Votes for the top stories were collected before the Christmas break, with 21.2% of readers voting for the controversial study, which was published in December 2009.

Insolvency practitioner Tenon claimed that nine out of 10 print companies were in danger of collapse, however the report was subsequently panned by the industry.

RR Donnelley's agreement to buy David Mitchell's BPO group Astron for £520m in April 2005 came in at number two with 8.5% of votes.

At number three was Heidelberg's sale of its web press manufacturing arm to Goss and its NexPress digital arm to Kodak in March 2004, which claimed 7.6% of votes.

Bankruptcy fears for Quebecor World after the collapse of its deal to sell Roto Smeets in December 2007 came in next with 5.1% of the vote.

Fifth on the top stories of the decade list was Polestar's financial stability being secured after a £814m refinancing arrangement was agreed in December 2006, which claimed 4.2% of votes.

Quotes of the decade included that of Alderson Brothers owner Peter Alderson, who said "today, it's a bit of a suicide business" in response to the state of the printing industry in 2007.

The traditional print management model was also described as "a parasite that kills its host" by Webmart managing director Simon Biltcliffe in 2008. 

To read PrintWeek's Review of the Decade, click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.