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.

What next? The ugly fundamental outlook hasn't changed much for Gannett. Recently, the company said that its first-half earnings in 2008 were down 26% from the first half of 2007. In the second quarter, the media firm said it took an accounting write-down of $2.6 billion to $2.9 billion to reflect the company's declining market value (the exact amount will be recorded in an amended filing this August).

GCI's downtrend has proven itself more or less unstoppable during the past 14-ish years, but the shares caught a slight bounce in mid-July after tapping the $15 region. This level provided support for the equity as far back as mid-1988 and late 1990, and appears to be holding steady as a lifeline for GCI. Until the stock truly stages a rebound, though, the sidelines are a popular spot -- Zacks reports that 80% of analysts maintain a skeptical "hold" rating.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the weekly video series Option Basics on SchaeffersResearch.com.

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Minyanville's top dog, Todd Harrison, dares to ask in public what Wall Street types quietly consider in private. For more insight and ideas, visit www.Minyanville.com.

Yikes, Lehman downgrades Scripps (NYSE: SNI), Gannett (NYSE: GCI) pooped the bed. What the heck is happening to these paltry little rags?

Some thoughts:

• The internet is the single biggest deflationary force ever invented and the "information deflation" is in full force.
  
• Without a doubt, my bullish bent on the newspaper names was my single worst "call" of the year.
  
• The thesis was that portals will buy the papers to feed content into their pipes.
  
• That remains a viable option for some of the franchise properties, although it will seemingly happen -- if it happens -- from lower levels.
  
• I still own some GCI January calls but have quickly become lottery tickets.

R.P.

Position In GCI

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As the second quarter earnings crunch begins in earnest this week, the bear market has investors jittery and prognosticators spinning out dire warnings. In the wake of mixed results from Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) kicking things off last week, here's a look at what Wall Street is expecting from many of the companies scheduled to report this coming week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting the following companies to report a rise in earnings when compared to the same period of the previous year.

• Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE): $1.80 EPS (36.6%) on sales of $6.4 billion (+53.0%)
• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG): $4.74 EPS (24.9%) on sales of $3.9 billion (+41.6%)
• Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK): 56 cents EPS (23.2%) on sales of $19.9 billion (+17.8%)
• CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX): 90 cents EPS (21.1%) on sales of $2.9 billion (+12.8%)
• Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR): 27 cents EPS (18.5%) on sales of $346.7 million (+8.4%)
• IBM (NYSE: IBM): $1.82 EPS (+17.6%) on sales of $25.9 billion (+9.0%)
• eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY): 41 cents EPS (17.1%) on sales of $2.2 billion (+18.0%)
• W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW): $1.46 EPS (17.1%) on sales of $1.7 billion (+8.0%)
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): 47 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $15.7 billion (+17.0%)
• Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON): 94 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $9.2 billion (+7.9%)

• Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN): $1.95 EPS (12.8%) on sales of $4.1 billion (+27.5%)
• Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC): 25 cents EPS (12.0%) on sales of $9.3 billion (+7.4%)
• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT): 79 cents EPS (12.7%) on sales of $7.2 billion (+13.2%)
• Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX): 82 cents EPS (12.2%) on sales of $3.1 billion (+7.7%)
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO): 96 cents EPS (11.5%) on sales of $8.9 billion (+15.6%)
• Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR): $1.06 EPS (11.3%) on sales of $3.2 billion (+18.4%)
• United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX): $1.30 EPS (10.8%) on sales of $15.3 billion (+9.9%)
• Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB): $1.12 cents EPS (8.9%) on sales of $6.5 billion (+14.8%)
• Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW): 97 cents EPS (7.2%) on sales of $4.6 billion (+9.9%)
• Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM): 42 cents EPS (7.1%) on sales of $2.6 billion (+7.6%)
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ): $1.12 EPS (6.3%) on sales of $16.0 billion (+5.7%)
• Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY): 52 cents EPS (5.8%) on sales of $10.2 billion (+3.9%)
• Genuine Parts Co. (NYSE: GPC): 79 cents EPS (3.8%) on sales of $2.9 billion (+2.8%)

Analysts are looking for a number of the big financials reporting next week to post declines in earnings, but I've focused on those companies in a separate post (see Financials expected to post earnings declines, losses this week). The companies below are also expected to post declines in profit.

• Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS): 4 cents EPS (-91.1%) on sales of $251.5 million (-39.6%)
• Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL): 11 cents (-84.3%) on sales of $5.4 billion (+8.3%)
• Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT): 3 cents EPS (-50.0%) on sales of $1.0 billion (+3.9%)
• Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG): 76 cents EPS (-33.3%) on sales of $1.4 billion (-12.4%)
• Gannett Inc. (NYSE: GCI): $1.02 EPS (-17.7%) on sales of $1.7 billion (-10.0%)
• Sherwin-Williams Co. (NYSE: SHW): $1.39 EPS (-8.6%) on sales of $2.2 billion (-0.3%)

Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE: CAL) is expected to swing to a loss of 52 cents (from $2.10 EPS last year) on $4.1 billion (+9.3%). And Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) is expected to narrow its loss to 52 cents per share (from 95 cents per share last year) on sales of $1.5 billion (+5.2%).

With expectations listed out this way Wall Street seems pretty optimistic about earnings (other than for financial companies; see Financials expected to post earnings declines, losses this week). But we'll see this week whether the companies above can live up to these expectations. Do you think they will?

Other economic data coming out next week include:

• Producer price index (June 2008), Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. ET
• Business inventories (May 2008), Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. ET
• Consumer price index (June 2008), Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. ET
• NAHB housing market index (July 2008), Wednesday, 1:00 p.m. ET
• Housing starts (June 2008), Thursday, 8:30 a.m. ET

See also Market highlights for next week: Google, Microsoft reporting earnings

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

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Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this is a crucial moment for the dividend-payers, which should be getting support here.

You can't even find protection in yields these days. It just went away. Perhaps we will get it if Sen. Obama gets elected. Perhaps with higher rates. Perhaps with the downfall of the high-yielding American financials. (Nice discussion of the lack of dividend safety courtesy of the man who knows more about dividends than anyone, Dave Peltier, in the Columnist Conversation last week.)

For ages, it seemed you could get to a magic number, typically 4% yield, where stocks would bounce, or at least be given a parachute that opened for a gentle landing.

Last week that parachute failed. You have stocks like Con Ed (NYSE: ED) (Cramer's Take) just getting trashed here, pushing the yield to 6%. You have stocks like Weyerhauser (NYSE: WY) (Cramer's Take), Carnival Cruise (NYSE: CCL) (Cramer's Take), Gannett (NYSE: GCI) (Cramer's Take), just slicing through the protection. The former's got cyclicality, the middle's got consumer and fuel worries, and the latter is in secular. But they all have no trouble paying the dividend.

Or consider Verizon (NYSE: VZ) (Cramer's Take) and AT&T (NYSE: T) (Cramer's Take). The first is at a 5% yield, the other is almost there. No one questions their ability to support that dividend.

I am not counting ANY of the 7-8-9-10 percenters in the financials. Anything north of 4% in that group has turned toxic.

I am saying that it is clear from these declines that something's about to give: bond yields going through the roof? A recession so severe that it threatens outfits like Con Edison? Or perhaps just a simple reversion to the old tax code, something that Obama wants that could easily be passed by a Democratic Congress.

One of these three, if not all three, is the culprit. If it is one, it might be possible to handle a decline of only about 5% from here. If it is all three, then the decline will not stop there.

Of all the things I see out there other than the collapse of almost all of the major banks, I think it is the sudden change in defense -- these stocks just don't hold up despite how much they are paying you to hold them -- that is most worrisome.

Because if these yields don't stop these stocks from going down as fast as they have been, I don't know what will!

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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Like the rest of the newspaper operators in the US, Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) has had a steep drop in its stock price. Basically, to stabilize things, the company needs to find new growth opportunities.

And, of course, this is likely to come from the Net. So this week, Gannett announced a strategic investment in Cozi, which is a scheduler for families (the amount was not disclosed).

In the deal, Gannet will leverage Cozi's service across its large distribution platform, which includes 85 daily newspapers, 23 television stations and hundreds of websites.

Cozi is a neat service. For example, you can track shopping and to-do lists, family chores and so on. There is also calendar and photo sharing. Launched in late 2006, Cozi now has more than 600,000 registered users.

