Picture 5Brett Favre mania has struck the mainstream media, with the former Packer’s signing with the Vikes getting big play at the dailies, MinnPost and local TV newscasts. But unbeknownst to many, Favre may have landed a local sideline job — writing for the Star Tribune.

So far today, 96 126 160 Strib stories are listed on Google News’ “author” page with Favre’s byline. Stories about ACT scores, the tornado that touched down in south Minneapolis today and deadly bombings in Iraq, to name a few.  Is it a Google glitch, or a concerted plan by the Star Tribune to turn this media moment into traffic gold? (I contacted Terry Sauer, assistant managing editor for digital, but haven’t gotten a reply yet.)

A fair guess would be the latter. As MinnPost’s David Brauer reports, the Favre story propelled the paper’s site traffic to an all-time high: 5.42 million visits in a single day. Having each new story tagged with Favre’s Googlriffic name couldn’t hurt day-two stats, could it?

A look at Favre’s journalistic breadth:

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