the last 60 years researchers have shown that about 4% of all SI covers have portrayed women. When females are featured on the cover of SI, they are more likely than not to be in sexualized poses and not in action–and the most recent Vonn cover is no exception.

Um, isn’t this what downhill skiers normally look like when they are downhill skiing? 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. But otherwise I think I am missing the source of the outrage here. Anyone else?

[h/t Business Insider]

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.

Apple is betting on HTML5 as the method for developing iPad content.  However, HTML5 isn’t ready to provide the tools to provide rich interactive applications, like a virtual Sports Illustrated magazine. Apple won’t allow brilliant content creators to be creative because they have failed to at least provide the option to use Flash on the device. This has nothing to do with the iPad designed as something other than a normal computer, it has everything to do with it needing to be a one stop-and-shop piece of entertainment technology. It simply can’t because Apple won’t support the authoring tools required

Steve Jobs blames Adobe for why he won’t adopt Flash.

“They are lazy. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, the world is moving to HTML5.”

The problem, Steve, is that HTML5, the next iteration of HTML, is not ready for prime time yet and won’t be for many years. Standards take decades to be adopted and there currently aren’t any authoring tools for HTML5 that allow us to develop the same rich interactive content that Flash provides.

Apple has always prided themselves on design noted for what it leaves out, allowing devices to focus on the task they were meant for. However, Apple seemingly has no good strategy for content creators to build what Flash provides.

The reason why the publishing world, particularly newspaper and magazine people, were disappointed with the initial presentation of iPad, was because the focus of the device should have been a game changing way to present their content. Initially, I blamed the publishers, but soon realized, Apple isn’t providing any means to create this content. Leading up to the release, it seems they didn’t bother to work with content creators, so Apple could truly come out of the gate showing people the potential the iPad has to change the media landscape.

Apple should have worked with these content providers to have demonstrations of content that is heavy on video and interactive infographics. Smarter designers, developers, and writers could have created content that would have us all drooling over getting our hands on this device. Instead we were left wondering, what happened?

Anthony De Rosa is a veteran blogger who has been developing and providing consulting for new media since 1996. He posts his opinions on a variety of topics, social media and politics in particular, at soupsoup.tumblr.com.

It may not be the most advisable approach to disregard training and interests on the job hunt but, then again, Blagojevich has never been known for a traditional interpretation of appropriate professional behavior. This time, his exploits have led him to what could blossom into a career in sports journalism, winning a spot in Sports Illustrated‘s “Celebrity Picks for the Super Bowl.” For those who care, here is the former governor’s take on Sunday’s game:

“The Colts’ offense is better than the Saints’ offense because they have the most valuable player in football, Peyton Manning… And the Colts’ defense is better and faster than the Saints’ defense. The only advantage the Saints have is on special teams, but that’s not enough to overcome the advantage the Colts have on both offense and defense.”

Blago’s publicist, Glenn Selig, says the star of “Celebrity Apprentice,” whose most recent press release is raising awareness for his appearance is Sports Illustrated’s “Celebrity Picks for the Super Bowl,” “does not consider himself to be a celebrity,” but was happy to be asked about the Super Bowl because he loves sports and “knows what he’s talking about.” Because if there is one thing Blagojevich knows about, it’s footballs.

While he hasn’t graced as many magazine covers as Barack Obama, Colbert’s visage has become a regular presence on the newsstand. GQ, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Wired, Sports Illustrated, New York and even Parade have put the comedian on their respective covers. The good news for publishers is that issues with Colbert on the cover seem to sell better than those without.

Matt Pressman writes:

Actually, yes, Colbert covers sell quite well, according to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. He boosted Wired’s newsstand sales by 38 percent, Esquire’s by 17 percent, Newsweek’s by 16 percent (according to unaudited numbers), and GQ’s by 6 percent. New York’s sales of its Colbert-fronted issue were about average, and Rolling Stone has not yet reported the numbers for its August 14, 2009 issue, with Colbert on the cover. (A note on methodology: for weekly magazines, I compared sales of the Colbert issue to average sales for the entire year; for monthlies, whose sales are subject to more seasonal variation, I used the issue from that same month the previous year as a basis for comparison.)

The best part of this story is the likelihood that Stephen Colbert will discuss his newly found status as magazine savior on his show. And while his take will likely be smart, satirical, and mocking of the conventions of the publishing world, the magazine business really needs the publicity.

“He’s a jerk,” Shani Davis said Thursday when asked for his take on the comedian’s criticism of Canadians. “You can put that in the paper.”

Such an incident might normally provide Colbert with a wealth of material, but initially he remained silent on Davis and stayed that way until last night’s show, when he not only noted the comments (and effusively praised Davis’ skating abilities), but came out with an announcement of his own: Colbert is on the cover of the newest edition of Sports Illustrated, a sports-media-themed issue. Watch below as he anoints himself “the Michael Jordan of people who don’t deserve to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated“:

Colbert then interviewed another U.S. speed skater, Katherine Reutter, who has been much more receptive to Colbert Nation’s stewardship – so receptive that she requested Colbert sign her thigh. He obliged, but his giggly reaction suggested he wasn’t expecting it.

One suspects Colbert might have reacted similarly when he heard SI wanted him for the cover: the Associated Press write-up lists only Bob Hope and Chris Rock as other comedians to grace SI‘s cover. Colbert long ago achieved iconic status in the entertainment world, but the SI cover represents possibly his biggest pop culture coup to date – and expect his self-important pundit character to keep on reminding us all about it.

