If you still read actual, physical magazines, chances are you’ve seen an ad touting “The Power of Print.” These collage-like notices, paid for by five major magazine companies (Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Time Inc., and Wenner Media), glorify publications printed on dead trees. They’ve never launched a direct assault on the internet, though—until now.

On Monday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that newsstand sales for American consumer magazines “declined,” in the summary of the NYT, “9.1%, to 39.3 million, in the last half of 2009 versus the same period a year earlier.” Frightful as these numbers may appear, in the first half of 2009, newsstand magazine sales declined 12.36%. The decline is decreasing. The decline is in decline. Though far from stanched, though still voluminous, the bleeding, we are encouraged to believe, has slowed.

There is a silver-lining to the ominous deathcloud hanging over the magazine industry — if you look hard enough. The publishing advocacy group Magazine Publishers of America has disseminated a four-page document titled “The Full Story on Magazine Circulation Vitality” aimed at spinning the circ numbers released by the ABC’s at the end of August (single-copy sales are down 12 percent from last year). Don’t worry, everything’s fine!