Newspapers’ print ad revenues fell almost 10 percent last year, the biggest one-year drop since the Newspaper Association of America began keeping records 58 years ago.

Newspapers posted print revenues of $42.2 billion in 2007, down 9.4 percent from 2006. Classified ads suffered a 16.5 percent nosedive, also a record.

The NAA said national ads totaled $7 billion, down 6.7 percent while retail totaled $21 billion, down 5 percent. Classified accounted for $14 billion. The association didn’t break down the individual classified ad segments.

The only bright spot was online ad revenues, which grew 18.8 percent, to $3.1 billion. But the rate of increase was far below the 31 percent boost in online revenues the industry realized between 2005 and 2006, the NAA said.

Combining both online and print ad revenues, the NAA said newspapers’ ad sales in 2007 topped $45.3 billion, a drop of 7.9 percent from the $49.2 billion in combined ad revenues newspapers attracted in 2006.