Sports Illustrated has dared to tread where few other publications would; as part of its all-access subscription strategy, it has decided to design multiple digital editions of its magazine for various different tablet computers every week, reports Mashable.com.

This, as any digital editor will tell you, is a true design feat.

Why are they bothering? The editor of Sports Illustrated explained to Mashable: "We're placing bets across the table, because we don't know where we're going to be in 18 months. But [other tablet platforms] are going to grow".

It seems that Sports Illustrated has attempted to spread-bet the tablet market, whereas other major publishers have chosen to do otherwise. Will the extra hard work pay off? Only time will tell.

Source: Mashable.com

On February 24 ESPN, the cable sport television network, and the Poynter Institute, "a non-profit dedicated to making journalism better", announced that a panel of faculty members from Poynter would serve as ESPN ombudsman, the internal watchdog, for the next 18 months.

The panel, known as the Poynter Review Project, will review ESPN content across all platforms and offer public comment on ESPN's efforts as well as address fans' concerns, the announcement said.

A monthly column will appear on the website while it will be more shorter and timely instalments ad issues arise.

The first ESPN ombudsman was hired in 2005: former Sunday Washington Post George Solomon. The last to serve for the 18 month-term ombudsman role was Don Ohlmeyer. You can find his last column here. Ohlmeyer, Former ABC and NBC sports and entertainment producer and programmer, succeeded Le Anne Schreiber, a former New York Times sports editor-turned-author, who succeeded Solomon in 2007.

"So once again, we see that Twitter is generally the sounding board for true idiots," writes Christian Blood, contributor for Bleacher Report. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears 21-14 in Sunday's NFC Championship Game, advancing to Superbowl XLV against the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled for Feb. 6 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. But people aren't focusing on the Packers' win or the upcoming Superbowl, no, they're talking about Bears quarterback Jay Cutler's injury and the bombardment of Twitter insults that followed.

Athletes and professional media have had a long history of working together to act as the sole source of sports news. Recall the famous 1961 MLB season during which New York Yankees Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris raced to beat Babe Ruth's elusive, almost holy, 60 home run single-season record (set in 1927). Mantle, a charismatic Yankee veteran was open to the press, whereas small-town North Dakota native Maris, who was new to the overwhelming limelight of New York City, was soft-spoken around reporters. Consequently, the press painted Mantle as the hero, and Maris, who went on to hit 61 home runs that season to break Ruth's record, as the villain. Reporters asked questions, players answered (or didn't), reporters wrote newspaper articles, fans read the articles and formulated their opinions - that was how sports journalism worked.

News Limited, the Australian branch of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has just launched a national sports network, News Limited Sports Network (NLSN). The news comes shortly after the announcement that some of Murdoch's Australian papers are to start charging online.

NLSN will be based in the Melbourne Herald Sun's offices. The new sports network will centralize a plethora of company-owned divisions from across Australia such as The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph in NSW, and Victoria's Herald Sun, Sunday Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail in Queensland. Working together, the reporters and photographers will "cover every breaking story, every big event, from every angle, every minute of the day," according to Tom Salom, the network's publisher.