Eagle-eyed, snarky, obsessive-compulsive observers will note, a glaring and critical error two minutes and thirty-six seconds into the thing:

Um, shouldn’t Sports Illustrated know how to spell one of the most famous sports teams in baseball – it’s “Dodgers” not “Dogers.” Is this a secret message about future editorial laxness from Time Warner Center? A prediction about changes to Los Angeles’ team branding? A statement of derision from a Giants fan? Or were they just counting on no one’s eyes being drawn away from the swimsuit models long enough to notice?

I understand that this isn’t a tablet version of the OED. It’s a magazine about sports which dedicates an entire issue to pretty ladies in small bathing suits. They were link-baiting before links. But the only thing readers care about (besides that particular issue) is their favorite team.

Time Inc. isn’t really in a position to alienate any market, much less Los Angeles. Let’s hope they get that spell check installed before this hits the streets. Or that they switch to misspelling “Thunder”.

Writing for the NY Post, Keith Kelly had previously reported last Thursday that layoffs would be coming after several staffers would volunteer for buyouts.

“The biggest magazines in the Time Inc. empire — People, Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money — should find out today how many volunteers have stepped forward to accept buyout packages.

It appears that not enough staffers stepped forward for a buyout to preclude further cuts in staffing. The spokesperson for Time Inc continued, “Today’s layoffs will mean the vast majority of layoffs announced earlier this month will be complete.”

At this point, no numbers have been confirmed as to total staffers cut.

Andre Agassi

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.

“Can Sports Illustrated scoop Sports Illustrated? That’s a question I can’t answer,” said Agassi’s publisher.

The New York Times has the story:

But the day before the magazines were to publish, a writer for Sports Illustrated prematurely revealed on Twitter Mr. Agassi’s admission to drug use.

Sports Illustrated removed the post after about 25 minutes, but it was too late. The news broke worldwide, and that evening, a newspaper in Australia that had not bought rights, but had acquired the materials, began publishing parts of the book. Sports Illustrated still had the exclusive — but in a Twitter post that had vanished, and not in the pages of its magazine, which was published the next day, on Oct. 28.

Curiously, there’s one important name the Times report leaves out: Richard Deitsch, the reporter who originally tweeted the story. Maybe they felt his identity added nothing to the story, but he probably would have made a great source. A screenshot of his news-breaking tweet can be seen below.

But all of a sudden, company-wide social media guidelines seem like a good idea.

That, or publications need to realize that yesterday’s symbiotic model of press and publicity — i.e. “I give you my zany book excerpt drug confession breaking news so you sell magazines and I sell books!” — is outdated. Because! As it turns out, it takes a long time to print pages and the internet has a thing for speed. Game, set, match.

Writing for Folio, Vanessa Voltolina reports:

ESPN The Magazine’s first “Body Issue” will hit newsstands on October 9, featuring more than 30 male and female athletes posing nude or semi-nude. Already, it’s raised some eyebrows—enough, in fact, that the magazine decided to host a media conference call this afternoon.

On hand during the call were editor-in-chief Gary Belsky, editorial director and general manger Gary Hoenig, executive editor Sue Hovey, as well as USA Softball’s Jessica Mendoza, one of the issue’s athlete-models. The editors said the issue was meant as a “photographic and journalistically-driven” exploration of the athletic form. (This issue’s six covers, featuring a different athlete on each, will be kept under wraps until next week, the company said.)

Content, they said, will include an essay about how athletes use sex and physicality to sell themselves, an article focused on the creation of realistic video game avatars (with vendor EA and athlete Kobe Bryant) and a story based on the staff’s participation in an ACL repair surgery. And, of course, plenty of male and female athletes baring it all.

“Photographic and journalistically-driven”? Isn’t that sort of like saying that one reads Playboy for the articles?

In truth ESPN the Magazine‘s chief competitor Sports Illustrated annually earns a lot of ad dollars (and publicity) with their soft-porn “Swimsuit issue,” so its hard to blame anybody for trying to stay competitive – particularly in this ad recession. And it must be noted that ESPN the Magazine Art Direction is always top-shelf, so its difficult to see this sort of feature as distasteful or inappropriate.

That said – desperate times call for for desperate measures. And if the folks behind the magazine wanted attention, so far its proved to be a success.

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.
Oh sure, the quantifiable fame of a top editor (via Google Buzz) IS a good indication of their sphere of influence (see Anna Wintour – #3.) But isn’t a top editor’s job description more about getting people to read their magazine’s and visit their websites? If you agree with that, then you should be pleased to see the Managing Editor of Sports Illustrated Terry McDonell check in at #2 as the most powerful magazine editor in all the land (Huzzah!)

Some other highlights of updating Magazine Editor rankings:

• The Newsweek fueled Jon Meacham juggernaut continues to steam roll over the other the competition in this category. The online buzz that comes with his name is keeping him in the top spot – maybe he’ll be top dog for a long time to come?

• The an increase in online buzz has pushed David Remnick into the top ten

• Rolling Stone’s Will Dana has moved up into the fourteenth spot – up five spots from the previous week.

• Prevention’s Liz Vaccariello fell from 12 to 21 (which in our eyes seems a lot more realistic.)

• A dearth of online buzz has felled Elle’s Robbie Myers from #15 to #25 (which doesn’t seem to make sense to us.)

Who are the biggest metric leaders?

• Circulation goes to recently added EIC of AARP Hugh Delehanty.

• The Google Buzz title somewhat suprisingly goes to Steve Forbes, who also boasts the most online unique visitors.

• Blog Buzz – Anna Wintour brings that title home (providing some conventional wisdom to the rankings.)

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