To most of the folks who read this site (and those of us involved in producing it), there’s no questioning the increasingly significant role of fantasy in sports and the way they are covered. Every so often, though, we get new signs of how widely that impact is felt.

On Monday, Nov. 15, the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism (at Penn State) will host a free online chat (1 p.m. ET) to discuss the way that fantasy is affecting sports coverage in the media.

Moderated by Curley Center associate director Marie Hardin, the hourlong chat will include a pair of guys familiar to most or all of us around the industry: Nate Ravitz, deputy editor for ESPN.com fantasy sports, and FantasyGuru.com’s Joe Dolan.

Joining those two fantasy pros will be Alexandre Simon, the NHL’s senior director of digital business development, and Malcolm Moran, Curley Center director and the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society.

“The continued emergence of fantasy sports influences content and prompts decisions about coverage,” the article announcing the event reads. “Fantasy sports can also pull media organizations to decide between the possibility of emerging audiences and the reality of existing consumers or production costs. Those competing agendas, changing outlooks and the implications of fantasy sports on sports journalism will be discussed.”

The session, titled “The Intersection Between Fantasy Sports and Sports Coverage: Implications for Journalists and Predictions for Media Organizations” will be available at: http://comm.psu.edu/sports/live-chats online.

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– CBSSports.com filled the marketing manager position we previously posted but is now in search of a marketing coordinator. Like the manager post, this is a full-time job set in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

– Aspiring fantasy writers should also take a look at the Jobs page and check in with World Fantasy Games.

– Fantasy Postseason has added games for the upcoming NBA and NHL playoffs to its repertoire.

– ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary on fantasy sports, Silly Little Game, will premier on April 20 (a Tuesday) at 8 p.m. This site shows a clip (interview snippets with some members of Daniel Okrent’s original rotisserie baseball league), as well as some re-air dates and times.

– AppleGazette.com gives an “A” to the Yahoo! 2010 fantasy baseball app for the iPhone.

– SportsGrumblings.com’s “supercomputer,” Mighty Max, is now generating weekly and daily player rankings for fantasy baseball.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

As of Feb. 16, fans of baseball and hockey will be able to purchase online access to MLB and NHL games in one shot.

Whereas $109.95 will buy you a full season of MLB.tv and $79.95 will purchase the NHL’s Race for the Cup programming package, those who would like both will be able to bundle them for $139.95.

Obviously, this is a nice offering for any fans who would like access to online broadcasts from both leagues. Even for those of us who won’t be purchasing it, though, the package is an interesting new partnership between completely separate sports entities.

If this bundling proves popular, could it lead to more joint packaging by leagues both online and on TV? The NHL and NBA each start their seasons while the NFL is playing. Football season begins about a month before MLB is done. Players arrive in Florida and Arizona for spring training about halfway through basketball and hockey schedules and right about the same time that NASCAR season opens.

Even an entity like Major League Soccer could see an opportunity to tag along with the stronger following of another sport.

For fantasy players and writers, it would certainly be nice to get a discount by combining a couple of programming packages they would normally purchase anyway.

We’ll see what comes of this partnership.

It would be a strange year if RotoWire’s Janet Eagelson weren’t up for top hockey honors when the Fantasy Sports Writers Association honors its members.

Eagleson has taken each of the FSWA’s first two awards for best hockey writer and is once again a finalist. This time, she’ll battle Sean Allen of ESPN.com and Scott Pianowski of Yahoo! for the top prize. Pianowski is also a finalist for the FSWA’s top baseball writer award.

The trophies will be handed out next Tuesday on the first day of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s winter business conference.