All in all, this looks like a smart deal for Gannett. Basically, the company can enhance its relationship with its customers. At the same time, Cozi could be a vehicle for local and classified ads, which are under pressure. Moreover, there is likely to be a boost in membership as Gannett has coverage of about 20 million households.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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Gannett (NYSE:GCI) announced it May revenue results. Nothing in them was surprising.

According to the country's largest newspaper company, "Publishing advertising revenues in May were 14.3 percent lower." Classified ad revenue fell even more, almost 20%. Auto, real estate, and jobs marketing have begun to leave newspapers and financial trouble within those industries has cut their ad budgets to the bone.

The most disturbing piece of new is the report was that at USA Today, advertising revenue was 18.4 percent lower on paid ad pages of 260 versus 324 last year.

USA Today is part newspaper, part daily magazine. It uses color and graphics in a way that is closer to Time, Newsweek, or BusinessWeek than to a typical daily paper. It is also a national product, not local like other papers.

If the country's largest paper, and one of only two papers distributed widely in the USA is in such trouble, it may be a sign that the print ad downturn is moving quickly from newspapers to magazines. Some weekly publications like BusinessWeek are seeing double digit ad drops.

Newspapers may not be the last part of the print publication industry to fall apart.

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

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From TheStreet.com Network

• McClatchy to Cut 10% of Staff
• They Just Don't Get McClatchy!

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Panera (NASDAQ:PNRA) is up over 5% on improved guidance.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is up almost 2% on news it has settled a patent dispute.

Ambac (NYSE:ABK) is down over 4% in what appears to be a general sell-off in insurance stocks.

Gannett (NYSEL:GCI) is down almost 3% after posted poor ad revenue for May.

Stocks may trade lower in the premarket than they do in the regular session.

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

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• If the next generation Apple (AAPL) iPhone is effectively a handheld computer, is the personal computer space a place to poke on the short side?

• What's the franchise value for Sun Microsystems (SUNW, er, JAVA)?
  
  
• Maybe that's the problem. In this ADD, immediate gratification world, perhaps folks don't remember that JAVA used to be SUNW?
  
  
Woah. Nelly?


Given that funky looking Gold Fields (GFI) chart, should I stress that I'm playing name through defined risk calls?


• In addition to the note that when I unwind my short crude I'm goning to sneak out of my long metal play, too?
  
  
• While I grabbed some tertiary financial exposure this morning, why is "Good traders know how to make money while great traders know how to take a loss" repeating in my keppe as I watch the action and overhang in Lehman (LEH)?
  
  
• Speaking of ticker symbols with G's in the front and I's behind, when do I revisit Gannett (GCI), which I pared nicely above $30 and kept some for the thesis?
  
  
Speaking of pairs, how do I get long Jo, short Blair?


R.P.

Positions in LEH, GFI, GCI

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The newspaper business had been bad and getting worse. Ad revenue at some large chains with properties in the hard-hit economies of Florida and California are seeing their classified businesses drop by over 30% compared with last year. A number of newspaper chain stocks are down well over 50% since the middle of 2007.

The largest newspaper company in the U.S., Gannett (NYSE: GCI), is getting ready to take a $3 billion, non-cash charge to write-down the value of its assets. The charge will cover almost 20% of the firm's total assets. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The publisher of USA Today and more than 80 other daily papers, Gannett is the latest newspaper company to take an impairment charge reflecting difficult industry conditions."

Of all U.S. newspaper companies, Gannett is the most likely to weather the current storm, unless it never ends. The firm's long-term debt is $4 billion, which is modest for a company its size. Gannett's revenue last year was $7.5 billion.

Other companies in the industry may not be so lucky. Some, like McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) and Gatehouse (NYSE: GHS) have taken on substantial debt loads to buy other newspaper companies. They may not have the operating income to cover debt service.

That means a lot of newspapers could be auctioned off later this year.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

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The Tribune is not a public company anymore, but CEO Sam Zell says enough about his plans that it might as well be.

According to The New York Times, Zell "announced a set of deep cuts, saying that shrinking revenue left them no choice." One of the things that means is fewer pages devoted to news as newsprint use is reduced.

