New results from the New York Times Co., Gannett and the Tribune Co. show major newspaper properties continuing to suffer as ad dollars continue to desert print for the Web.

From nytimes.com:

Brian Williams of “NBC Nightly News” told PBS’s Charlie Rose on Tuesday that the shootings at Virginia Tech proved that viewers still wanted traditional network anchors.

Most don’t need more than one, however.

The excruciatingly close-up and continuous coverage of the massacre helps explain why viewers are increasingly turning to Charles Gibson of ABC. When it comes to an anchor’s presence at a major breaking story, less can be more.

And particularly in the middle of so wrenching a tragedy, tone matters as much as content. Hurricane Katrina, even more than 9/11, emboldened television newscasters to fold themselves and their feelings into the story, and that has led to the Anderson Cooperization of the evening news.

Network anchors often behave as if they are the nation’s grief counselors. One reason that Mr. Gibson has been gaining in the ratings could be that he acts like the nation’s newsman.

Mr. Williams and CBS’s Katie Couric were in Blacksburg, Va., on Monday, the day of the shootings — CBS that night extended the evening newscast to a full hour. Mr. Gibson, who didn’t arrive on the scene until Tuesday and delegated many interviews to ABC colleagues, was better than either of his rivals at keeping an even keel. His interview with a group of survivors on Tuesday night was more bearable to watch, mostly because his questions, posed in a kindly but neutral manner, solicited information, not emotion.

“And how would you describe his facial manner and demeanor?” Mr. Gibson asked, referring to the gunman. “Could you feel him pushing against the door?” Perhaps relieved to be asked for facts and not just their feelings, the students delivered both.

Much backlash against NBC on over its decision to broadcast excerpts of the Virginia Tech University gunman's last ramblings.

From AP via globeandmail.com:

The Chicago Tribune has launched a community journalism Web site encouraging readers in nine suburbs to post their own articles, photos and blogs.

“This started with the question of how can we make the paper more relevant to readers who continue to live further and further away from the center city,” said Ted Biedron, president of the Tribune division that designed the site.

The Web site www.triblocal.com was announced in Thursday's edition of the newspaper.

Triblocal will have a staff of four journalists, but the majority of the site's content will be written by readers.

Biedron said sites like News Corp.'s MySpace.com have persuaded publishers that there is value in allowing readers to publish their own content.

From CP via the Hamilton Spectator:

A Muslim journalist beaten with a cricket bat outside a Mississauga home is living in fear after repeated death threats because someone has deemed his writing to be anti-Islam.

Jawaad Faizi, 35, a columnist for the weekly Urdu-language Pakistan Post based in New York, suffered cuts and bruises in the attack, which has alarmed his wife and three children.

The Pakistan Post is published in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary as well as in 16 major American centres.

There's more at this Editor and Publisher story:

During the attack, Faizi said, the men told him to stop writing critically of the religious organization Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran and its leader, Cleric Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri. Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri is a frequent visitor to Canada, CJFE said.

Here's the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression news release.