A Chicago Tribune piece that talks about USA Today's upcoming 25th anniversary makes a point all communicators should think about -- particularly in today's challenging environment.

Recall, when it first came out, USA Today was derided as "McPaper" for putting out very short stories that couldn't possibly be substantive...

Here's the beef:

Enough of doom and gloom. Here's some good news for the newspaper industry.

The folks at The Bivings Report have compiled a list of the Top 10 newspaper websites and run through the features that make them special. They were rated "not only on their web features but also on the design, aesthetics and general usability of the site."

And, the winners are...

1. The New York Times
2. The Washington Post
3. USA Today

For the Nos. 4-10, please check out the Bivings post itself.

So, just what made the best, the best?

As newspapers struggle to survive in the Web 2.0 world, it's all too tempting for them to think of the blogosphere and other new media as the enemy.

This interesting post suggests newspapers should embrace these new mediums, and provides some concrete recommendations.

6. Reporters need to do more than write. The new world calls for a new skillset, and you and Mr. Notebook need to make some new friends, like Mr. Microphone and Mr. Point & Shoot.

David Halberstam, a journalist and author who won the Pulitzer Prize and exhibited a tremendously broad range of interests and expertise throughout his career, died today in a car accident.

There are going to be lots of stories about him tomorrow.

Perhaps the best tribute, though, is a list of his books, which you can find on Newsvine.

Here's an excerpt:

-- The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert F. Kennedy (1969)

-- Ho (1971)

-- The Best and the Brightest (1972)

-- The Powers That Be (1979)

-- The Breaks of the Game (1981)

-- The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal (1985)

-- The Reckoning (1986)

-- Summer of '49 (1989)

It's worth taking note that even as news professionals ponder their "broken business" with dismay, a few innovative news outlets are expanding, perhaps in a sign of things to come.

Call them -- citizens journalism -- outlets.

The first, launched last week, is Topix.com, formerly the news aggregator Topix.net. With a page for each zip code in the country and a policy allowing anybody to post or edit reports, commentary and photos about local happenings, Topix.com gives local citizens the power to determine what's news. As noted on WebWare, its editors are users; editors can write stories of their own, and non-editors can comment on stories and submit them.

It's been pretty big news that real estate magnate Sam Zell has won the bidding for Tribune Co., the nation's second-largest newspaper company with titles including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun.

The question, of course, is what is the company's future under Zell?

Jason Calacanis, on his calacanis.com blog, has some thoughts on this -- and they're not terribly comforting if you happen to be a Tribune Co. employee. He begins with a Zell quote from a recent Washington Post story:

Word is out that the San Francisco Chronicle is in "big trouble" and looking at layoffs. That's no big surprise in today's difficult environment for newspapers.

However, a quote at O'Reilly Radar attributed to the paper's editor should raise red flags across the news business:

It was nice to see my old friend The Wall Street Journal upon returning to work today.

"You look good," I said at first sight. "Have you lost weight?"

Actually, it's been well-known since late last year that the WSJ -- perhaps the single most influential publication for U.S. business communicators -- was undergoing a major redesign. And redesigned it has been.

The new Journal is now 12 inches wide (according to my ruler) instead of 15, which is a reduction of 20%!

Once day in the not-too-distant future, the newspaper as we know it will cease to exist. Will it move entirely online or to another medium? I'm not really sure.

What I do know is that if the tabloids in particular go the way of the dinosaurs, one thing I'll miss is the headlines. Particularly in the New York papers. Just look at today's headline from the Daily News.

This type of headline writing is an art. It's hard to do and requires years of practice in the rough-and-tumble environment of the newsroom.

I'm afraid these things just won't happen online. And if they do, the presentation will be different. Not as compelling. Not as funny.

Sad, but true. We'd better read 'um while we can.

I posted the following this morning on my NewsNosh blog. I think it's relevant here as well:

There's an interesting story in USA Today asking Internet entrepreneurs what suggestions they might have for the newspaper industry.