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Package From Tech Killer Forced NBC to Make Tough Decisions (NYT)
The package that arrived yesterday at NBC headquarters in New York was almost immediately flagged as suspicious, because it had been mailed from Blacksburg, Va., and bore the return name A. Ishmael. Last night, the anchor of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams, called the materials a "multimedia manifesto" and said they were mailed by Cho Seung-Hui. B&C: "I certainly want to commend NBC news for what they have done," said Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, at a press conference. "The way they secured this information and they way they handled it with dignity." WaPo: The communications sought to explain his actions but served mostly to display his anger and illness. WaPo: As broadcast and cable networks appeared ready to step beyond decent boundaries of saturation and repetition yesterday in their coverage, the story suddenly turned shocking new corners — and took on strange new life. CNN/Money: "Old media" sites see Virginia Tech news spike. Brian Williams via Daily Nightly: "A lot of material." TVNewser Video: How last night's Nightly News opened. DISCUSS: How has the media handled the Va. Tech shootings?

Brauchli Named WSJ's Top Editor (WSJ)
Dow Jones & Co. has announced that Marcus Brauchli will be the new managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, succeeding Paul Steiger. The selection of a successor to Steiger has been in the works for months. Yesterday morning, Gordon Crovitz, the Journal's publisher, invited Mr. Brauchli to his office and offered him the job. NYT: According to several Journal employees, Brauchli had the strong backing of the newsroom as well as the active support of Steiger. LAT: Brauchli was given the nod over Paul Ingrassia, who won a Pulitzer Prize as an automotive reporter and was named last July to the new post of vice president for news strategy at Dow Jones.

Ex-NYT Writer, Former mediabistro.com Instructor Found Dead in Philippines (FishbowlNY)
Julia Campbell, a newspaper reporter and former newspaper writing instructor for mediabistro.com, has been found dead in the Philippines. She was a member of the Peace Corps and had gone missing. According to AP, Campbell "was found buried with one foot protruding from the ground near the village of Batad. It was not clear whether she had been buried by someone or if she was covered by debris during a fall."

Clear Channel Accepts Buyout Offer (AP via Miami Herald)
Clear Channel Communications agreed to a private equity group's sweetened $19.35 billion bid, an almost 4 percent increase aimed at mollifying shareholders who think the billboard and radio company is being sold for too little. But two large shareholders will still oppose the deal, according to two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

MySpace Users to Vote on What's News (LAT)
News Corp., which owns the world's top social-networking website, is introducing MySpace pages today that will present a massive number of articles and blog entries ranked by their popularity among its users. MySpace News will automatically collect stories from thousands of sources and group them in hundreds of categories, then place them in order based on the votes.

Media Buy Up Web Searches to Attract Va. Tech Readers (AP)
If you Googled "Virginia Tech shooting" this week, the search engine served up dozens of links to news about the massacre. Yet some media outlets weren't taking the chance of missing readers' attention. The New York Times and Washington Post, for example, bought keyword ads that put their coverage into the prominent "sponsored links" atop the Google results page.

BET Launching Its First Scripted Series (AP via USAT)
BET is making the first scripted series in its 28-year history, a sitcom about a group of black slackers. Somebodies is expected to premiere in October, Reginald Hudlin, BET's entertainment president, said. As the first cable channel geared to blacks, BET featured a lot of music programming, syndicated fare and reality shows, but was criticized for not spending enough on original programs.

Reality TV Maven Burnett Developing Scripted Series (Variety)
Mark Burnett is making a major push into scripted series development, tapping Ken Raskoff to lead the effort. Raskoff, whose TV roots date back to his gig as NBC's No. 2 longform exec during the Brandon Tartikoff era, will oversee day-to-day development of dramas and comedies for Mark Burnett Productions, though Burnett said he plans to remain intimately involved with the projects.

Hearst Hands Out Tower Awards (FishbowlNY)
Hearst celebrated its first official year in the Hearst Tower by handing out fourteen crystal statuettes of the 46-story, 856,000-square-foot glassy outcropping to honor the work of its own magazines. Cathie Black presided over an awards dinner that included guest "presenters" — CBS Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield and designers Kate and Andy Spade. WWD: Awards were "conspicuously inclusive." Page Six: "Celebrating your own talent is a long-standing American tradition," said a Hearst rep.

Yahoo Sued Over Data on Chinese Dissidents (LAT)
The World Organization for Human Rights USA has filed a lawsuit against Yahoo Inc. for allegedly providing information to the Chinese government that led to the persecution, torture and imprisonment of Wang Xiaoning — who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for advocating Democratic reform in China in articles circulated on the Internet — and his wife, Yu Ling.

PBS: Ken Burns Won't Re-Edit War Film (WaPo)
A PBS official said that filmmaker Ken Burns will not re-cut his documentary on World War II — a statement that disappointed and angered minority-group activists who said they believed Burns and PBS had committed to reediting the film to address their concerns about its content.

Trump Sends Rosie's Underwear to View (Page Six)
Donald Trump has unleashed a secret weapon in his feud with Rosie O'Donnell — a gigantic black undergarment she wore in the movie Exit to Eden, which Trump sent to Barbara Walters on Monday to hang on the office wall at The View. The girdle-like outfit — variously described as "a bustier" and "a giant pair of panties" — was bought at a charity auction by a fan, who then had the relic framed under glass and delivered to Trump.

TV Guide Channel Unloads Joan and Melissa Rivers (NYDN)
The TV Guide Channel pulled the red carpet out from under Joan and Melissa Rivers yesterday. The mother-and-daughter team were dumped from their hosting spots on awards shows carried by the channel and replaced with Lisa Rinna. Rinna will make her red carpet hosting debut for TV Guide at the Primetime Emmy Awards in September.

Talking About the Globe's Pulitzer (The Phoenix)
Adam Reilly: Charlie Savage's Pulitzer win brings up some bigger issues that merit discussion. Bloggers like Jeff Jarvis have argued that newspapers should focus exclusively on local coverage. But while plenty of national news organizations could have broken the signing-statement story, none of them did — and if not for the Globe and Savage, it might never have been reported.

Paper Says Arbitration Was Unlikely to End Seattle Fight (Seattle Times)
The Seattle Times Co. said Wednesday it decided to settle its four-year legal fight with the Hearst Corp. in part because it was "fairly certain" the costly struggle would have dragged on even after a climactic binding-arbitration trial decided the matter. The statement raised another question: Who would have pressed the fight?