The Tribune carries a lot of debt, so it is in more trouble that other chains such as The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) and Gannett (NYSE: GCI). But, other large paper operations including McClatchy NYSE: MNI) and Gatehouse (NYSE: GHS) also have massive debt burdens from money they borrowed to expand their empires.

What all of this means is that more reporters and editors will lose their jobs and the typical reader will get a newspaper that is thin as toilet paper. For newspaper company investors it means that stocks, some already down 50% to 70% in the last year, are going down even further.

The trouble also may spell the end of nearly a century of big papers like The New York Times being the news sources of record. The company recently cut 100 people, most of them from the news operation. Covering major national and international stories is becoming more difficult and at some point it may be impossible.

There is always CNN.

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

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Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the just released book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.

While lenders and builders have been cruelly battered by a real estate market that seems to have no bottom, there's another industry group that suffers as much if not more: the newspaper business.

First, newspapers were hit by the Internet, taking readers faster than rebate checks are spent. Now it's real estate ads, and their complementary advertisers such as home furnishings. Another weak advertiser: automobiles. All ads have decreased to a point where some publishers are laying off employees every month, trying to cut costs fast enough to offset lower revenues.

Looks pretty awful, doesn't it? Not if you're an investor with a longer term horizon.

Newspapers aren't going away. They are the local web that ties a community together, a source to stay in touch with what's going on as well as a venue for local advertisers to find buyers. Newspaper publishers may shrink more, but they're not disappearing. The community relies too much on them. Furthermore, astute newspaper management isn't publishing and hoping someone will buy their papers. The best ones are going into other media, especially television, radio and the Internet.

Newspapers are evolving. They have to for survival. Just putting out the newspaper every day is a sure way to oblivion as readers get more and more news, ads, and information from other sources. And advertisers are using other media, away from newspapers, to get their goods sold, finding the Internet a powerful resource. It's only natural that newspapers go with the flow, go where the money is.

Costs are another reason for the evolution. Newspaper print costs more, though increases haven't been as strong as you might expect since less of it is being used. Shipping costs (think national dailies like the Wall Street Journal or USAToday) are higher as trucks fill up with expensive fuel. Newspapers are getting squeezed on both sides: lower revenues and higher costs. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

For the moment it is. Many of the newspaper publishers have seen their stocks cascade more than 90% as investors voted with their shares as to how they think the industry will do. They are right for the moment.

But if you believe the economy is going to return to somewhat normal over the next 12 to 18 months, you'll want to spend some time digging into newspaper publishers. Several still have good earnings, even in these difficult times. Some have high dividends, well covered by earnings, that should keep the stock price propped while you wait for better times. All the good ones have Internet connections, either directly or through joint ventures with established sites.

Examples of Web deals: Yahoo! brought several regional dailies online, featuring local content. That boosts the reach of the newspapers and should help sell more ad space. Another one: Monster Worldwide is in collaboration with many newspapers so employers in the local papers have a wider audience for their ads. Another: cars.com has partnered with many dailies to boost its content and in return give local car ads a bigger audience. On the television and radio side, many newspapers bought local stations, broadening the universe for ad revenues.

So the smart ones are surviving. When the economy recovers, and more specifically when real estate and auto industries come back, ad revenues will as well. And the first few months of the recovery will show extraordinary returns as publishers will have lower labor costs as well as lower operating costs (because of Internet and broadcast efficiencies).

When this will happen is the big question. If it takes too long, more damage will be done to balance sheets as losses grow or at best, profits shrink. If no recovery comes (which has never happened in U.S. history), then all stocks are not worth owning. If the recovery comes four or five years down the road, then everybody from the government to corporate leaders has been asleep at the switch. My best guess is that within the next two years, the economy will be chugging along, taking many industries from the depths of despair to strong profitability. One of those industries will be newspaper publishing. It will take patience, but that patience should be well rewarded.

Some names to consider: A.H.Belo Corp. (NYSE: AHC); Gannett Inc. (NYSE: GCI); Gatehouse Media Inc. (NYSE: GHS); Journal Communications, Inc. (NYSE: JRN); Lee Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: LEE); McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) - see new column this week For Aggressive Investors for more on MNI); Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG); New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT); The E.W.Scripps Co. "A" (NYSE: SSP); The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO).

