As traditional print media continues its steep declines in advertising sales and circulation, publishers are struggling to come up with new and creative ways to generate revenue.

Ad revenues in the newspaper industry plunged 16.7% last year to $37.8 million r, according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). The 2009 take is estimated to fall another 17.3% to $31.6 billion according to Alan Mutter, a Silicon Valley executive who once lead the newsrooms of the Chicago Sun-Times and San Francisco Chronicle and now writes a blog titled “Reflections of a Newsosaur.”

Mutter’s estimate would put ad revenues at their lowest levels since 1965, when the industry took in $4.42 billion, or $30.22 billion when adjusted for inflation, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reported.

While the worst economic downturn since World War II has eviscerated the fortunes of print media companies like The New York Times Co. (NYSE:

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I've gotten a few questions from readers and colleagues about what sources I turn to for information about the markets, exchange-traded funds and related topics.

The list is long and varied, and ebbs and flows over time. But here are some of the sources (public, private and otherwise) that I turn to in my day-to-day reading. I'm sure I'm leaving out quite a few sites, but this at least is a partial list.

NATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

IndexUniverse.com and IndexUniverse.eu: It goes without saying that IndexUniverse.com and IndexUniverse.eu are the best sites on the Web for information about ETFs and how they are used in portfolios.

IndexUniverse.com

IndexUniverse.eu

Slate/The Big Money: Those two Web sites aside, I start my day at Slate.com, and its sister finance site The Big Money. I find the daily news summary (and weekly magazine summaries) the best meta-journalism on the Web. They offer

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Highlights include Emmis Communications Corporation (EMMS), News Corporation (NWS) and CBS Corporation (CBS).Emmis Communications Corporation (EMMS) today became the latest advertising-dependent company to indicate that the market is troughing. Jeff Smulyan, CEO of the 8th largest U.S. radio broadcaster, commented, "The operating environment is slowly improving."This follows a declaration last week by News Corporation (NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch that, "It is increasingly clear that the worst is over," and an optimistic forecast from Sumner Redstone, the CEO of CBS Corporation (CBS), based on "...early signs of an improving local marketplace."To be sure, accelerating drops in industry ad revenues - which are now running at 15% to 30% year-over-year -- will inevitably begin to diminish as they lap weak comparables in late 2009. But a resurgence back to volumes that will generate acceptable levels of profitability is a 2010 ...

In a move designed to reduce its reliance on advertising revenues, Editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ, a subsidiary of News Corporation [NWS]), Robert Thomson yesterday unveiled plans to introduce a "sophisticated micro-payments service" for access to individual online articles later this year. The announcement is consistent a number of key personnel changes, which point to a greater emphasis on the company's digital media assets going forward.News Corp. recently reported lower-than-expected net income of $2.7B, effectively flat y/y, compared with $2.7B in 3Q08. Total operating income decreased 48% y/y, primarily due to a 97% y/y and 99% y/y decline in Newspaper and Film division contributions respectively.In the company's conference call, Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch provided a slightly more optimistic outlook than 2Q09 on medium term earnings prospects suggesting that advertisers were slowly returning to the marketplace. ...

CBS - Tender Offer Removes Liquidity ConcernsCBS Corporation (CBS) lifted a hovering dark cloud by announcing Friday that it is repurchasing $1.2 billion in senior notes due in October 2010, and funding them with longer-term notes.The tender offer for the 7.7% senior notes expires May 15.The new notes carry higher interest rates but lengthen the company's debt maturities. The first offering of $400 million will carry a rate of 8.20% and mature in 2014, and the second offering will have a stated interest rate of 8.875% and mature in 2019.Liquidity concerns have plagued CBS at a time of falling earnings, tight credit conditions and inhospitable equity markets. With just $240 million in cash on hand and weak free cash flow -- which we estimate will be about $170 million after dividends in 2Q09 -- the broadcasting giant would not have ...

The three major indexes were all down, with the NASDAQ down 2.44%.  The S&P 500 was down 1.32% closing at 907.39, while the Dow Jones fell 1.20% to close at 8409.85.  The 10-year treasury closed with a yield of 3.330% as prices fell.  Prices on June future contracts of gold were up, settling at $915.50, while crude oil prices were unchanged, settling at $56.71. 

General Motors [GM: 1.60, -0.06 (-3.61%)] reported a loss of $6 billion, or $9.78 per share, widening the loss from the quarter the year prior of $3.3 billion, or $5.80 per share.  The loss would have been $9.66 per share, but GM’s exclusion of gains from restructuring charges and getting rid of debt from the balance sheet accounted for the higher loss.  Revenue fell from $42.4 billion to $22.4 billion as demand for cars and trucks fell in the down economy. GM was hurt substantially worse than their

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Online social networking has been the buzz word for the last 5 years with the birth of MySpace and Facebook which were later followed by LinkedIn and Twitter. The Trinity as I call it, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have ascended to the forefront of talks regarding the future of this business. Rumors have surfaced over the past month that Twitter was being eyed by the likes of Google [GOOG: 403.47, 0.00 (0.00%)] and Apple [AAPL: 132.50, 0.00 (0.00%)]. I believe that it is time that I now offer my perspective on the issue as these companies continue to mature at a rapid pace and permeate the lives of people worldwide.The Trinity has several choices when analyzing the future of their businesses. The two that have been on the minds of investment bankers and venture capitalists is

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More Management Changes at NewsCorp Since posting a weaker than expected 2Q09 financial result on February 5, 2009, the year so far for News Corporation (NWS) has been marked by a number of key personnel changes. Commencing with the stepping down of long-time employee, President and Chief Operating Officer and CEO of the Fox Group Peter Chernin, followed by the appointment of former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller to the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Digital Media Group and Chief Digital Officer for News Corporation.Finally, on Tuesday of this week,  the company announced that MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe would not be renewing his contract and stepping down in the near future. However, Mr. DeWolfe would remain on the board of MySpace China and continue to act as strategic advisor to the company.In the company's 2Q09 conference call, Chairman and CEO Rupert ...

As experts speculated if News Corp. (NWSA) would be the next media giant to succumb to the global recession, Rupert Murdoch's company announced a major management shake-up that ousted founders of MySpace from their current positions.

Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe and President Tom Anderson, who founded the social-networking website, are soon expected to step aside "by mutual agreement". While DeWolfe's exit is involuntary, Anderson is in talks about a continued role with MySpace. DeWolfe, whose contract was not due to expire until October, will remain on the board of MySpace China.

According to the Wall Street Journal, DeWolfe is likely to be replaced by former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta. MySpace was the world's largest social networking website before Facebook claimed that position in 2008. Van Natta left Facebook early last year and is currently the chief executive at a digital music startup called Project Playlist.

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NewsCorp (NWS) Postscript - Cyclical Downturn or Secular Change for Advertising? Notwithstanding the approximately $2B write down in value of its $5.7B takeover of Dow Jones in late 2007, the release of 2Q09 NWS financial results last week also raised concerns over the future of advertising.In the conference call accompanying the earnings release, Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch indicated the possibility that when the economy finally recovers, advertising dollars may never return to major media outlets at previous levels given the impact of the Internet, which continues to fragment end markets and challenge traditional mass marketing techniques. According to Murdoch, there is “an almost infinite increase in inventory for websites and for display. So, there is constant downward pressure on the rates you could get.” NWS reported a lower-than-expected 2Q09 loss of $6.4B, which included an $8.4B pre-tax non-cash impairment charge related ...