Media Notes

Greg Couch Leaving Sun-Times To Write For AOL's FanHouse.com Site

In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal reported sports columnist Greg Couch is leaving the Chicago Sun-Times "after a dozen years" to write for AOL's FanHouse.com site. Sun-Times Sports Editor Stu Courtney said that he "did not know when Couch's last day at the paper would be." Courtney added that the Sun-Times was "still planning to send [Couch] to cover the NCAA men's basketball regional in Indianapolis later this week, leaving his AOL start date up in the air." Couch, one of six sports writers the Web site has hired in recent months, said, "AOL seems to have found their niche, and they're thinking big. ... I just wanted to go with someone who was trying to grow rather than just trying to hang on" (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 3/25). 

GETTING ANIMATED: In Atlanta, Kristi Swartz writes Turner Animation President & COO Stuart Snyder yesterday at Time Warner Center in N.Y. promoted Cartoon Network's short-form series "My Dad's a Pro," which the net is producing in partnership with the NBA, as part of the network's "pitch to advertisers." Snyder said that the partnership will "help expand the Cartoon Network's presence in the youth market" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 3/26). Celtics G Eddie House and his son, Jaelen, will be the "first father-son duo to appear" in the series, which will "follow the child's day-to-day life" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/26).

GETTING INSIDE THE GAME: Golf Network’s Vince Cellini said of NBC’s test run of putting microphones on caddies during next week’s PGA Tour Shell Houston Open: “You may not get gems all of the time, but if you get that good minute or that one that sticks out, I think, it’s probably worth it.” But Golf World’s John Hawkins said, “This reminds me of when they mic up the referees in the NBA games. I haven’t heard a single interesting thing to come out of that. It’s one of those things that is a really good concept, but something happens between the application, the execution, and the actual end result” (“19th Hole, Golf Channel, 3/25).

SUPER SITE: In Orlando, Jerry Greene reviews Magic C Dwight Howard's new Web site, DwightHoward.com, and writes the site is "cool, especially the 'DwightTV' link that allows you to see Dwight appear to do amazing ball-spinning tricks, sing and do impressions" of Suns C Shaquille O'Neal and Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. The Web site is the creation of Orlando-based TSM Studio (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 3/26).