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GCI revenues for the period ended May 4, 2008 declined 7.7 % compared with the same period in 2007. Revenue in the big publishing division fell almost 11%. Real estate classifieds fell almost 24% as home sales in most regions fell apart.

According to Gannett "At USA TODAY, advertising revenues were down 6.4%." As odd as it may seem, falling revenue is not the industry's single biggest problem because most companies like Gannett still have good profits. However, falling operating cash flow is killing companies that took on debt over the last decade to buy other newspapers in the hope of building scale and cutting costs. McClatchy has over $2.4 billion in debt after buying rival Knight-Ridder.

Banks may end up owning some of the newspaper chains.

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

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• AFLAC Inc. (NYSE: AFL) reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter.
• Ambac Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: ABK) posted a wider-than-expected loss; shares hit new low.
• Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX) beat Q2 estimates on strength in the managed services businesses.
• Amphenol Corp. (NYSE: APH) beat expectations in the first quarter and raised its guidance.
• Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) posted a larger-than-estimated Q1 loss.
• Aptar Group Inc. (NYSE: ATR) posted record Q1 results and raised its Q2 guidance.
• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Q1 earnings plunged on further housing-related write-downs.
• Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT) narrowly beat earnings expectations on cost cutting.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) beat analysts' estimates for the first quarter.
• Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) reported a wider-than-forecast loss on subprime-related write-downs.
• Cree Inc. (NYSE: CREE) earnings slipped while revenues soared 29%.
• Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) reported worse-than-expected Q1 earnings on discontinued product charge.
• Gannet Inc. (NYSE: GCI) beat low expectations as earnings and revenue continue slump.
• Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings on international strength.
• JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) missed Q1 expectations on restructuring and litigation costs.
• Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) beat EPS estimates by a penny, as revenue jumped 10%.

• Lufkin Industries (NASDAQ: LUFK) beat analysts' expectations and raised its Q2 guidance.
• Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) beat Q1 earnings expectations on strength in Europe.
• Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) swung to a loss in Q1 on gross margin pressures.
• Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) Q1 profit nearly doubled on a one-time payment from a partner.
• Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) posted solid results on new products and the weak dollar.
• Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE: SGP) Q1 profit plunged but still beat analysts' expectations.
• UnitedHealth Inc. (NYSE: UNH) lowered its 2008 outlook after missing Q1 earnings estimates.
• Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) posted strong results on exchange rates and strength overseas.

Also, Jim Cramer discusses "crummy lenders" and Joseph Lazzaro considers Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) as a barometer of the economy. One analyst thinks financials may have hit bottom and it may be time to buy, and Jon Ogg looks at what short sellers are making of tech stocks. Ted Allrich discusses what to sell/what to buy.

Upcoming results to watch for include Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN), CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC), U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X), Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), General Motors (NYSE: GM), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), and Chevron (NYSE: CVX).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

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Well, with Topix, things are different. The site is categorized by ZIP codes and is chock-full of local stories. More importantly, users can post their own stories and links. In other words, anybody can essentially be an editor.

"A key is allowing the community to do its thing," said Chris Tolles, the CEO of Topix, in an interview with me. "Our site gets about 110,000 comments per day. Keep in mind that the Craigslist gets about 70,000 per day."

In fact, Topix is one of the top 20 online news sites, according to a ComScore report. The firm has media investors like Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Tribune Company.

"People like to talk about their town," said Tolles. "It could mean news about a recent crime or some gossip."

It also helps that Topix has a clean interface. "Easy is important when building a community," said Tolles.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Several large publishers will set up a joint ad sales operation in the hopes of getting more revenue for their online businesses. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Gannett (NYSE: GCI)., Hearst Corp., the New York Times NYSE: NYT). and Tribune Co. are setting up the network as a stand-alone company called quadrantOne."

The new operation will have access to funding from the four companies and will cover 120 newspaper websites with a combined 50 million unique users. The new firm will not sell ads in the New York Times and USA Today which already have large online sales forces.

The venture will likely be a failure. By holding out the two most prized newspaper websites and selling smaller papers to advertisers the quadrantOne is likely to do no better than the unit Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) has set-up to sell newspaper ads. While newspaper websites are attracting more readers as people moves away from print products, ad agencies can already buy inventory from these properties with ease.

The new company may offer "one stop shopping" for online newspaper ad inventory, but it is not inventory that advertisers really want.

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

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