Bundling is beautiful for newspapers. Since April 1, 2009, new rules for counting circulation have turned some newspapers from losing to gaining, even in a market where the print community is getting thrashed. Instead of selling more copies every day, these publications are counting online visits, as long as they are from paying subscribers – for either protected portions of the website or digital replica editions.

The new auditing standards, which affect USA Today, a Gannet (GCI) property, and News Corp's (NWS) Wall Street Journal, among others, often allow newspapers that bundle print and digital editions to count the subscriber twice. According to a report by the Associated Press, the new rule is preventing circulation from looking as bad as it really may be.

We've put three quarters behind us in 2009, and the most recent one was merely another miserable step downward for the beleaguered newspaper industry. Total ad revenue plummeted in the third quarter to $6.4 billion for the print jockeys, a decline of 28%. This info from the Newspaper Association of America drives home the notion that conditions will only worsen for the newspaper industry. So, if you're hoping those shares of New York Times Company (NYT), Gannett (GCI) and Washington Post Company (WPO), holding your breath will leave you little more than dizzy.

Of the total advertising revenue generated in the third quarter of 2009, $5.8 million came from print, the lowest quarterly amount this year. The $623 million in online advertising sold by America's newspapers was also 2009's worst. Both are down substantially from the same quarter in 2008, when the newspapers posted print ad revenue of $8.2 million and online ad revenue of $750 million, according to NAA data. At this time last year, we lamented year-over-year declines approaching 20%. Now, we have the same feelings as ad revenue drops approach 30%.

The folks in the news business are probably growing to hate Mondays. Gannett's (NYSE: GCI) profits are off by more than 50%, and the New York Times announced that it's chopping 100 jobs from the newsroom, along with an unspecified number elsewhere in the newspaper. Like Gannett, the New York Times cites declines in ad revenue as the reason for the decision. The company is hoping that employees will take voluntary buyouts where offered, but it is prepared to conduct a round of layoffs if necessary.

The newspaper, which is the flagship property of the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), cut 100 newsroom positions last year, mostly through voluntary buyouts, before a "relatively small" round of layoffs. This year's 100-job cut is approximately 8% of the newsroom, but the paper will still have the largest in the United States. Approximately 1,150 reporters and editors will remain. Already, 100 jobs have been slashed on the business side, leaving it now staffed at 1,850.

Gannett (NYSE: GCI) lost more than half its third-quarter profits year-over-year, as the newspaper industry shows yet another sign of decline. A substantial drop in ad revenue was the primary reason for the plunge.

The newspaper giant was able to stay in the black because of aggressive cost cutting, a move that can work for only so long. For now, it's the most popular option available to the beleaguered industry, as evidenced by a New York Times (NYSE: NYT) announcement that it would slash another 100 positions from the newsroom, and more positions elsewhere.

In this series, we take a look at the 25 stocks on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that have turned in the worst performance during the past decade – what went wrong, and what happens next.

It's possible that you may have heard some rumors about the death of print media. As it turns out, they're more or less true. Not long after Al Gore invented the internet during the 2000 elections, readers began defecting from traditional print media toward internet-based alternatives. The immediacy and convenience of online publications have sucked the lifeblood -- and the ad revenue -- from traditional, more easily folded newspapers.

And, if you're looking for a company that's waist-deep in the print-periodicals business, look no further than Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI). The Virginia-based outfit prints daily newspapers that are published around the country, spanning from USA Today to the Detroit Free Press to my own local fish-wrapper, The Cincinnati Enquirer.

What went wrong? At number 23 on our list of the S&P 500's worst 10-year laggards, GCI lost 70% of its value during the decade ended June 30, 2008. The stock peaked at $91.38 in April 2004, and its performance since then can best be described as "prolonged death throes." Sure, there were a few upbeat quarters mixed in, but the industry trend was (and is) inescapable. According to the Newspaper Association of America, circulation revenue has dropped consistently in the past five years. GCI's decline on the charts has been just as consistent; since June 2004, the stock's 10-month and 20-month moving averages have ushered the stock ever southward.