Gannett (NASDAQ: GCI) said it would cut almost 10% of its staff. This is hardly a surprise. Newspaper ad revenue has been running down over 15% this year and that trend is expected to continue. At some papers, classified ads -- mostly real estate, employment, and autos -- are off well above 30%. The internet has eroded readership. Most of these people will not ever return as newspaper subscribers. Gannett and all its peers trade at multi-year lows.

The advertising sales problem is beginning to spread to magazines. Between the internet and the recession, the magazine business is getting pinched and pinched hard. Ad pages at many business magazines and newsweeklies are down 15% to 20% this year. In some cases, the drop is closer to 30%. As a reaction, the largest magazine publisher in the U.S., Time, Inc., a unit of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) will cut as many as 600 people. According to The New York Times, "No magazines are scheduled to close, but some are likely to be severely cut back."

Magazines will have to do something that newspapers have not be able to. They need to move their content to the internet in a way that will pull large numbers of readers so that advertising volumes are big enough to make up for the erosion of print dollars. Since there are a huge number of content sites on the web, there is plenty of competition.

The print magazine business is dying and dying faster than many analysts thought it would. Its only life boat is the internet. A life boat only holds so many people.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
• Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) may be in talks to acquire the in-game advertising company AdScape Media.
• Home Depot (NYSE: HD) directors are expected to meet with activist investor Ralph Whitworth, who wants the company to spin-off its lower margin supply business to better concentrate on its main stores.
• Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) is expected to announce an agreement with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) that would involve Sun buying Intel chips for its server systems.
• Barron's Magazine (subscription required)
• Shares of Under Armour (NASDAQ: UARM) may be set to take a tumble and some only believe shares should be trading no higher than $40.
• Shares of Alcoa (NYSE: AA) may be set for another run and John Buckingham of Al Frank Asset Management would buy shares up to $32.41.
• The "Technology Trader" says it may be too early to walk away from shares of Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO).
• The Financial Times (subscription required) reported that a private equity consortium may be after Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW).

• The U.K. Times reported that Tata Steel and CSN are both expected to raise their bid for Corus (NYSE: CGA).
  
• The Telegraph reported that BP's (NYSE: BP) exiting CEO Browne, dreamed of merging with Shell (NYSE: RDS.A).

I just heard that Dean Baquet, the editor of the Los Angeles Times, has been pushed out by his Chicago-based overlords because he refused to oversee any more staff cuts.

Well, all of us members of the Fourth Estate, past and present, saw this coming. It's just another ill tiding for the newspaper industry.

The Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), owners of the Chicago Tribune (and lots of other media outlets), own the Los Angeles Times. It's been relentless in its pursuit of profits, slashing staff and other resources. It's slowly starving its brand by trying to wring every last penny of profit out of its business. And when was the newspaper business ever a money-making operation?

Yes, the newspaper industry is dying. Yes, more people get their news now from the Internet or TV. Yes, advertising revenue has tanked, again thanks to the Internet. I'll even hazard to say there won't be newspapers as we know them in 20 years time. But it ain't dead yet. There are still millions of people who get a newspaper every day, for whatever reason. And those people want a good product. The Los Angeles Times was a good product. A great brand.