The most relevant question for dead tree media management today is where’s the bottom? Kind of like “when is it toast?”. Hard times test the viability of the best run businesses and accelerate the demise of business models whose time has past. Adapt or die is one of the indelible laws that even the holier than thou must accept.

The year-on-year quarterly percentage decline is the worst since since the NAA has been keeping such records and represents an increasingly rapid deceleration that began in the third quarter of 2006, when total ad spending dropped 1.5 percent.

The figures, updated on the day before the Thanksgiving holiday, show total ad spending at newspapers fell 18.1 percent to $8.94 billion, down from $10.92 billion in the third quarter last year.

The last time total quarterly ad spending fell below $9 billion was in the first quarter of 1996. (CNBC)

When Ziff Davis launched PC Magazine, it become the bellwether of tech journalism. In its pre-internet heyday the bulk of the publication approached that of a small city telephone book, a result of thousands of paying advertisers. PC Magazine lives on in the form of online portal PCmag.com, and it remains an authoritative source of computing news and information.

The end of PC Magazine in print is part of a larger strategy by old line publisher Ziff Davis to adapt to the changing marketplace. With wirelessly connected laptops now lighter than some editions of the print magazine, it fully illustrates the physical side of the paradigm shift. Add to that a real time news cycle, rich media content, interactivity with readers, and the ability to sell highly targeted ads on the fly and you complete the picture. This defines Ziff’s strategy: Embrace change and your business will thrive. Others in the pulp media could learn from this, but I doubt they are paying attention.

Founded in 1982 and at times so rich with ads its issues reached as many as 600 pages, Ziff Davis’s PC Magazine will issue its last print edition this January, thereafter becoming an online-only publication. Ziff Davis, which recently exited bankruptcy will lay off seven print production employees. (Silican Alley Insider)