When you publish a scoop like the Jason Collins story, you’re bound to enjoy a traffic boost. However, we do wonder if Sports Illustrated expected record numbers. According to the magazine, SI.com netted almost four million unique visitors yesterday, as a direct result of the Collins article. It was the most traffic ever for the magazine’s site.

The 3.7 million visitors bested SI.com’s previous high of 3.6 million, set on February 9, 2010. That day featured the power-packed combo of the Winter Olympics and the debut of that year’s swimsuit issue.

Collins’ coming out tale beat bobsledding and bikinis. Not bad. Not bad at all.

While the online presence of the venerable Sports Illustrated “has the same DNA as the magazine, the content is almost entirely original,” said B.J. Schecter, executive editor of SI.com. All sections of the site are open to freelance pitches, as long as they stay away from the generic “I want to cover the Jets and the NBA” style.

The best way to get into the editors’ good books? Getting a scoop and having special access help, but the site is also looking for human interest stories and specific angles that “go beyond the action on the field.”

Get all the details in How To Pitch: SI.com. [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

For executive editor of SI.com B. J. Schecter, Sports Illustrated and its online vertical are like twins in more ways than one. ”While SI.com has the same DNA as the magazine, the content is almost entirely original,” he said.

So for those hungry for a SI byline, try pitching  SI.com.

The website is driven by hard news, as it is primarily a 24/7 daily news site focused on breaking stories. But for Schecter, a perfect pitch doesn’t need hardcore in-depth analysis or stats. All he really wants is heart.

Human interest stories, such as a player who helps a cancer patient or a trainer who rebounds from adversity, will always do well at SI.com. ”Whether that player is well-known or not, for us it’s about telling good stories and human interest and playing to a national audience,” he said. “No matter what you pitch, those should be things you take into consideration.”

Read mediabistro.com’s How To Pitch: SI.com for contact info for Schecter and more details on the types of stories his team wants. [sub req'd]

Time Inc. slashed a number of jobs yesterday as part of its goal to cut its budget for next year. Among the casualties was quarterly spin-off magazine InStyle Weddings, which was shuttered, costing around nine people their jobs. But the carnage didn’t stop there; Fortune and Sports Illustrated also suffered losses.

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Earlier this week, we got a chance to chat with Steven Gray via Skype. Gray is a Time magazine correspondent based in Time Inc.‘s new Detroit bureau, established earlier this year in a house in the Motor City.

Gray is the only person living full time in the house, but many reporters from across the company come and go to work on stories as part of Assignment Detroit. The project is year-long commitment to living in and reporting from the city, with reports appearing in various Time Inc. publications and Web sites, including Time magazine, Time.com, Fortune, Fortune.com, CNNMoney.com, Sports Illustrated, SI.com, Money and Essence magazine.

Gray gave us some background on the project, talked about what he’s been working on and told us what it’s like to live and work in the house/bureau. In the clip above, he talks about covering Detroit and blogging for Time.com. “Detroit offers one of the few places in the country where I can write about all of the issues that I care about personally, in terms of writing about society and politics and business and the economy,” Gray said. “So why not Detroit?”

More of our interview with Gray, after the jump

Related: Time Inc. Launches Assignment Detroit

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Our colleagues have a story today about Time Inc.‘s newest initiative Assignment Detroit.

According to the company, the project is year-long commitment to living in and reporting from the city of Detroit with reports from the Motor City appearing in various Time Inc. publications and Web sites, including Time magazine, Time.com, Fortune, Fortune.com, CNNMoney.com, Sports Illustrated, SI.com, Money and Essence magazine.

As part of this initiative, Time Inc. purchased a house in Detroit to serve as its headquarters throughout the year-long project. We’ve heard that Steven Gray is currently living in the house full-time while he works as a correspondent for Time and Time.com, and Rick Tetzeli, the executive producer of Assignment Detroit, will be spending a few nights a week there. As the project progresses, various editors and writers will likely stay at the house from time to time.

And speaking of Gray, he has already started posting on Time.com’s “Detroit Blog.” In one of his first posts, Letter from Detroit, he explains a little bit about the new project:

“Our goal here on The Detroit Blog isn’t to rehash clichéd stories about the region’s problems. Some of that’s unavoidable. But we’re more interested in exploring key questions, like: What will it take for Detroit, and the region, to rebound? And who’s developing the ideas that are best positioned to make that turnaround succeed? Let us know what you think. And stay tuned.”

We will.

WebNewser: Time Launches Assignment Detroit