Media Notes

PGATour.com's Re-design Allows For More Advertising Capabilities

The PGA Tour yesterday launched a re-designed PGATour.com, its first design change since totally re-working the site at the start of '08. The new home page puts more focus on marking PGATour.com as a news, feature and video site as opposed to a league informational site, though components like schedules, player bios and statistics remain. The new design allows for more advertising capabilities than the previous layout, including integrated video overlays and expandable ad strips. The site beginning with the '10 season will also have a re-designed leaderboard that integrates scores and video highlights. PGATour.com is operated by Turner Sports and the PGA Tour (Jon Show, SportsBusiness Journal).

A BIRD IN HAND: YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Kaduk noted MLB's Winter Meetings "have gone Twitter crazy," which is "both a very good and a very bad thing." There were "no more than five or 10 reporters" with a Twitter account during last year's Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, but this year "rare is the reporter who doesn't have an iPhone or Blackberry at his or her ready." For a public "desperate to gain insight on their team's attempts to get better, the result is a never-ending diet of news." But Kaduk added, "There's a hypocritical part of my info-hungry self that feels this whirring mix of puzzle pieces has drained a lot of the fun from what attracted us to the meetings in the first place" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 12/8).

MY BLUE HEAVEN: The Fan 590 Blue Jays announcer Alan Ashby yesterday said that he is "expecting to be back in Toronto with Jerry Howarth next season on the club's radio broadcasts." Ashby said, "I've been assured that I'm in the plans for next year. We're on the path to getting this settled, and I'm expecting to be back. It's just a matter of when we get it finalized" (GLOBESPORTS.com, 12/9).