Ousted Stribber lands Sports Illustrated gig: Steve Aschburner, former president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association and longtime Star Tribune sports reporter, has scored another job writing about the NBA. In April, Aschburner signed up for a buyout, then quickly regretted it, asking to rescind his application on grounds work and family stress clouded his decision. The Strib refused to comply. Now Aschburner is writing twice-weekly columns for SportsIllustrated.com, a job that’ll continue throughout the season. He says he’s still writing a weekly column for AOL Sports and he’s working on a book on the Twins.

Aschburner’s most recent piece covers Timberwolves VP Kevin McHale’s trade of star Kevin Garnett to McHale’s old team, the Boston Celtics. His verdict on his old paper’s coverage of the KG trade? “Fortunately, if someone in this market is a Timberwolves or NBA fan, there are plenty of other sources of info,” he said.

“That Abominable Snowman”: The Strib’s blog The Big Question points out a Wall Street Journal piece on the stardom of Billiam, the YouTube snowman, who has landed his 20-something creators, Minneapolis-area brothers Nathan and Greg Hamel, a line of t-shirts, an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio and nationwide media mentions. What’s most interesting in the piece, though, is this line of disbelief by former Giuliani internet consultant Patrick Ruffini, about Republican candidates’ apparent distaste for the medium: “With all of the challenges we’re facing next year, the last thing we need to do is snub a medium that millions are embracing.”

Rumor: More Strib cuts? City Pages’ Paul Demko runs an unconfirmed rumor — a Star Tribune employee says that “another mass layoff is imminent [next week], way larger than the last layoff/buyout,” which claimed 145 staffers.

The Corrections: Must be something in the water. Three big corrections: Metro’s Erin Madsen apologized for identifying TCF’s Lynn Nagorske as a woman, The Rake’s Brad Zellar offers a heartfelt mea culpa for changing author Dan Hendrickson’s byline to “Don Hendrickson,” and fellow media monitor Brian Lambert gamely acknowledges some typos in his recent piece — most notably his mistaken titling of a video PiPress buyout taker Matt Peiken once proposed to his bosses. The piece was to be called “Suburban Safari,” not “Suburban Satanic.”

[Post has been updated]

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