Newspapers are searching high and low for good news – at least as far as the bottom line is concerned – but the bad news just keeps coming.

The Newspaper Association of America reported last week that total print advertising in 2007 plunged 9.4% compared to 2006. That’s the most severe year-over-year loss since 1950, when the organization began measuring advertising expenditures.

The second-worst drop occurred in 2001, when advertising revenue declined 9%, according to Editor and Publisher.

On the Web, the news is bad but not as bad. While Internet ad revenue grew nearly 18.8% during 2007, it did not measure up to 2006, when Web revenues jumped 31.4%. The previous year saw an identical increase.

Other key stats:

-Online ad revenue now represents 7.5% of total advertising revenue, up from 5.7% in 2006.

-National print ad revenue dropped 6.7% in 2007;

-Classified ad sales fell 16.5%;

-Retail ad revenue slipped 5%.